Jana Machatová’s work explores the intersection of personal and collective memory, using jewelry as a medium to reflect on identity, history, and social consciousness. Born in 1972 in Slovakia, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, where she studied under Anton Cepka and Karol Weisslechner.

Machatová frequently employs porcelain — a metaphor for memory, valued for its fragility and its ability to preserve traces — alongside materials such as silver, resin, and paper. Through brooches and pendants, she transforms fragments of family albums, propaganda imagery, and feminist slogans into layered, thought-provoking narratives.

Her collections balance sentimentality with critical reflection. In Where Are You From, she revisits her experiences growing up under socialism, using jewelry as a vessel of remembrance. The Portrait of a Woman series juxtaposes early 20th-century women’s magazine clippings with motifs from the 1980s, reflecting on gender roles and societal expectations. In My Body, My Choice, she turns jewelry into a platform for advocacy, transforming political statements into wearable expressions of autonomy and resistance.

“Jewelry is a medium for communication,” Machatová explains.

Her work invites dialogue, merging precise craftsmanship with symbolic depth. Exhibited internationally, Machatová’s pieces bridge the personal and the political — offering a poignant meditation on memory, identity, and the enduring power of adornment as social commentary.