Hey Beautiful People! Wanted to share some great shows I saw yesterday at the Museum of Contemporary Craft with you, dear readers! I met up with a Portland artist whose work I have loved for many years, Ellen George. We connected when she ordered some of my lovebugs in my little online sale last month, and decided to meet in person. I always love meeting the people behind the work, but Ellen was a great companion at the Museum that day. (Look for Ellen George's work in two Portland venues this year: a solo show at PDX Gallery in October, and a permanent installation in the lobby at the new hotel coming in atop the old Meier & Frank building downtown.) I stopped into the museum and whisked around briefly a few weeks ago, but immediately decided that these shows would be much more fun with company. So return I did, and here's the tale I have to tell:
On the ground level, the show is "Framing / The Art of Jewelry" which was an exhibition of last fall's Exhibition in Print--Metalsmith Magazine's annual issue. This time it was curated by Ellen Lupton, who will be speaking at the Museum on Thursday, March 20. All of the work in this show explored the theme of "framing" in contemporary jewelery. This notion includes framing on the piece itself, on the body, and in an architectural space. You can read Lupton's essay by clicking here.
The showstoppers for me were definitely these very small works by Melanie Bilenker. Aside from the precious metals that frame the pieces, she uses piano ivory, epoxy resin, and her own hair to create these subtle and intimate portraits. A depth of field is created with layers of the epoxy that made me feel that the scale is absolutely perfect for this unusual combination of materials and technique. Bilenker has a very nice website you can see by clicking here, where there is a lot more of her work.
I was also happy to be introduced to the work of Deganit Stern Schocken, who found a way to bring the mold making process to a new level. What would normally be considered a mistake has become beautiful, as her slightly separated halves of the mold allow the silver to flow outside the confines of the original object. I really appreciated the way the molds were displayed along with some of the finished pieces. This show will be on display through May 11, 2008. If you're a metalsmith who lives in the area, don't miss it!
Upstairs is a show I've been looking forward to for many many months, "Touching Warms the Art," which is a play on the signage seen around many museums that says "Touching Harms the Art." Local metalsmith Rebecca Scheer published a smart article some years back that questioned the notion that the full experience of art jewelery has become for the elite few who are either the makers themselves or the portion of the public who can afford this top tier of contemporary metalsmithing. In a museum setting, jewelery is displayed, but kept from public access by vitrines. This article inspired MCC's curator Namita Wiggers, and the two collaborated to bring this article into an actual exhibition. This show is a perfect companion to downstairs' real life version of Exhibition in Print!
Artists were asked to not only submit durable works of art to this show that were able to withstand public handling, but their pieces are also donated to the museum to become a collection of accessible work. You enter the room and there are four tables filles with rings, bracelets, and other wearable objects. More work, neckpieces, hang on areas of the wall. There are mirrors all around and a photo station where you can complete the process so common with art jewelery: take a picture. The image above is of me wearing the "Bunny Ring" by Allyson Bone. They have posted images of people wearing the work on a Flickr site that I grabed for this blog entry, but you can see more by clicking here! It's a great interactive component to this show and makes me really sad I missed the opening. 
We had a great time trying things on and figuring out how they were made. Here are the pieces we loved the best (besides that bunny ring!) Ellen donned this stunning bracelet made by Gail Ralston. It's made from rubber, monofilament, pearls and magnets. It's a lot like an elaborate wrist corsage and the monofilament cascades down to make quite a statment for a bracelet. 
I don't have a suitable image of these fantastic silicone bubbles by Courtney Starrett, but you can see a tiny picture by downloading the excellent directory for this show by clicking here. All of the artists' photos are on this lovely show guide, as well as essays by both of the show's curators. The bubbles are brooches that stick on the skin like little suction cups. (They made me think of Doc Edgerton's splooshing milk photographs he took with the strobe so many years ago, so I included that image here.) Other incredible things I couldn't get images for were Maria Ochoa's stunning necklace made with balloons filled with flour, Lisa Medlen's "Marshmallow Rings," which were uncast ring waxes covered with plastic, and Julia Barello's beautiful floral necklace made from x-ray film. Another piece that didn't even make the teeny tiny image checklist but will always stay in my mind is Lindsay Huff's "My Secret Life as a Robot Superhero," a shoulder ornament made from discarded styrofoam--the really dense kind that protects the corners of electronics when they're being shipped.
If you haven't figured it out yet, these rings by Georgia artist Julie Lake were my personal favorites. Made with simple steel binding wire and spray foam insulation, they didn't show any wear and tear whatsoever. I was looking for images of this work to use and found her blog where she talks about making this work, as well as other jewelery. I couldn't decide which image to use, so I'll leave you with a few. 
ps. "Touching Warms the Art" will be at the museum until March 23.
