About Irwan Holmes

Irwan Holmes was born at 10 Downing Street, Greenwich Village, New York City, and attended Juilliard in New York and UCLA for art.  He then spent a year traveling around the world (32 countries) and on this trip fell in love with Indonesia.  He packed up his worldly goods in Los Angeles and moved permanently to Jakarta in 1969 where he still resides with his Indonesian wife and family.

Pak (more or less “Mister”) Irwan (as he is often referred to) had a fascination for gemstones and gemology since his days in Los Angeles, and eventually he joined this love of gemstones to his love of art (sculpture studies at UCLA etc.) to begin a life of jewelry designing.

Holmes has been greatly influenced in his designing by Indonesian culture–the HERITAGE COLLECTIONS directly attest to this.  These collections consist of The Heritage Indonesia Collection, 18 iconic images of Indonesian culture from Java, Bali, Sulawesi et al;  The Heritage Islam Collection, Arabic calligraphy based on sayings from the Holy Al Quran (Koran);  Flowers of Indonesia; and Faces of Indonesia,  taken from ancient dancers’ masks; and the newest collection, PAPUA, taken from animist shield motifs of the Asmat tribes.

According to Pak Irwan he has now fallen deeply, madly in love with the semi-precious stones of Indonesia – Opals, Picture Agates, Chrysocolla, and most important the unique Fossilized Coral that only exists in Indonesia – and now uses these stones in all of his jewelry designs.

Holmes has exhibited his jewelry in Innsbruck (Austria), Seattle (Washington State, USA), Perth (Australia), Dubai, Frankfurt and in Paris (BijOrhca) where he won first prize for design (“Etoile de Mode”);  and in Kuala Lumpur.  He  recently exhibited at the prestigious Inhorgenta show in Munich as well as in London, at the Vicenzaoro (Italy) Fair, and in Bali.

In jakarta his jewelry can be seen at Koi Kemang Cafe Gallery and in his own gallery/workshop in Ciputat—and in Bali at Treasures, Bali`s (and Indonesia`s) finest gallery of contemporary jewelry; at Tonyraka Art Gallery, in Mas, Ubud; and at the ARMA (Agung Rai Museum of Art) gift shop.