Chan's gems put on a sparkling display

  A view of the exhibition, Wallace Chan: Half a Century. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

He is now one of the most prestigious jewelry artists in the world, recognized for numerous innovations in the processing of gemstones and other materials, and his work can be found in the permanent collection of the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Beijing's Capital Museum, and the Shanghai Museum.

Known as "the formidable Chinese" by European jewelers, Chu says that Chan has used a variety of gemstones and metals over the course of the last five decades, guided by his profound appreciation for nature.

The exhibition is organized in three sections, and includes jewelry and other objects lent from the collections of institutions such as the Shanghai Museum, the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim in Germany, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The first section Engraving and Embodying focuses on Chan's scientific approach and lifelong dedication to learning. "His pursuit of mastering gem carving and his pioneering work on the fourfold symmetry reflection effect, culminating in The Wallace Cut (way of processing gems Chan created), epitomizes his approach," Raquel Alonso-Perez, curator of the Mineralogical and Geological Museum at Harvard University, writes in her introduction to the exhibition.

The second section, Entangling and Enchanting, and the third section Enlightening and Empowering, demonstrate "the metamorphosis of raw gemstones into wearable works of art through mastery of the elements," Alonso-Perez writes.