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Comment by Mike Holmes on October 18, 2012 at 8:41pm

Mirror Mirror: An Exhibition in Homage to Suzy Solidor

Oct 24 through Nov 25, 2012

Curated by Jo Bloxham and Benjamin Lignel

 

Kirsten Haydon, The lure of radium 2012

Neckpiece. Enamel, small glass spheres, photoluminescent pigment, photo transfer, copper, nylon

Susanne Klemm, Anémone 2012

Necklace. Polyolefin

Mike Holmes, Suzy Fetish 2012

Object. Carved basswood, bone, brass, pearls, gesso 

Natalie Luder, Mythe de Nuit 2012

Neckpiece. Amber, Shells, Epoxy, Silver

Iris Eichenberg, Untitled 2012

Object/Mirror. steel, felt , panty hose , silk

all images credit Enrico Bartolucci, Paris

Comment by Mike Holmes on October 18, 2012 at 8:38pm

Arfabet by Hilary Pfeifer

October 24 through November 25, 2012

Artist’s reception Friday, October 26 from 6 to 8 pm

 

Arfabet is an alphabet book for dog lovers and foodies, giving a handmade insight to the 26 letters we all know and love. Like Elephabet, Arfabet will not only be a light-hearted romp through crazy kingdom--it's an opportunity for young and old to learn a few new words, dog breeds, or foods from around the world. The exhibition features all 26 original sculptures.

Comment by Mike Holmes on October 18, 2012 at 7:42pm

Mirror Mirror: An Exhibition in Homage to Suzy Solidor

Oct 24 through Nov 25, 2012

Artist’s reception Friday, Oct 26 from 6 to 8 pm

Exhibition catalog available

Curated by Jo Bloxham and Benjamin Lignel

Mirror Mirror features twenty-nine artists from fourteen countries who have studied and creatively responded to the life of Suzy Solidor. A singer, model, writer and actress, Solidor (1900 – 1983) was an intensely iconic figure of the Parisian night-life during the roaring twenties. A self-avowed sexual predator, she openly dated both, and became somewhat of a de facto advocate of sexual freedom. A sought-after model for painters, sculptors and photographers, she slowly built-up a collection of more than 200 portraits of herself which lined the walls of her clubs. Mirror Mirror is a tribute to her singular life and presents a distorted mirror of those original portraits. This exhibition was first displayed at Espace Solidor in her own village of Cagnes-Sur-Mer France. This is the only US venue.

Liesbet Bussche, Urban Jewellery: Suzy’s Charms 2012

In situ installation of a chain and six charms. Zinc

Constanze Schreiber, Suzy 2012

Neckpiece, Silver

Manon van Kouswijk, Pearls for Girls 2012

Choker. Porcelain, pigment, silk and gold

Peter Hoogeboom, Embrasses 2012

Two arm cuffs made from the opposite halves of mussel shells. Mussels, rayon thread

Seth Papac, Put on the lights 2012

Necklace. Brass

 

Comment by Mike Holmes on August 28, 2012 at 11:55pm

Jorge Castañón

September 5 - October 7 2012

Artist Reception Friday, September 7, 6 - 8 pm

Velvet da Vinci   2015 Polk Street, San Francisco

Velvet da Vinci is proud to present the first US one-person exhibition by Buenos Aires-based jeweler Jorge Castañón. One of the leading contemporary artists in Latin America, Castañón’s current work incorporates found wood and metal to create a poetic visual diary of normally overlooked debris of the city. Jorge Castañón founded his well-known school “La Nave,” 20 years ago and was featured in the Munich Schmuck 2011 Exhibition.

While working on pieces inspired by “Alice in Wonderland,” Castañón explored the emotional impact of endless holes, and hidden places away from the light. He discuses this experience in the ‘realm of doubt’ as the impetuous for his first wood pieces:

 

I wanted to talk about abundance, but suddenly knew that I was actually talking about what is not there, the void, and I found myself again making bowls, hollows filled with nothing or almost nothing.  Since then, I kept on looking for hidden places, old hiding places, crevices, containers of many things and of nothing at the same time, inhabited by silent presences.  Now I invent them, construct them, give them voice.  I rescue objects and materials that were on the way to oblivion and return to communicate a minimal story.

 

Quise hablar de la abundancia, y de pronto supe que en realidad estaba hablando de lo que no hay, del vacío, y volví a encontrarme haciendo cuencos, oquedades llenas de nada o de casi nada. Desde entonces, seguí buscando lugares ocultos, viejos escondites, hendiduras, contenedores de muchas cosas y de nada a la vez, habitados por presencias mudas. Ahora los invento, los construyo, les doy voz. Rescato objetos y materiales que iban camino al olvido y vuelven para comunicar una historia mínima.

 

Necklace: Las Madrigueras II, 2009

Parts of an old Thonet chair and linen.

51 cm x 17 cm x 2.5 cm

Brooch: To Hide in the Forest, 2010

Ebony, palo santo, toronja and wood found in the Amazonian Forest and Sterling Silver.

7.4 cm x 4.2 cm x 2.2 cm

Brooch: To Hide in the Forest, 2010

Ebony, palo santo, toronja and wood found in the Amazonian Forest and Sterling Silver.

7.4 cm x 4.2 cm x 2.2 cm

Comment by Mike Holmes on May 3, 2012 at 4:16pm

Tom Hill: Salt Cellars
May 9 through June 17, 2012
Artist's reception Friday, May 11 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Exhibition catalog available
 
Velvet da Vinci is pleased to present Salt Cellars by British artist Tom Hill. This playful flock of birds is Hill's interpretation of the traditional "salt" common to many British dining tables. The carved and painted wooden birds all open to access a pinch of salt. The bird's head will lift or hinge, and you can pluck the salt spoon incorporated into the bird's plummage and season your food. 
 
As Tom says:  "[their] eyes look up at you from the table , a lively interaction between user and object."
 
Salt and Salt Cellars, a potted history...
 
It is perhaps hard for us to imagine the importance of salt in the past. What seems to us an everyday item was, before modern refrigeration, a vital ingredient in the preservation of food. Roman soldiers were paid in salt ration, hence the words "salary" and "soldier", vegetables were seasoned to improve flavor, giving us "salad" and, perhaps most deliciously of all, pork is combined with salt to create "salami."
 
Salt was a rare and expensive commodity. Salt cellars were lockable to prevent theft and the condiment was presented on ever more elaborate vessels to emphasize the prestige of the grandest tables.
 
Kings and aristocrats commissioned extravagant salt cellars, known as "nefs" or "Great Salts." Notable Salts include the amazing example by Benvenuto Cellini depicting Ceres and Neptune and the Exeter Salt owned by Queen Elizabeth the Second, given to King Charles the Second by the City of Exeter in the hope that he would forgive the city's part in the overthrow and execution of his father (it did the trick). Nefs in the form of golden galleons and silver castles graced the richest tables, creating animated sculptural landscapes to feed both the eye and the stomach.
 
We still throw spilt salt over our shoulder to blind the devil, give salt cellars as good luck housewarming gifts and describe the most trustworthy people as "the salt of the earth."

Tom Hill, Flamingo-ish Bird

Tom Hill, Hinged Black Bird with Pink Interior

 

Tom Hill, White Pigeonish Bird

Tom Hill, Wader

Comment by Mike Holmes on May 3, 2012 at 4:09pm

WOOD

May 9 through June 17, 2012

Artist’s reception Friday, May 11 from 6 to 8 pm
Velvet da Vinci presents WOOD.  Jewelry by Twenty-Six International Artists.

 

Kenta Katakura, Ring

Katy Hackney, Brooch, Diamonds

Lina Peterson, Brooch, Bud

Julia Harrison, Brooch, Blue Belle

Thomas Gentille, Brooch

Daniel DiCaprio, Brooch, Vessel

Gustav Reyes, Bracelet, Organic Coil No. 86

Comment by Mike Holmes on May 3, 2012 at 4:06pm

WOOD

May 9 through June 17, 2012

Artist’s reception Friday, May 11 from 6 to 8 pm

Velvet da Vinci presents WOOD.  Jewelry by Twenty-Six International Artists.

WOOD seeks to explore the exciting new jewelry using wood as the primary material. Carved, polished, inlaid, pegged, painted and charred, WOOD features a variety of wood-working techniques to showcase the versatility of a material not normally considered worthy as jewelry. Ideas of sustainability, preciousness and the sensuality of this humble material are the focus of this new exhibition. The jewelry in the exhibition ranges from the virtuosic geometric work of Thomas Gentille, one of the best known artist jewelers in the world, to detailed hand-carved portraits of people’s eyes by young US based artist Julia Harrison. Bay Area artist Garry Knox Bennett, known as the Furniture World’s bad-boy is showing two large colorful neckpieces. Fliss Quick from the UK tells the story of a fictional teenage firebug with a series of talismans imagined to be found in a box under a bunk bed. A number of the artists speak of a spiritual aspect of using wood as a part of Nature and as a rejection of precious metals (and the environmental cost of their production).  Several of the artists use only reclaimed wood and have created objects of adornment instead of becoming landfill.  Wood carving is well represented in the exhibition with abstract forms from Manuel Vilhena (Portugal), Lina Peterson, (UK), Flóra Vági (Hungary) and Kenta Katakura, (Japan).  Tom Hill (UK/USA) carves haunting bird skulls in bleached and painted basswood. Yugoslav Djurdjica Kesic working in Australia whittles native oak stickpins showing that the simplest of techniques can create poetic and thoughtful jewelry. San Francisco artist Agelio Batle plays with preciousness even more by using particle board and covering it in gold leaf. The 26 artists in WOOD are just a few of the many artists working around the world who feel free from traditional ideas of adornment that dictate that jewelry must be made of gold and gems. They have found beauty in the trunk of a tree.

Participating artists:

Agelio Batle, USA • Garry Knox Bennett, USA • Daniel DiCaprio, USA • Thomas Gentille, USA • Katy Hackney, UK • Julia Harrison, USA • Sachiyo Higaki, Japan • Tom Hill, UK/USA • Leonor Hipólito, Portugal • Deukhee Ka, Korea • Kenta Katakura, Japan • Djurdjica Kesic, Yugoslavia/Australia • Beppe Kessler, Netherlands • Edgar Mosa, USA • Nick Mullins, USA • Jacob Nyberg, Sweden • Gitte Nygaard, Denmark • Lina Peterson, UK • Auba Pont, Spain • Fliss Quick, UK • Gustav Reyes, USA • Catherine Truman, Australia • Julia Turner USA • Flóra Vági, Hungary • Manuel Vilhena, Portugal • Luzia Vogt, Switzerland

Comment by Mike Holmes on January 14, 2012 at 8:15pm

The De Patta Project:

New jewelry from old stones acquired from the estate of Margaret De Patta (1903-1964)

In February, The Oakland Museum of California will open Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta, an exhibition of the jeweler’s pioneering modernist work.  This retrospective will travel to the Museum of Art and Design in New York City in June 2012.
 
Studio jeweler Margaret De Patta blended Constructivist principals with Bauhaus design to create miniature sculpture that moved with its wearer. Based in the Bay Area, De Patta, who studied with Bauahus sculptor Moholy-Nagy in Chicago is credited with starting the American studio jewelry movement on the West Coast. The Oakland Museum holds the largest collection of De Patta’s work, most of which was donated by her husband Eugene Bielawski after the artist’s untimely death in 1964. De Patta and experimental lapidary artist Francis J. Sperisen explored the optical effects of faceting and lenses on gemstones to create wearable sculpture unlike any jewelry of the time.

The De Patta Project was born when Velvet da Vinci purchased a group of unset stones from the estate of Margaret De Patta.  There are beautiful cut stones by Francis J. Sperisen, cabochon stones, and beach pebbles found by De Patta. De Patta’s non-tradtional use of gemstones and non-precious pebbles are the key to understanding the importance of her influence in the field of contemporary jewelry. 15 jewelers have now used these stones to create pieces for an exhibition opening at the same time as the Oakland Museum De Patta retrospective. The De Patta Project exhibition also includes De Patta’s original drawings of unrealized jewelry pieces and tools from her famed workshop. This exhibition will open on February 1, with an artists' reception on Friday, February 3, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Participating artists:

Maja Bennett, Deborah Boskin, Petra Class, Sandra Enterline, Geoffrey Giles, Joanna Gollberg, April Higashi, Tom Hill, Dave Jones, Terri Logan, Deb Lozier, Dawn Nakanishi, Brigid O’Hanrahan, Julia Turner, Andrea Williams

For more information on the exhibition Space-Light-Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta at the Oakland Museum of California, please visit this link:

http://museumca.org/exhibit/space-light-structure-the-jewelry-marga...

David Jones, Ring, 2011

Joanna Gollberg, Necklace, 2011

Deborah Boskin, Brooch, 2011

Petra Class, Brooch, 2011

Comment by Mike Holmes on January 14, 2012 at 8:11pm

Myung Urso: Signature

February 1 through 29, 2012

Artists’ reception Friday, February 3, 6 to 8 p.m.

Korean-born jewelry artist Myung Urso had a degree in biology, received her Master’s degree in fiber arts and then studied jewelry making before finally combining those varied interests into the wearable sculpture on view at San Francisco’s Velvet da Vinci. Assisting her elderly mother with hand sewing and the traditional ways for the preparation of food helped to shape her hand skills. The shaping of rice cake and arranging vegetables for winter storage enhanced her visual aesthetic. She makes silver cages that are enclosed in hand-stitched panels of painted silk. She forms clusters of dyed silk cocoons that reflect on nature without exactly mimicking it. This exhibition will open on February 1 with an artist’s reception on Friday, February 3, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Since I have begun to make jewelry as an art form people frequently ask what are my signature works. Signature defines a creative person’s identity. When originality is applied to art it expresses a personal visual statement.

My jewelry as an art expression transforms itself from my imagination and observations from life. It figuratively shapes itself from either abstraction or illusion through the use of black and white Asian calligraphy and hand stitching applications. Calligraphy in my South Korean culture is considered to be an art form rather than a skill. The brush stroke freely expresses its strength and the water-based ink reveals the depth of contextual images. Sewing is a technique regarded as a common daily life skill for women in the culture.

These two primal ancient fundamental techniques support the basis for my contemporary jewelry.  Each jewelry piece evolves in its own way through a creative process that is balanced between shapes and special influences.  My jewelry forms are often realized in the moment rather than manipulated in a controlled way.  

This organic experience might be referred to as a sign of nature – ‘Signature’.

Comment by Mike Holmes on October 22, 2011 at 5:42pm

AMY TAVERN:

This is How I Remember it

 

November 2 through November 30, 2011

Artist’s reception Friday, November 4 from 6 to 8 p.m.

 

In her first solo exhibition, Amy Tavern will recreate jewelry from her grandmother’s jewelry box, as she remembers it. Using a variety of materials to interpret and remember as many pieces as possible, she will revisit some of the pieces that shaped her personal history and relationship with jewelry. There are two collections within this show: "Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980” and "Collected Memories: 1974 - Present”. This exhibition will be the culmination of Amy Tavern’s three-year residency at Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. This exhibition will open on Wednesday, November 2 with an artist’s reception on Friday, November 4 from 6 to 8 p.m.

 

The jewelry that has come in and out of my life over the years has had a profound effect on me, and ultimately, fueled my desire to be a jeweler. These special pieces changed my perspective on jewelry and form part of my history. In "Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980," I created new works based on recollections of the contents of an old jewelry box and re-imagined through my formal language of shape and line, layering and repetition. In addition, significance lies in how the work exists in reality--arranged in a specific manner and viewed as a group, not just as individual pieces. This aspect stems from how I played with the jewelry box as a child, carefully arranging its contents over and over.

 

In "Collected Memories: 1974-Present," I analyzed the jewelry I own to discover patterns and to gain further insight into my history with jewelry. The completed installation serves as a timeline of my life with jewelry and a vehicle for intertwining events and people. The works are made using materials I have collected and are assembled in such a way as to emphasize the impermanence and incompleteness of memory. "This is How I Remember It" chronicles my history and preserves my memories, as the individual pieces from my past act as primary inspiration.

 

Amy Tavern received a BFA in Metal Design from the University of Washington in 2002. She also holds a BA in Arts Administration from the State University of New York College at Fredonia. Amy has taught at the Penland School of Crafts and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Amy lectured about professional practices at the 2008 Society of North American Goldsmiths conference and has also spoken at the University of North Carolina Asheville, East Carolina University, and the University of Washington. She has exhibited at Sienna Gallery, Quirk Gallery, and Heidi Lowe Gallery, among others. In 2009 Amy received several emerging artist honors including the American Craft Council Searchlight Artist. Amy’s jewelry has been published in numerous books such as New Rings (Promopress) and was most recently featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine’s 2011 Exhibition in Print. Amy’s work can be found in

galleries around the U.S. and abroad. Originally from Upstate, NY, Amy has currently finished her three-year artist’s residency at the Penland School of Crafts. 

 

Brooch, Brooch with Teardrop, 2011

From the collection Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980

Sterling silver, spray paint

Brooch, Maple Leaf Brooch, 2011

From the collection Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980

Sterling silver, 18k vermeil

 

Necklace, Cleopatra Necklace, 2011

From the collection Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980

Sterling silver, spray paint

 

Brooch, Bow Sweater Holder, 2011

From the collection Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980

Sterling silver, 18k vermeil

 

Brooches, Crystal Brooches, 2011

From the collection Fabricated Memory: Jewelry Box, 1980

Sterling silver, spray paint

 

Brooch, Brooch 5, 2011

From the collection Collected Memories: 1974 - Present

Mixed media

 

Brooch, Brooch 6, 2011

From the collection Collected Memories: 1974 - Present

Mixed media

 

Necklace, Necklace 7, 2011

From the collection Collected Memories: 1974 - Present

Mixed media

 

 

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