Katja Toporski
Originally from Germany, Katja Toporski is a jewelry and installation artist based just outside of Washington DC. She initially earned a medical degree from the Technical University in Munich, Germany, and trained and practiced as an anesthesiologist in the UK for 9 years. Appreciating and making art has played a major role as a balancing force both during her studies and her medical practice. Jewelry emerged as her main focus, and she earned a city & guilds certificate in jewelry from a 2-year evening program while working in the UK. Moving to the US prompted her to make art her full-time career and pursue an MFA specializing in jewelry at Towson University.
While the craft of metal working was the entry point to her art practice she has always been interested in the larger role of adornment in human history and its relationship to other art practices. To her, both serve as an access point to a non-linear understanding of the world, to the unexplainable, to mind and spirit, and their intersection with contemporary life. Creative drive, craftsmanship and non-verbal expression are strong motivating factors behind her work.
Since completing her MFA, she has been teaching a variety of 3D art, jewelry and computer modeling classes at Montgomery College, Towson University, and the Baltimore Jewelry Center. She has also been teaching workshops at Arrowmont School of Craft, TN, Shakerag, Sewanee, TN, and Penland School of Craft, NC. In 2023 she was selected for the teaching artist cohort grant by the Center for Craft in Asheville, NC, which allowed her to put a new emphasis on integrating her art practice into her teaching and vice versa.
Katja has maintained a strong exhibition record since entering grad school with invitational and themed group exhibitions as well as solo shows in jewelry galleries across the US and Europe. Within the last year she had 3 solo exhibitions: in Tallinn, Estonia with her jewelry, and in Lappeenranta, Finland and the Baltimore Jewelry Center with jewelry related installations.
She is a recipient of the educational endowment scholarship by the Society of North American Goldsmiths, the Autor Award recognizing innovation and depth of concept in art jewelry (Romania) and was awarded a special mention for her work in the Gioelli in Fermento exhibition by the Italian Jewelry Association. Katja has been invited to artist residencies as part of the Smitten Forum at the Mendocino Art Center, CA, the winter residency at Penland, NC, and Den Brune Koia artist residency in Norway.