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.
WE ARE SNAG: Appropriated Adornment
The fourth juried member exhibition in the WE ARE SNAG series.
History has inspired artists for thousands of years. Rather than simply borrow imagery from the past, this exhibition asked artists to engage deeply with historical appropriation. Juried by Michael Dale Bernard (UW-Milwaukee) and Emily Stoehrer (MFA Boston).
Enjoy this online exhibition here>>>
Questions? Please email SNAG exhibitions
About the Jurors
Dr. Emily Stoehrer is the Rita J. Kaplan and Susan B. Kaplan Curator of Jewelry at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston where she oversees a collection that spans 6,000 years and includes more than 22,000 objects. She received her PhD from Salve Regina University and a master’s degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology. Over the last decade, Stoehrer has lectured extensively throughout the United States, and also in Europe and Asia. Most recently, she curated Past is Present: Revival Jewelry and was a contributor to the book Maker & Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry. Stoehrer is a member of the board of directors for the Society of North American Goldsmiths and is currently writing a book on jewelry and celebrity culture.
Michael Dale Bernard’s practice developed in the urban sprawl of Los Angeles. He received his BFA in Metals from the University of Illinois in 1999 and his MFA from California State University, Long Beach in 2007. He joined the faculty at UW–Milwaukee in 2012 where he is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in metal, jewelry and digital fabrication.
MDB’s highly stylized artwork explores image as urban commodity, hip-hop culture, and organic structure. Steel fabrication, alternative materials, and vibrant color coatings are prominent in his work. He co-curated the Monochrome Noir exhibition at Velvet da Vinci in 2013 and you can find his work in Showcase: 500 Necklaces and 500 Rings, and the 2009 and 2016 Metalsmith Exhibitions in Print.
Do you have a topic for the next “WE ARE SNAG” online exhibition? We’d love to hear it! Email us.
Halstead Design Challenge 2017
The 2017 Halstead Design Challenge “Memento” asked artists to incorporate a photo into a brooch constructed primarily from materials in the Halstead challenge kit. A juried selection from all entries was exhibited at RHINO Contemporary Crafts Gallery during the SNAG New Orleans conference in May 2017. Seventy-one brooches are on view in our online exhibition.
SNAG Links Project
The SNAG Links Project was originally conceived of and coordinated by Linda Kaye-Moses from 1996-2001. In this project, Linda invited 12 artists to create a link (a pendant-like adornment) utilizing their unique skill-sets. The pieces were documented, then donated to the annual conference silent auction.
Victoria Lansford revived the project in 2015, with the links displayed at the 2015 and 2016 SNAG conferences as part of the silent auction. In keeping with Linda’s concept, each year Victoria invited 12 artists to create links. Each link was auctioned individually at the conferences.
WE ARE SNAG: (Up)Setting the Stone
As the third juried member exhibition in the We Are SNAG series, (Up)Setting the Stone is an online exhibition focused on the setting. Stone setting has been utilized in some of the earliest known jewelry. There are thousands of variations based on a few different techniques. Juried by George Sawyer and Laura Wood, this collection of work expands to jewelry, objects, vessels, and sculpture.
Enjoy this online exhibition now>>>
About the Jurors:
Laura Wood
Laura Wood is a full time jewelry artist living in Asheville, North Carolina. Her newly relocated studio is in the Renery Creator Space in the downtown South Slope District. Her work has been selected for many exhibitions throughout the United States, including The Contemporary Jewelry Show at the Penland Gallery (NC), Shift: Makers that Dene, Expand, and Contradict the Field of Art Jewelry at the Grunwald Gallery (IN), and the Lydon Emerging Artist Exhibition (LEAP) at the Society for Contemporary Craft (PA) and most recently as a 2015 SNAG Emerging Jewelry Artist at the annual Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art and Design Expo (SOFA) in Chicago, Illinois. Her work can be found in select galleries in the United States and in the permanent collections of the Gregg Museum of Art at North Carolina State University and The Racine Art Museum in Racine, Wisconsin. 
Publications include, 500 Paper Objects (Lark Crafts, 2013), Behind the Brooch (Shier Publishing, 2014), American Craft (2012), and Metalsmith (2014).
Laura was the founding voice of the annual ECU Symposium and is a co-founder of Jewelry Edition, a creative project facilitating the growth of jewelry artists. Laura was a recent 2015 speaker at the annual Yuma Arts Symposium and a the spring metals concentration instructor at the Penland School of Crafts. She earned a BFA from the University of Georgia and an MFA in metal design from East Carolina University.
George Sawyer
As a student at the University of Minnesota, George Sawyer studied Art History and Sculpture and was fascinated with Asian Art. 
After finishing his studies, he developed his design and metalworking skills while working at a small company that designed and built some of the most famous racing cars of that era. During the day, he learned about fabricating beautiful machines from the world’s best automotive artisans, while during the evening he studied jewelry design. Combining these skills, he began to develop his signature style of patterned metal jewelry.
George was the first to explore special techniques for creating patterned jewelry metals from colored gold alloys and precious metals. For over four decades, he has folded and forged precious metals into beautiful patterns that suggest images of wood-grain, swirling water or ancient and mysterious impressionistic forms. 
With his palette of multicolored patterned metals, George creates truly original jewelry ranging from simple wedding rings to complex art objects. He finds great pleasure designing new metal combinations that are an art in their own right, and jewelry that speaks to the heart and inspires the imagination.
George’s jewelry has been featured in museums, galleries and fine jewelry stores in the United States, Canada and Europe. A member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths, the Contemporary Design Group, and twice president of the American Jewelry Design Council, he has received numerous jewelry design awards. George Sawyer Design studio is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Do you have a topic for the next WE ARE SNAG online exhibition? We’d love to hear it! Email us at: exhibitions@snagmetalsmith.org