Enamel Experience - International Badges Exhibition
Velvet da
Vinci Gallery
through March 30, 2008
Velvet da Vinci Gallery
in San Francisco presents "Enamel Experience - International
Badges Exhibition," a show featuring 24 established artists
from Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. This
exhibition is made up of contemporary badges inspired by the
collection of historic enamel badges at Hamburg's Museum der
Arbeit.
"Enamel Experience - International Badges Exhibition" originated
at the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg, Germany. The museum is
located in The Company Carl Wild Badge Factory, which was in
production from 1901 to 1989 and was forced to close due to
cheaper competition overseas. The historical badge collection
includes badges made for the military, various societies, commercial
organizations and charities. The contemporary artists have
re-interpreted these badges to create a series of new ones.
Badges have a rich history through their messages and techniques.
Elizabeth Turrell, the organizer of the exhibition, says, "The
making of badges, medals and regalia gives artists a means
of portable communication, including subversive messages, pleas
for peace, and satirical images. The badge can be produced
as a one off, a limited-edition or commercially produced by
the hundreds or thousands."
Three prestigious international
artists in the exhibition have taken very different approaches
to re-creating the badge. Prominent British artist Wendy Ramshaw
makes both public art and jewelry. Her work is found in museums
and private collections throughout the world, such as the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington D.C., the Cooper Hewitt Museum and
the Art and Design Museum in New York and the Victorian and
Albert Museum in London. Her badge was inspired by the intrepid
polar explorer Ann Daniels who told the BBC how she saw a "rainbow
around the sun". The image caught Wendy's attention and
she created this sight in the form of a badge.
Tamar de Vries
Winter, originally from Israel, lives in the UK where she creates
jewelry and hollowware. She is highly influenced by ancient
cultures. Her work can be found in many prestigious collections
such as the Jewish Museum in New York and the Victoria and
Albert in London. She wants to communicate the message of peace
through her badge. She says, "The vision expressed by
this badge follows that of the prophet Isaiah - 'We shall transform
their iron crosses into olive branches'. I wish to dedicate
the badge to the memory of my grandfather Josef Lachmann who
for all his life as a father, physician, soldier and citizen
fought for his ideals." The photo on the badge is from
a collection of photographs taken in Germany and Palestine
in the first part of the twentieth century that she inherited.
It is a reminder to her of the world they have lost.
Mark Hartung
is a U.S. artist. He originally studied glass at Kent State
in Ohio. He has been working in enamel since 1989 and is a
recipient of many Ohio Art Council Grants. Mark was inspired
by badges with numbers he found in the collection of the Museum
der Arbeit. He took this element and used it as a decorative
motif to create his striking images.
Velvet da Vinci is open
Tuesday through Saturday from 12 pm - 6 pm, Sunday from 12
pm - 4 pm. The Gallery is closed on Monday.

New
Works: Jewellery by Alexandra Stülb & paintings
by Andrea Gabbriellini
at ORFEO
Galerie d'Art - Luxembourg
Exhibition runs until April 31, 2008

Åsa
Lockner - Views of Order
at PLATINA, Odengatan 68, Stockholm
Exhibition runs until April 30, 2008
In 7 chapters Åsa
Lockner depicts the concepts of order.
The idea and inspiration
for the exhibition comes partly from journeys in countries with
limited freedom of speech and repression. Order is also Åsa
Lockners own tool for balancing her everyday life.
The exhibition "Views
of Order" at Gallery Platina in Stockholm is a research
on different aspects of order political, social and cultural.
But the artist and designer Åsa Lockner also relates to
her private life:
-
When I face symptoms of stress my desire for
order increases. I try to compenesate my loss of control with
actions as organizing work papers in files.
Recently Åsa
Lockner visited Laos and White Russia, two countries where the
inhabitants are under strong repression from the authoritiy.
She reacted with surprise on the few visible signs from the governmental
control in the streets:
-
The lack of individual expression and
subcultures was the things that struck me hardest. Downtown Minsk
was unnaturally tidy and clean, simply too clean. The whole society
was cleansed from diverting expression.
"Views of Order" is
organized in seven chapters of jewellery and sculptures in different
environments, all describing the artist ideas. The first chapter, "Table
Manners", handles governmental repression towards dissidents.
The third chapter is the sculpture, "Being Nice", where
a woman fights against visible and invisible chains.
Ted Noten, Kiki van Eijk, Joost
Van Bleiswijk, Shan-Shan Sheng
April 18-May 10, 2008
opening reception 5-8pm on April 18, 2008
at design-e-space Venice Italy
Verdura:
The Life and Work of a Master Jeweler
Through Feb. 17, 2008 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science
Jewelry with the original renderings will be displayed.
Ritual Objects: Sculptural Jewelry
Natasha
Seedorf solo show
Jan. 9 - Feb.11, 2008
Gallery One
Appalachian Center For Craft, Smithville, TN
Exploring Boundaries: Evolutionary Metal
Dec. 14 - Jan. 23, 2008
Bevier
Gallery - Rochester Institute of Technology
Rochester,
NY
LIBIDO- chains, gender, feelings and love
Jewellery - Jenny Edlund
Foto - Morgan Norman
Exhibition runs until February 2, 2008
PLATINA,
Odengatan 68 in Stockholm
New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork
Velvet da Vinci Gallery
2015 Polk Street @ Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94109
Jan. 18
to Feb. 17, 2008
Artist Reception, Friday, Jan. 18, 6-8 pm.
Velvet da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco presents New West
Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork, an exhibition showcasing
60 West Coast established and rising metal artists and jewelers
creating exceptional new work.
New West Coast Design is a group
of exhibitions to be held in different venues throughout the
San Francisco Bay Area focusing on specific developments in
the craft and design fields. New West Coast Design exhibitions
have a rich history which started with a desire to exhibit
furniture and objects by California artists. The California
Design exhibitions began at the Pasadena Museum of Art in the
1950s and continued through the 1970s. Designer Craftsmen of
the West, curated by Elizabeth Moses in 1957 and held at the
de Young Museum, and the thirteen California Design events
sponsored by the Baulines Craft Guild in San Francisco from
1988 to 2004 were also premier showcases for regional design.
West Coast designers and artists continue to create unique
work exhibited in Museums and private collections.
The exhibition
at Velvet da Vinci, New West Coast Design: Jewelry + Metalwork
highlights a collection of the most exciting new designs in
jewelry and metalwork currently being made on the West Coast.
Helen Shirk is one of the New West Coast Design: Jewelry +
Metalwork artists. Ms. Shirk is a world-renowned, Southern
California metalsmith who creates large organic (plant like)
vessels out of copper. The piece in the exhibition is textured
and painted with colored pencil to evoke the color palette
of Western Australia. The work is deeply rooted in her time
spent there. She says, “I try to create the feeling of
sensuousness, strangeness, and vitality that I find in the
natural world.”
Jeweler Maria Phillips, (Seattle) conjures
up the female body through her choice of materials. Her series
of brooches made from gut, gold, silver and thread look almost
like quick, precise sketches.
Cynthia Toops, (Seattle) an established
polymer-clay jeweler, has created a new series of work out
of felt. Her Twig bracelet is hand felted into an organic oval
with three-dimensional texture emulating small protruding branches.
James Yont, one of the younger artists in the exhibition, has
created a modern style brooch. Made from red, white and orange
plastic and a variety of industrial metals the appearance is
that of a space ship with its modern sleek angles.
Mike Holmes
and Elizabeth Shypertt co-curated New West Coast Design: Jewelry
+ Metalwork. Velvet da Vinci is one part of a Bay Area-wide
exhibition of the New West Coast Design Exhibition.
In total
there are five other museums and galleries:
San Francisco Museum
of Craft + Design
New West Coast Design - Contemporary Objects
Jan. 18 through April 27, 2008
San Francisco Center for the
Book
New West Coast Design - Books
Jan. 25- April 25, 2008,
reception Jan 25, 6-8pm
Bucheon Gallery
New West Coast Design
- Fiber
Jan. 4 - Feb. 9, 2008, reception Jan. 4, 2008 6pm -
8pm
Museum of Craft and Folk Art “C” Change: Craft
in Our Future
Recent Graduates from the California College
of the Arts
Nov. 1, 2007 - Jan. 27, 2008
Artworks Gallery
New
West Coast Design - The State of the Art Quilt
Jan. 10 - Feb.
28, 2008, reception Jan. 24
Since 1991, Velvet da Vinci Gallery
has been a leader in showcasing new developments in contemporary
art jewelry and craft-based sculpture and regularly organizes
exhibitions of contemporary craft. The Gallery represents more
than 75 renowned artists from across the globe and regularly
holds lectures by both local and visiting artists that are
free to the public.
Velvet da Vinci is open Tuesday through
Sat. from 12 pm - 6 pm, Sunday 12 pm - 4 pm.
The Gallery is
closed on Monday.
Craft in America - Expanding Traditions - an eight city museum
touring exhibition opening April 2007
Arkansas Arts Center,
Little Rock, Arkansas April 13 through June 24, 2007
Museum
of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon July 22 through September
23, 2007
Mingei International Museum, San Diego, California
October 20, 2007 through January 27, 2008
Houston Center for
Contemporary Craft, Houston, Texas February 22 through May
4, 2008
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan June
8 through September 14, 2008
National Cowboy & Western
Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma October 11, 2008 through
January 18, 2009
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California
February 18 through May 24, 2009
Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton,
Massachusetts June 27, 2009 through September 27, 2009
Jewelry by Artists: The Daphne Farago Collection
May
22, 2007- March 5, 2008
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA USA
This exhibiton will present highlights from Daphne Farago's collection
of contemporary jewelry, which was given to the MFA in 2006. The
collection comprises more than 600 works of jewelry by leading
American and European artists, ranging in date from about 1940
to the present, in a wide variety of media and sculptural forms.
With this gift, the MFA now holds the most comprhensive collection
of twentieth-century studio jewelry ever assembled. The exhibition
will include a selection of about 150-200 objects, and will provide
a chronological survey of studio jewelry in the 20th century. While
demonstrating the breadth of the collection and the variety of
artists' approaches to jewelry-making, the show will also represent
key artists in depth, including Alexander Calder, Art Smith, Sam
Kramer, Robert Ebendorf, William Harper, Wendy Ramshaw and Mary
Lee Hu.
GOLDEN CLOGS, DUTCH MOUNTAINS: New Jewelry from the Netherlands
Golden Clogs, Dutch Mountains
is an exhibition showing the young generation of Dutch avantgarde
jewelry with strong and innovative work by eleven emerging
artists. It will open at Velvet
Da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco
on March 21 till April 20, 2007. It was curated for them by
Andrea Wagner (studio jeweller in Amsterdam) who further organized
that the exhibition continues to a number of other galleries
in the United States and Canada. Testifying to the exceptional
originality and creative mentality in The Netherlands the charismatic
and compelling work has an unconstrained playfulness and subtle
humor. The innovative use of a wide scope of materials is the
outcome of the arists’ experimental curiosity in their
search for narrative materiality. These intelligently beautiful
jewels project a strong visual language that is based to a
large extent on the power of the emotional value of material
conveying the meaning behind the work. There is an exhibition
catalogue Golden Clogs, Dutch Mountains with 22 color illustrations
exceptionally photographed by Corriette Schoenaerts. A lecture
on the Dutch creative mentality and the historical background
of contemporary jewelry in that country will be given by Andrea
Wagner to accompany the exhibitions.
Further showings planned:
Ornamentum Gallery, Hudson NY 6 July – 6 August 2007
Gallery
Loupe, Montclair, NJ - Fall
2007
Gallery Noel Guyomarc'h,
(514) 840.9362 Montréal (Québec) Canada - 6 March – 13
April 2008
Anna
Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, N.S., Canada September 2008
Listing of previous exhibitions
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International exhibitions listing of contemporary
jewelry, jewellery, joaillerie, bijoux,
bijouterie, schmuck, juwelen,
gioielleria,
smykker,
joyeria,
juveler,
jalokivikorut,
korut, juwelierswerk, juvelerarbejde, klenoty, artists and designers.
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