Mastery in Jewelry and Metals: Irresistible Offerings!
May 21-June 23, 2019
Gallery 2052, Chicago, IL
In celebration of SNAG’s 50th anniversary
Opening Reception: May 23, 5:00-9:00pm
Closing Reception: June 21, 5:00-9:00pm
This exhibition is of masterful works by makers who have worked for more than 25+ years, have achieved substantial visibility and recognition, studio and exhibition history, and whose unique ideas have been innovating and celebrating jewelry, objects and sculpture and enhancing the story of American studio jewelry and metalsmithing.
Gallery 2052 is a gallery showcasing contemporary jewelry and design, located in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago. Owned by metalsmith and gallerist, Nora McCarthy, Gallery 2052 will showcase this important exhibition in celebration of SNAG’s 50th birthday.
Participating Artists:
Julia Barello
Harriete Estel Berman
Elizabeth Brim
Doug Bucci
Kathy Buszkiewicz
Harlan W. Butt
Sharon Church
Chunghi Choo
John Cogswell
Chris Darway
Jack da Silva
Marilyn da Silva
Robert Ebendorf
Sandra Enterline
Fred Fenster
Arline Fisch
Pat Flynn
David C. Freda
Don Friedlich
John G. Garrett
Lisa Gralnick
Gary S. Griffin
Laurie Hall
Susan H. Hamlet
Douglas Harling
Mary Lee Hu
Michael Jerry
Robin Kranitzky; Kim Overstreet
Rebecca Laskin
Keith Lewis
Charles Lewton-Brain
Linda MacNeil
John Marshall
Bruce Metcalf
Eleanor Moty
Tom Muir
Harold O’Connor
Komelia Okim
Albert Paley
Beverly Penn
Suzan Rezac
Stephen Saracino
Hiroko Sato-Pijanowski
Sondra Sherman
Helen Shirk
Lin Stanionis
Billie Theide
Rachelle Thiewes
Linda Threadgill
Curator:
Gail M. Brown is an Independent Curator whose interest is to enhance visibility and education about contemporary craft within the larger visual arts community. She trained as a printmaker at the Philadelphia College of Art where she identified her own connection to process and media while exploring etching and lithography. She has been watching the contemporary craft movement since the early nineteen eighties. She is a passionate observer of the unique potential of art in craft media: for the communication of issue-oriented and aesthetic ideas coupled with extensive examination of chosen material process, within the long decorative arts continuum. She curates focused exhibitions, which share exceptional work from a national/international body of mature and mid-career artists and introduce potent ideas and forms by younger makers.
Brown prefers to address the diverse directions she looks for in artists, aesthetics, and issues. Culled from 50 years of studio jewelry and metalsmithing, Gail M. Brown chose makers who mastered their field.
Triple Parade 2018
SNAG is pleased to be a sponsor of the 2018 Triple Parade exhibition in Shanghai, China. The Triple Parade is a prestigious nonprofit biennial international cultural project that has become one of the leading contemporary applied art and design exhibitions for expanding cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world. This year’s theme is “Three Times: Dialogue Across the Past, the Present, the Future.” The exhibition takes place October 19, 2018 through January 6, 2019 at the HOW Art Museum, Shanghai, China.
The event consists of exhibitions, symposia, lectures and workshops. The Triple Parade comprises four sections: Intimate Encounter, Like Attracts Like, Arty Game, and Viva La Different, and will display 500 pieces of artworks created by nearly 300 artists from 34 countries and regions.
“SNAG is delighted to be a sponsor of the 2018 Triple Parade exhibition,” said Executive Director Gwynne Rukenbrod Smith. “The Triple Parade perfectly aligns with our mission of supporting a diverse international jewelry and metals community by fostering critical discourse through the exchange of artworks. We are proud to have 12 SNAG members represented at the HOW Art Museum.”
- Emily Cobb
- Dan DiCaprio
- Don Friedlich
- Aurelie Guillaume
- Adam Hawk
- Kevin Hughes
- Yong Joo Kim
- Matt Lambert
- Wendy McAllister
- Paul McClure
- Ezra Satok-Wolman
- Lauren Tickle
SNAG Board member Ezra Satok-Wolman, a Canadian jewelry artist and master goldsmith, was an early advocate of SNAG’s involvement in the event and has been focused on developing new partnerships for SNAG. “To date, our mission has been focused primarily on North America,” says Satok-Wolman. “As the world becomes more connected, our desire to enrich our understanding of the field in a broader sense has led us to seek out new partners. In doing so, we hope to not only develop a better understanding of the field from new international and cultural perspectives, but also collaborate with other countries and their institutions to cultivate a broader dialogue and bring forth new exhibitions, enrich our publications, and encourage new members and contributors to join us in those efforts.”
HERE TODAY: We Are SNAG Membership Series
The fifth juried member online exhibition in the We Are SNAG Membership Series.
When considering the temporal qualities of metalwork, it is often its endurance over time that comes to mind. Jewelry is passed from one generation to the next, is tied to memory and intimacy, and historically, the stability, durability, and preciousness of its materials added value to its composition. With the Studio Craft movement coming to the fore in the 1950s, the correlation between value and material was subverted, and the possibilities of expression in the field expanded dramatically. This exhibition seeks to explore the notion of “ephemerality” in its widest definition, showcasing work that explores transience, is comprised of impermanent materials, incorporates memorabilia and “ephemera,” and/or exists through time-based performance and photography.
This iteration of We Are SNAG comes at a pivotal marker in the institution’s history, its 50th anniversary.
Questions? Email us
About the Jurors:
Kathryn Hall is Curator at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, Texas, where she is responsible for developing and overseeing HCCC’s exhibitions and related programming. She previously served as the Windgate Curatorial Fellow at HCCC from 2012 to 2015. Kathryn received a BA in Art History from Wofford College and an MA in Art History from the University of Georgia. Some recent exhibitions that she has curated include: Light Charmer: Bending Neon and Plasma (2018), Annie Evelyn: Multiple Impressions (2017), United by Hand: Work and Service by Drew Cameron, Alicia Dietz, and Ehren Tool (2017), Charlotte Potter: Glass Armory (2016), and Dining and Discourse: A Discussion in Three Courses (2015). She is a scholar of contemporary craft and material culture and has contributed to Metalsmith magazine, Studio Potter magazine, and most recently juried the Surface Design Association’s Exhibition in Print, Future Fabrication (2017) with Richard Elliott. Kathryn currently serves on the ClayHouston board, an organization that supports ceramic artists working in Houston and the surrounding area. (photo: Scott Cartwright)
Sarah Darro is a curator and writer who has worked in arts institutions across the United States, in Italy, and in the United Kingdom. She is currently the Windgate Foundation Curatorial Fellow at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, where she has curated projects including; Treachery of Material: The Surrealist Impulse In Craft (2018), The Sound of Things (2017), BEST IF USED BY (2016), Head Gear (2017), and Pocket Museum (2017). Her exhibitions have been featured in publications such as American Craft, Condé Nast Traveler, UrbanGlass Quarterly, Food Network Magazine, Selvedge Magazine, and Arts + Culture Texas. Sarah holds a Master’s degree in visual, material, and museum anthropology from Oxford University and Bachelor’s degrees in art history and anthropology from Barnard College of Columbia University. Her research interests include artist communities and collectives, relational aesthetics, and the life histories and agency of objects.
Do you have a topic for the next WE ARE SNAG online exhibition? We’d love to hear it! Email us
Halstead Design Challenge 2018
The 2018 Halstead Design Challenge “Hidden” asked artists to play with the ideas of secrecy and mystery to create a brooch or convertible pendant constructed primarily from materials in the Halstead challenge kit. A juried selection from all entries was exhibited during the SNAG Portland, Oregon conference in May 2018. The work is on view in our online exhibition.
Exhibition in Print at Contemporary Craft
September 8-November 25, 2017
Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh, PA
Exhibition in Print: Repair and Renewal showcases outstanding metal artworks by over 20 artists. As an annual feature of Metalsmith magazine, the 2017 Exhibition in Print focuses on the metalwork tradition and the capacity for restoration by highlighting artists from across the United States as well as Germany, Belgium, and Finland. The exhibiting artists in this companion exhibition give renewed life to objects and materials through innovative art expression rooted in traditional metalsmithing mediums such as silver, copper, and gold, and nontraditional found objects such as horsehair, syringes, soap, and credit cards. Besides prolonging the life of the object, the act of repair also speaks to our yearning to make things right and to make things whole again.
Curated by Stuart Kestenbaum, Maine’s poet laureate and an honorary fellow of the American Craft Council, Exhibition in Print: Repair and Renewal features jewelry, sculpture and non-traditional wearable objects by emerging and established metalsmithing professionals and exposes the public to a variety of techniques and mediums.
Learn more about the Exhibition in Print.