Daniel Kruger is one of those jewellers who celebrate ornament with absolutely no restraint.
Liesbeth den Besten
Using a broad array of skills and techniques, Kruger reveals in his practice an eclectic world in which historical references and popular culture, painting and knitting, the Africa of his childhood and Europe of his adulthood, mingle and converse. The guiding principle of his more than 40 year career can be found in his enthusiastic and witty approach to ornament and adornment in dual disciplines; jewellery and ceramics.
Daniel Kruger's jewellery is ebullient and baroque, a technical feat in which gold, silk, pearls, stones and pigments come alive when worn. He has developed a highly eloquent and particular language in which bold use of colour and the paradoxical textures of metal and textile, speak most loudly. Sabine Epple writes "he often draws on elements of African folk art but is equally likely to use found objects of all kinds or even to quote historical forms and patterns. He is also committed to the classical canon of forms where he considers it a suitable point of departure for his idiosyncratic transformation into the here and now."
Kruger's ceramics stand like trophies celebrating beauty, youth, and exuberance, while maintaining a clear lineage to antiquity through their forms. “In both ceramics and jewelry, I work with the conventional and not against it", Kruger says, "the use of classical forms in my ceramics reminds the viewer that these are things we all know. The imagery I use is unusual, irreverent, and unexpected—yet it too is taken from life around us.”