KEVIN COATES (b. 1950)

Kevin Coates, born in 1950 in Kingston, Surrey, is considered one of Britain’s leading artist-goldsmiths. His mixed-media approach exemplifies his work, including his use of casting, hard-stone carving, inlay, mosaic work, painting, and enameling, among other techniques. Coates’s one-of-a-kind jewels, sculptures, and silver items are all imbued with symbolic meaning and imagery. A consummate artist, he creates singular pieces like chapters in a book or a series. 

 Like his work, Coates has a vast, fascinating background. In addition to being a prolific artist who draws and paints, he is a musician and a mathematician. All of these areas of study strongly influence his jewelry work. Coates’s PhD thesis was titled “A Study of the Use of Geometry and Proportional Systems in the Art of Lutherie."

Coates completed his Foundation Studies at West Sussex College of Design from 1969 to 1970 and went on to get a degree from Central School of Art and Design in London from 1970 to 1973, an MA in jewelry design at the Royal College of Art in London from 1976 to 1979, and finally a PhD from the Royal College of Art in London. Coates was appointed Liveryman by the Goldsmiths’ Company of London and was also appointed Fellow from the Royal College of Art, London. Coates’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Royal Museum of Scotland, the Kennedy Galleries, New York; and the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London; among many other museums and private collections worldwide.

In 2008, he was the subject of a book, Kevin Coates: a Hidden Alchemy-Goldsmithing, Jewels, Tablepieces by E. Goring, H. Clifford, N. Romano, F. Carli, and R. Strong, published by Arnoldsche.

Read more about Kevin Coates and his contemporaries in our catalog, London Originals, available for sale here.