Eva van Kempen (1976) is a Dutch goldsmith, jewellery ‘artivist’, and guest tutor in filigree at the Vocational School of Goldsmiths in Schoonhoven. She holds a BA in Human Resource Management and trained as a goldsmith in Schoonhoven and Amsterdam (2000-2005). She further studied under artists Pieter Kusters, C.A. Wertheim and Merijn Bolink at Stichting Artless, before receiving her MA from the Sandberg Institute (Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam) in 2020. Her work is exhibited internationally across Europe, Asia and the United States, and is represented in several private and public collections.

Following a period of serious illness, her practice took a decisive turn. Since then, her collections have explored human potential through the lens of medical materials and specialised goldsmithing innovations. In 2015, her solo exhibition LifeLines, an ode to hospital materials, was presented at Amsterdam Medical Center (AMC), where she had once been a patient. Through this body of work, she recontextualised medical waste materials and pharmaceuticals, uncovering their quiet poetics and reframing them as carriers of human vulnerability and resilience. This was followed by the solo exhibition Ready-To-Bear at Museum de Fundatie (2017–2018).

Since 2010, Van Kempen has dedicated herself to the study, preservation and contemporary renewal of the ancient filigree technique. Her MA research examined the state of filigree in the Netherlands and China, resulting in a published safeguarding strategy. In 2020, she founded The Filigree Embassy, an open-source Dutch platform and Instagram-based archive (@the_filigree_embassy) devoted to the promotion, documentation and innovation of filigree practice. A selection of her filigree works will be presented in the archaeological jewellery exhibition Bodemjuweeltjes (Gems Unearthed) at the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg (14 June 2025 – 1 March 2026).

In 2025, Van Kempen received a Talent Development Grant from the Creative Industries Fund NL. She subsequently initiated a collaboration with Delft University of Technology through their artist-in-residence programme Crossing Parallels, exploring hybrid digital–craft approaches to filigree. She is affiliated with the Dutch Guild of Goldsmiths, Stichting Ambachtelijk Vakmanschap and the Haarlems Sieraad Collectief.