Paul Annear

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Paul Geoffrey Annear (17 October 1947 – 24 April 2016) was a New Zealand contemporary jeweller. He grew up in Wellington in a European-descended family and was fascinated by carved adzes, tiki, and mere from an early age. He left home in 1966 and began making jewellery. He earned a BA in anthropology and psychology in 1973, but later called the degree unimportant. He taught himself how to make jewellery, and his early work was mainly in silver; he also painted in his early career.

In 1975 he read Theo Schoon’s Jade Country and became fascinated with pounamu, New Zealand greenstone. In the early 1980s the work of John Edgar and Donn Salt deepened his interest, and a 1983 John Edgar show in Ponsonby introduced him to simple jade carving. On a 1986 trip to the West Coast of the South Island, he met carvers Peter Hughson, Cliff Dalziel, Ian Boustridge, and Ross Crump and bought his first pieces of pounamu, a material that would become very important to his work. He set up a small carving studio in Auckland in a corrugated-iron shed powered by washing‑machine engines and began carving adzes.

In a 1988 article for Craft New Zealand, historian Helen Schamroth described Annear’s work, especially his bangles. She noted that some pieces function more as sculpture than wearable jewellery, with forms that could be seen as visual objects rather than practical items. Annear was one of twelve artists chosen for the 1988 Bone Stone Shell exhibition, which toured to show overseas audiences the direction of New Zealand jewellery. He said jade dominated his work at that time and described his pieces as inspired by an imagined neolithic culture, using strong geometric shapes based on arrowheads and adzes rather than specific Māori forms.

In 1991 Annear received a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship to study ancient jade carvings in Asia, Europe, and North America. From 1991 to 1996 he was part of the Fingers, a group of contemporary New Zealand jewellers. His work was included in the 1993 Open Heart survey at The Dowse Art Museum. He also experimented with cast glass, music, and animation, and in 2003 published The Artist, a colouring book for adults.

Annear retired to Cambodia around 2000, where he continued making jewellery. He died in Phnom Penh in April 2016. His work is held in several New Zealand public collections, including Auckland War Memorial Museum, The Dowse Art Museum, and Te Papa Tongarewa.