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PHILADELPHIA
MUSEUM OF ART CRAFT SHOW 2006. Vladimir Péter
Elevating
Everyday Life. Diane Harty
Hats for Literal and Metaphorical
Travels. Ron Ho Sought and Found. Peter Schilling
A Passion for Jade.
Steven Ford and David Forlano
The Delicate Aesthetic Balance of Equivalent Terms. Suzanne
Perilman Distilling Mystery.
An
Ornamental Heritage Ethnic Egyptian Silver Jewelry. Museum
News The Millicent Rodgers Collection. Venue
SOFA Chicago 2006. Collaboration William and Marianne
Hunter. Ancient Sites Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot.
Exhibition Symbols of Identity, Jewelry of Five Continents.
Exhibition Kiff Slemmons, Re:Pair & Imperfections.
Bead Arts Sharif Bey. Fiber Arts
Ildikó Dobesová. Marketplace Abeada.
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Philadelphia
Museum of Art
Craft Show 2006 |
by
Carl Little |
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PHILADELPHIA
MUSEUM OF ART CRAFT SHOW 2006
They probably
will not play the theme song from the movie Rocky as one hundred ninety-five
craft artists from across America—and twenty-six from Finland
—bear their creations into the Pennsylvania Convention Center
in Philadelphia, but there should be some kind of fanfare. After all,
2006 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Craft Show, one of the most distinguished in the world—and this
year’s edition looks to be among the most exciting on record.
As they have in the past, the show’s organizers have invited distinguished
figures from the craft field to serve as jury. The roster is impressive:
Jill Heppenheimer, co-owner of the Santa Fe Weaving Gallery and creator
and director of the Design with Heart Fiber Conference project (1996-2006);
Jane Adlin, associate curator in the Department of 19th Century, Modern
and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Jack Larimore,
renowned craftsman in wood and professor at the University of the Arts;
Donna Schneier, owner of Donna Schneier Fine Arts in New York; and Amy
Sarner Williams, executive director of the Clay Studio in Philadelphia.
Show Manager Nancy O’Meara says that this year’s show features
around forty first-time exhibitors. Jewelry and ceramics are the two
largest categories, as far as applicants and number of artists in the
show go. More than fifteen hundred craft artists applied. Images
courtesy of the artists.
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Vladimir
Péter |
by
Jacqueline Ruyak |
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ELEVATING
EVERYDAY LIFE
Wladis Gallery is
on a corner of Falk Miksa Utca, a tree-lined street just off the Danube
River, on the bustling Pest side of Budapest. Wladis is a Germanized
form of Vladi, the nickname of owner Vladimir Péter, whose silver
jewelry is featured at the gallery. A metalsmith and designer, Péter
is the founding spirit of the Hungarian contemporary jewelry movement.
With its solid, rounded shapes and silky, opaque patina, his jewelry
evinces a timeless mastery. Pendants and bracelets may have the classic
beauty of prehistoric finds. Chubby horse and bird figures, charmed
objects for necklaces, turn out to be tiny whistles. Rings may be starkly
simple, crowned with rock crystal, or make dramatic use of coral, horn,
Bakelite, mother-of-pearl, silk, and such. Thoroughly contemporary,
the jewelry yet speaks of ancient ways while inviting the human touch.
Photographs by Gábor Máté.
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Diane
Harty |
by
Glen Brown |
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HATS
FOR LITERAL AND METAPHORICAL TRAVELS
In arguing the case for hats as art it would be an interesting,
though in the end false, observation that long before the first sculpture
of a human head was ever set upon a pedestal, the actual human head
was employed as a site for sculpture. The sequence in this speculation
may well be correct, but the substance is somewhat misleading. Hats,
like masks, nose rings, lip plugs, and earrings can clearly possess
many, perhaps even all, of the formal traits of pedestal sculptures,
but they are ultimately dissimilar precisely because the human head
is not a pedestal. It is not an artificial support that serves to
underscore the separation of sculpture from reality but rather a reality
to which ornaments and apparel are intimately linked for their purpose
and meaning. Hats cease to be hats if this fundamental connection
is broken. Photographs by Todd Powell.
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by
Robin Updike |
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SOUGHT
AND FOUND
For many decades Ho, who turns seventy this month, has been one of the
region’s most respected jewelry artists. His exquisitely designed
neckpieces and pendants are admired for their evocative references to
Asian cultures, especially Chinese culture, and for their sheer beauty.
But since the 2005 death of his mentor and great friend Ramona Solberg,
Ho has also become the Pacific Northwest’s senior master of a
particularly exuberant, boundary-breaking philosophy about jewelry art
that has flourished in the Seattle area under a succession of artists.
The artistic torch was lit by the legendary Ruth Pennington, who taught
metal arts at the University of Washington for forty years. Pennington
passed her knowledge and passion on to a generation that included Solberg.
Solberg’s spirited, culturally inclusive point of view then influenced
a new generation of younger artists. One of them was Ho.
Photographs from Collection of Tacoma Art Museum (left)
and from Collection of Dorene Tully (right).
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Peter
Schilling
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by
Elizabeth Frankl |
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A
PASSION FOR JADE
Hold
one of Peter Schilling’s handcarved jade pendants and you feel
the thrill of happening upon something wild and precious and timeless—a
perfect shell on the beach, an arrowhead in the dirt, a fossil embedded
in stone. Immediately, you are connected to that age-old desire to keep
and display that treasure. Solid and silky smooth, with spirals and
notches and softly rounded edges, the pendants are impossible not to
play with. But it is the jade itself, luminous and with exquisite color
variations, that intoxicates. Photographs by Peter Schilling.
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Steven
Ford and David Forlano |
by
Glen Brown |
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THE
DELICATE AESTHETIC BALANCE OF EQUIVALENT TERMS
Artistic collaboration is a relatively unique process. Most forms of
cooperative production tend to be geared toward obvious practical ends,
as, for example, when tasks are distributed to increase productivity,
resources are consolidated to enhance operations, or specialists from
different disciplines team up to solve multifaceted problems. Collaboration
in art may sometimes be undertaken for just such pragmatic purposes,
but it is generally driven by other motives as well. After all, art
is often anything but pragmatic. In art, tendentious uselessness is
commonplace precisely because it is so uncommon in other kinds of production.
Whether or not art closely mirrors life, it must certainly depart from
life in some appreciable respects if it is to remain distinguishable
as art. Impracticality can therefore play a part in art’s self-preservation,
and, accordingly, since the late nineteenth century the artist’s
key prerogative has been to work in the absence of any definite goal
simply to discover what might arise as a result. Photographs by Robert
K. Liu/Ornament (left) and by Robert Diamante (right).
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Suzanne
Perilman |
by
Leslie Clark |
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DISTILLING
MYSTERY
Slip
into one of Suzanne Perilman’s one-of-a-kind silk wraps, tunics,
kimono, reversible jackets, or scarves and be softly enveloped in an
opaque aura of ineffable, swanky style. The luscious fabrics, cool-hued
colors and rich harmonies of surface design on her artwear conspire
to project a sang froid that insinuates intrigue and allure. “I
love mystery,” says the textile artist and fashion designer, who
also goes professionally by the name Suzanne Silk. “I like to
distill a sense of mystery through layering images and pieces of fabric
in different combinations. It’s a process of actually listening
and seeing your mind at work—a color here, another color there.
I like the idea of not knowing what will emerge. My work lets your eyes
rest on it and look at it clearly; otherwise everything’s overwhelming.”
Photographs by Paul Glickman at the Santa Fe Art Institute in New
Mexico.
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An
Ornamental Heritage |
by
Jolanda Bos and
Sigrid van Roode |
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ETHNIC EGYPTIAN SILVER JEWELRY
The study of Islamic jewelry has mostly addressed shape and
decoration, sometimes technique, with the value of these objects as
cultural heritage rarely established. The Arab saying El hadayad lil
wa’t el shadayad (bracelets are there for difficult times) best
fits the purpose of silver jewelry in nomadic societies. Jewelry was
acquired as mahr, a woman’s dowry or bridewealth. The jewelry
was not heirloomed but given to each woman anew. Bracelets were bought
in times of prosperity and sold in times of despair, whenever and wherever
the women who owned them wanted to do so. Thus they provided insurance
that the women could draw from in difficult times. After a woman’s
death, her jewelry was sold and cast into new objects. A silversmith
often bought back his own pieces. In this manner, the silver was melted
again and again and continued in use through time and space as nomads
crossed borders and lands. Photographs by J.E.M.F. Bos (left) and
by B.J. Seldenthuis (right).
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