Zeynep Erol

Zeynep Erol was born in Istanbul in 1960. After graduating form German High School in Istanbul, she studied German literature at Istanbul University. After six years of teaching German at a private school in Istanbul, she participated in a course for 2 years to study metal technique at the Istanbul Covered Bazaar in 1989. She then continued her studies on wax design techniques. Erol is mainly inspired by nature and creates forms with her own modern interpretation. More recently her designs have become more geometrical. Zeynep Erol’s jewelries reflect her spiritual inner world, affections, relations, feelings and desires. The main materials used by Erol in creating her pieces are green, white and red gold (18k) together with silver (950). A wide range of materials such as coconut shells, pearls, brilliants, sapphire, ruby, emeralds, quartz, glass, rose cut and uncut diamonds, sandalwood and feathers are also used by her as necessary. Zeynep Erol’s theme is ‘Jewelries: free of burden’, which accents the fact that they are very easily used in everyday life. From 1996 to 2001, Erol had her exhibitions at her own gallery: “emotions” (1997), “evolution” (1998), “a touch of light” (1999) and “ecc.ense” (2000). In 2002 she had an exhibition in Topkapı palace and expressed feelings of under caged women in the Harem. In 2004 exhibition in the Tophane-i Amire, she created wearable jewelry and exhibited “love and ornament” together on a human body. She had the exhibition ‘The flower of life’ in the Hagia Irini Church in 2006. In her latest exhibition “Cosmic Dance” in 2008, Erol expressed wholeness in human being, “we all dance with god to become unified”. Her art jewelry pieces are exhibited not only at her gallery but also at the museum shop of Istanbul Modern Art Museum, the Istanbul Harvey Nicols, the Aaron Faber in New York and Electrum Gallery in London.