Mari Funaki Collection

Mari Funaki (1950-2010) was an internationally lauded contemporary jeweller and object maker. Working predominantly with gold and blackened mild steel, she was highly regarded for her distinctive geometric jewellery forms and sculptural objects.

Mari arrived in Australia on 1979 and completed studies in painting and gold & silversmithing at RMIT University in the 1980s, studying under Robert Baines, Carlier Makigawa, and Marian Hosking.

In 2010, the NGV presented Mari Funaki: Objects, which Mari herself was working on up until her death. The show follows the artist’s gradual shift away from wearable or functional objects towards purely sculptural forms, and featured a dynamic installation of blackened mild steel objects and a number of recent large scale sculptures. The exhibition encompassed a range of works dating from the late 1990s to 2010 highlighting Funaki’s brilliant inventiveness with line, mass, volume and space across various sculptural forms and her remarkable consistency of vision throughout her artistic career.

Mari Funaki was instrumental in establishing Melbourne’s reputation as a strong centre for contemporary jewellery, founding Gallery Funaki in 1995. The biennial Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery was established in 2014.

She exhibitted in both Australia and worldwide, twice winning the Herbert-Hofmann-Preis in 1996 and 1999.

This collection comprises of over 200 books and art catalogues from Mari's personal collection. Many of the items relate to students or other contemporaries she was close with and worked with.