Born in Germany in 1968, Johanna Zellmer completed a formal apprenticeship as a goldsmith. After gaining a master’s degree at the Australian National University, Canberra School of Art in the late 1990s, she went on to become Principal Lecturer, Postgraduate and Artist-in-Residence Coordinator at the Dunedin School of Art in New Zealand, positions she held from 2000-2021. Herinternational touring exhibition ‘forged’ (2015-2017), along with the publication of a book, led her to the key ideas that underpin her practice: The paradigms of biopolitics, identity and surveillance.
Zellner’s work has been presented in New Zealand’s TVONE series Neighbourhood and was selected for the national Parkin Drawing Prize. In 2019, upon invitation, she became a grant holder of Sweden’s esteemed IASPIS programme and spent three months in residency at Konstepidemin in Gothenburg, where she explored the transformation of DNA sequencing waste products. During this time, she curated Allotropic in Munich, Germany, a jewellery and photography showcase about migration, capitalism, genome technology and identity.
Zellmer’s work is held in public collections nationally and internationally and was sought in 2024 by the curatorial team of the exhibition Madrugada – Jewelry and the Politics of Hope at MUDE Design Museum in Lisbon, Portugal. Her research projects are extensively published and frequently discussed by Munich-based, Indian philosopher Dr Pravu Mazumdar. Johanna is a current PhD candidate at the Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand.
Zellmer is the co-founder of C/LINKProject, a collective intervention based on the values of craft education; public interaction; gifting and exchange; and collaboration in the field of contemporary jewellery.
Her work in education and as a practitioner is published by Springer Nature in their series Craft—The Hand of the Creator, Celebration and Revival: Educating in the Crafts—The Global Experience.