Here’s what you likely know about Angie Marei: This New York native with an Egyptian-Dominican background is a top jewelry designer whose inclusion in Sotheby’s Brilliant & Black speaks to her proudly fearless nature and artistic eye.
But Marei also is a lifelong learner who knows how to fix a car and how to repair electronics with her soldering kit like a whiz. She’s a student of psychology and excels in photography and typography. She’s also knowledgeable about app and website development. In other words, she’s a modern Renaissance woman.
“I have a lot of different interests and have always pushed myself out of my comfort zone to learn other subjects,” Marei says. “My education, internships, and career gave me great experiences, where I learned a lot about art-making, branding, marketing, and advertising, which I use in my work and business today.”
What you also may not know is that Marei has done it all herself. She designs all her own pieces, and her Marei New York brand is a self-made, self-funded, female-founded small business that never received outside investment. Jewelry may not have been her first career, but once she found this industry, it became her everything.
“When I started learning how to make my jewelry, it was like something clicked and I found my calling,” Marei says. “My soul was screaming, ‘This is it!’ ”
Marei grew up in the culturally diverse Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens, N.Y. Her household spoke three languages: English, Spanish, and Arabic. Her family taught her respect for herself and their culture, but they also gave her the freedom to be “curious, clairvoyant, creative, and very imaginative,” Marei says.
By age 14, she got her first job to fund her love for clothing and sneakers, working at a day care as a teacher’s assistant. Then, as she was in college studying communications design at Pratt Institute, she held several internships—the one that stands out the most was at a fashion advertising agency in Tribeca. There, she worked on ad campaigns for Gucci, Max Mara, Yves Saint Laurent, Movado, and other luxury brands.
Her road to Pratt started at Queens College, where she wanted to study both psychology and art. An art professor there who didn’t understand her aesthetic or influences—which includes artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goya, and Damien Hirst—taught her to trust her point of view.
“I wasn’t going to let this one professor dictate if my art was good or not. I learned that to be an artist, I had to develop a thick skin for criticism,” Marei says. “I wanted more of a creative challenge and more freedom to create.”
At Pratt, Marei started in fashion but pivoted to the communications design program, from which she graduated. She started her career in advertising as a creative director of visual design. But her call to fashion led to a part-time fashion design and business program at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. While fashion ultimately wasn’t her path, it was still an exciting time, she says.
Then, one day at work, a colleague showed Marei the jewelry she was making in a jewelry class.
“The idea of making my own jewelry had never crossed my mind, and it seemed like such an interesting skill to learn. That is when I enrolled in school,” Marei says.
Jewelry was new and yet a homecoming, Marei says.
“My Egyptian family has a long history of collecting and passing gold jewelry. I would always receive a beautiful piece of Egyptian gold jewelry for special occasions and birthdays,” Marei says. “I was taught the value of gold as an investment and that jewelry was meaningful spiritually and religiously.
“Our Islamic and Catholic jewelry was sacred and had to be cherished and treated with respect. From a young age, I took special care of my jewelry and still have my childhood jewelry in pristine condition.”
Now, those influences as well as her Dominican heritage play a major role in her jewelry design.
“I have always felt a deeper connection to my parent’s cultures, which gives my work authenticity. Many artists are inspired by foreign cultures, but many do not have personal ties to them,” Marei says. “Also, being a born-and-raised native New Yorker gives me and my work a unique edge and fearlessness that only exists here.”
Top: Growing up in New York and feeling inspired by its fierce nature is a lifelong influence on jewelry designer Angie Marei, who says the city is one of the reasons why her artwork has such an edge (photos courtesy of Angie Marei).
Follow me on Instagram and Twitter
Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazineFollow JCK on Twitter: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine
