About
Chus Burés is an unconventional creator, an artistic transgressor, who works primarily in the field of jewellery. An esteemed designer, he is distinguished for his innovative, superb designs which have received critical acclaim throughout the world.
BIOGRAPHY
Chus Burés’ strong creative personality derives initially from time spent studying interior design at the Llotja School in Barcelona, which is where he hails from. However, from an early age he developed a passion for body language and the language of clothing which then paved the way to designing jewellery which has been his artistic forte ever since.
Chus learned the jewellery trade in workshops in Barcelona and Madrid, where he settled in 1983. Madrid at that time was enjoying a period of unprecedented artistic effervescence known as the movida madrileña which provided the ideal setting for Chus to meet artists from different disciplines. In fact, Chus has collaborated throughout his career with a variety of artists including Louise Bourgeois, Jesús Soto, Carlos Cruz–Díez, Miquel Barceló, Carmen Herrera and Santiago Sierra.
In Madrid, Chus designed fashion accessories and worked with photographers, film directors and visual artists. In 1985, he showed his first collection of silver jewellery at the prestigious Juana de Aizpuru Gallery. This exhibition also toured to the Galería Ciento in Barcelona in 1986.
1985 marked an important milestone in Chus Burés’ career. Film director Pedro Almodovar commissioned him to design a hairpin which was used as a lethal weapon in the film Matador, and this launched Chus Burés onto the international market. His work was showcased in design fairs and exhibitions in Europe and the USA and also in museums in New York, London, Milan, Hamburg and Basel. Chus also showed work in the Spanish Pavilion at the 44th Venice Biennale and designed a collection of jewellery for another Almodóvar film, Átame (Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down). He has collaborated with other key film directors such as Bigas Luna, Vicente Molina Foix and Adolfo Arrieta.
In both 1992 and 1999, Burés’ Madrid shops La Oreja de Plata both won Madrid City Council architecture awards. They were also awarded the illustrious Barcelona Fostering Arts and Design prize for Interior Design. In 1994, he was commissioned to design the gold medal for the Spanish Film Academy. On the strength of his commercial success, Burés opened two new shops: the Espacio Chus Burés in Madrid (2003) and the Chus Burés Kiosk in Barcelona (2005).
Chus Burés’ relationship with Thailand has played a key role in both his professional and personal life. In 1996, he was commissioned by the Thai government to present a series of projects and workshops in the field of contemporary design in order to stimulate the development of the jewelry industry in Thailand. This was the start of a long, fruitful collaboration with Thailand.
Chus Burés’ jewellery has been commended and worn by eminent members of the arts world across the globe including Paul Bowles, Robert Wilson, Dore Ashton, Zaha Hadid, Pierre Restany and Geraldine Chaplin. Today, Chus boasts offices in Madrid, New York and Paris, and his designs have received international acclaim.
His jewellery designs, collaborations with artists, projected as well into the widely differing universes of the cinema, fashion, design and international museum exhibitions, have won a high degree of recognition among the elite in the world of culture and the arts. Few have played as important a role in bringing artist jewellery -collaborations with Miquel Barceló, Louise Bourgeois, Julio Le Parc and Carmen Herrera, among many others – to the contemporary world as Chus Burés: a dialogue between art and design.
His most recent solo shows are: Art as Ornament: Chus Burés and Latin American Artists in Collaboration, at the Americas Society Library and Archive space, New York, 2023-2024; Frágil, at the Centro de Arte Alcobendas, Madrid, 2022; Chus Burés: Maestro Orfebre, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, 2020; The Leslie Lohman Museum of Art in New York, 2019 and Chus Burés: The Awareness of Matter at the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas in Madrid, 2016.
In 2019, El Museo del Prado commissioned Chus Burés to design a limited jewellery edition to celebrate their bicentennial, celebrating the recovery of the splendour of the wings of the Archangel Gabriel, Angel Wing Bracelet, painted by Fra Angelico in his well-known Annunciation (ca. 1426). Recently he has also created an exclusive collection for the Museo del Prado inspired by the harnesses and jaeces that appear in Velázquez’s equestrian portraits, where the golden harnesses intertwined in the manes and reins that festooned the power and sumptuousness of the saddle, in accordance with the majesty of the costumes of the kings and queens portrayed.
