Conference Presentations
Keynote Speaker
Stanley Lechtzin,
Artist/ Temple University, Tyler School of Art, Professor and
Head of Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM Area
“American
Metalsmithing Revolutionaries”
Lechtzin is an internationally recognized jewelry artist
known for his pioneering and revolutionary work with digital
technologies that continually push the boundaries of the
metals field.
He was the first in the crafts to work extensively with
electro forming in making jewelry. He received numerous
grants and awards for the development of this
technique. Lechtzin studied jewelry with Philip Fike
and Richard Thomas. Lechtzin believes artists are
society’s cultural antennae and as such must address
current societal issues. This has led him to his vision
of Computer-Aided-Design/3D printing as a new craft
medium. Lechtzin sees unique objects as having societal
importance. Therefore he is engaged in an exploration
of how crafts must change, while still maintaining their
historical values.
Since 1962, Lechtzin has lived in Philadelphia after being
brought there by Temple University to start the Craft
Department at its Tyler School of Art, where as a
professor, he continues to head the Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM
area. For over 50 years, Lechtzin’s work
has been exhibited extensively in the United States and
abroad and is represented in many books and permanent
collections.
Program Speakers
Leo Caballero,
Klimt 02/Community co-founder
“Globally
Networking in a Global Community”
Caballero is a Spanish artist and co-founder of the
innovative Klimt02/Community and web gallery in
Barcelona. His presentation will focus on evaluating
the principles and objectives with which Klimt 02/Community
was started in 2001, its impact on the jewelry world, and
its journey and development during the past seven years of
global networking through a website that offers knowledge,
information, debates, and exchanges inside the context of
contemporary jewelry.
Myra
Mimlitsch-Gray, Artist/ Chair of the Art Department,
State University of New York at New Paltz
“anti/icono/clastic”
Mimlitsch-Gray will discuss her recent Arts/Industry
residency at Kohler Co. which resulted in two bodies
of work - one familiar and domestic, the other
abstract. The shift in subject, provoked by modes of
production and expanded through formal abstraction, has
presented her with new challenges and opportunities.
While her recent experience in the foundry opened up her
studio practice, it has also crystallized her commitment to
metalsmithing. Her presentation will advocate on
behalf of such dogma as the new radicalism.
Paul Greenhalgh,
Director and President of the Corcoran Gallery of Art and
the Corcoran College of Art and Design
“Future of
Craft”
Greenhalgh will look at the language of jewelry from the
perspective of its historical unfolding, poetics, and
anthropology. Using specific case studies, the
lecture will seek to explain the role of jewelry as
an art in the next phase of modernity. Greenhalgh is
a world-renowned scholar of the decorative arts and design
and is currently Director and President of the Corcoran
Gallery of Art and the Corcoran College of Art and Design,
in Washington DC.
Albert Paley,
Sculptor/Metalsmith, Paley Studios
“The Albert Paley
Lecture”
Paley will survey his own work, the evolution from
goldsmithing to large-scale monumental sculpture that
explores shared sensibilities and design. Paley,
known internationally as a sculptor who produces monumental
works that grace the urban landscapes, is the first metal
sculptor to receive the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award
from the American Institute of Architects.
Camille Paglia,
Cultural critic/ Scholar/ Professor, University of the
Arts
“Art and
Sex”
Paglia is an internationally known scholar, author, and
social critic and the author of Sexual Personae: Art and
Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson; Sex, Art, and American
Culture; Vamps
& Tramps: New Essays; and Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia
Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems.
In addition to her books, Paglia is a columnist at
Salon.com and a Contributing Editor at Interview
magazine. She has written numerous articles on art,
literature, popular culture, feminism, politics, and
religion for publications around the world.
Neri Oxman,
Architect/ Designer/ Researcher, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
“Making
Difference”
Oxman is an architect and researcher whose work attempts
to establish new forms of experimental design and novel
processes of material practice at the interface of design,
computer science, engineering and biology. She is the
founder of an interdisciplinary design initiative, M A T E
R I A L E C O L O G Y. Her presentation will discuss
her own work that transcends disciplinary and professional
boundaries.
Panel,
"Revolution/Evolution," moderated by Helen Drutt
English
The panel features Marianne Aav, Director,
DESIGNMUSEO, Finland; Fritz Falk, Director,
Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany; and Liesbeth den Besten.
SNAG Juried Student Work
Presentation
"Present /
Represent"
Multimedia presentation of images of dynamic objects made
by the future leaders of the field. The images represent
the best ideas, materials, and forms from student
artists. More information
available here. Entry form
available here. (PDFs require current Adobe
Reader.) Receipt deadline February 13, 2009.
