Joaquín Berao was born in Madrid in 1945. At the age of fifteen he became an apprentice in a family run jewellery workshop, where he first came into contact with traditional jewellery making processes. During his years as an apprentice, Berao also displayed an interest in painting, music and architecture.
Berao designed his first collection in 1970, which he presented at the craft fair in Ibiza. The entire collection was bought by the New York department store Bloomingdale's. In 1972 he decided to create a collection of gold rings that combined elements of jewellery design and sculpture, and which was presented at the Serie Gallery in Madrid, together with the work of d Alicia Penalva, Javier Corberó and Elsa Peretti. In 1973 he presented a collection of original jewellery items at the Conca Exhibition Hall in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, which included a series of giant-sized pieces that are considered as sculptures rather than items of jewellery.
In 1975 Joaquín Berao presented a jewellery collection at the Nouvelles Images Gallery in The Hague, and the following year the Zurich Museum of Modern Art acquired several of his works for its collection. Over the next few years his works were shown at exhibitions in a number of galleries, including the Estampa Gallery in Madrid, in 1977 or the Diart Gallery, also in Madrid, in 1980. In 1985 he presented an exhibition of gold, silver and titanium jewellery at the Low Gallery in Zurich.
In 1982, the designer decided to join forces with Michael Battaglia and set up the company Joaquín Berao S.A. in order to create an organisational structure for his various projects and commercial activities as well as the artist's creative work. Twenty years on, this 100% Spanish owned company now has its own stores in Spain, Italy and Japan. These include four Joaquín Berao shops in Spain: two in Madrid, one at 35 Claudio Coello Street (the firm's flagship store) - a multi-functional area covering 250 square metres in the heart of the Salamanca quarter in Madrid and which brings to life the glamour of the 1950s -, and another at 13 Conde de Xiquena Street. The company's Barcelona store is a quiet and discrete outlet, situated at 74 Rambla Catalunya. It has been open since December 2002. Joaquín Berao's Valencia store was opened in 1993 and is located at 21, Sorní Street. Joaquín Berao also has stores in Milan (Italy), at 5, Via Durini, as well as in Japan (in Tokyo's Aoyama district, at the Matsuyya department store in Ginza, and in the city of Kobe).
Up until 1989, Joaquín Berao's collections were numbered by years and presented in catalogues with photographs by Javier Vallhonrat. From 1990 onwards however, the designer decided to give a name to his collections, calling them Lisboa, Dayak, Medas, Oliva, Sueño, Zarza, Palma, Iratí, Paine and Ainda. In 1991, and coinciding with the Dayak collection, he presented his first range of hand-painted silk scarves and a collection of aluminium objects. In 1992 he added his first collection of bags to his accessories collection.
Joaquín Berao has taught and directed a number of courses and workshops on jewellery design, including those organised by the Madrid-based Fine Arts Circle in 1993 and Madrid's Complutense University as part of its summer school activities held at El Escorial (1994).
In 1999 he presented his first gold and diamond collection, which marked the beginning of a new creative period in which he focused more closely on fine jewellery collections and made extensive use of gold and precious stones. Cabur, El Son, Soleá and Óvalo (2003) are the latest works of this artist, who in recent years has built up a creative team of professionals that work with him on his collections and promotional and image campaigns. All the works of this artist are presented and sold through the Berao company, of which he is a founding partner and a member of the Board of Directors.
