Ted Noten

Born in 1956 in Tegelen, The Netherlands, Ted Noten is an esteemed designer who works primarily in jewelry. A former bricklayer (1975-76) and psychiatric nurse (1976-1980), he studied at the Academy for Applied Arts in Maastricht (1983 -1986) before going on to graduate from the Amsterdam Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1990. He opened his studio shortly after. In  2005, he rebranded as Atelier Ted Noten, and began collaborating with a regular group of contributors on projects ranging form individual pieces to installations and commissions for a variety of cultural institutions, private clients, and governments. Between 2005 and 2008, Noten was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham in England, and in 2007, he served as a tutor in the Masters program at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Noten’s work is highly conceptual. His jewelry consistently embraces ornamentation and theatricality, celebrating the avant-garde in order to comment on larger cultural values as well as the history of jewelry design itself. He appropriates everyday objects or symbols—from high-end cars to rodents, firearms, and more—questioning their inherent values by presenting them in new contexts.

Noten resides in Amsterdam.