SMALL WORKS – ON THE MEZZANINE
OCTOBER 3, 2019 – FEBRUARY 1, 2020

Delve into a curated collection of small works that reveal extraordinary craftsmanship and unique design.  In our first exhibition of this kind, we are excited to welcome North and South Carolina based artist-designers Joanna Gollberg, Lauren Markley and Alfred Ward.  Trained in metalworking and design, the jewelry artists in this mezzanine exhibition specialize in creating one-of-a-kind pieces and designer art jewelry.  Accompanying the hand-crafted jewelry will be new small works in a series entitled “Cakes and Camisoles” by Caroline Rust.  Rust’s mixed media pieces accent remembrances and fantasies of travels and clothes, and allegorically activate pastries, sweets, and camisoles that reveal a sense of play, joy, and the feminine.

Also on the mezzanine: new works by Nico Amortegui, Mary Erickson and William A. Noguera.

Joanna Gollberg, Lauren Markley, Caroline Rust, Alfred Ward

 

Itinerary of Events

Demystifying designer jewelry with Joanna Gollberg & Lauren Markley
Saturday, November 16, 2019 11a – 12:30p
RSVP to ashley@eldergalleryclt.com.

Coffee, conversation and creativity with Caroline Rust & Alfred Ward
Saturday, December 14, 2019 11a – 12:30p
RSVP to ashley@eldergalleryclt.com.

Exhibition Artists

Joanna Gollberg is a nationally celebrated jewelry designer, well-known author and noted jewelry making instructor. Gollberg earned her degree in jewelry design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, has written four books on making handcrafted jewelry–Making Metal Jewelry, Creative Metal Crafts, The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry, and creates regularly through Joanna Gollberg Jewelry. Her jewelry has been published in Art Jewelry Magazine, Lapidary Journal, Ornament Magazine, 1000 Rings, 500 Wedding Rings, 500 Enameled Objects, and 21st Century Jewelry, among many other titles.

Lauren Markley combines traditional metalsmithing skills with alternative techniques such as stitching through metal. Her work explores themes of architecture and history through a visual vocabulary that includes structural shapes and textures evocative of unfinished states and states of decay. Markley’s work is fabricated primarily of sterling silver, brass, and reclaimed wood. She often uses textiles, paint, patinas, and gold leaf to create focal points. Markley studied metalsmithing at Studio Jewelers LTD in New York and has taken courses at Penland School of Crafts, Pullen Arts Center, and Pocosin Arts.

Caroline Rust explores aspects of the feminine, one’s relationship to her body, and objects of femininity. Inspired by historic research, fashion, and sociology her work provides a means to develop dialogue regarding sense of self, identity, and physical appearance. Her works in this exhibition challenges assumptions of femininity and gender roles: she expressionistically paints imagery charged with color atop low relief surfaces of up-cycled garments and undergarments carefully selected from her wardrobe and vintage collections. The clothes are turned inside out revealing facets of the hidden-self and are used to explore personal and emotional aspects of fashion. Rust’s work emerges as a fresh method to creating canvas and visually illuminating vulnerability.

Alfred Ward NDD, ATD, FTC ( London ) is an internationally known designer who studied silversmithing & jewelry at Canterbury College of Art and completed his graduate degree in Industrial Product Design and Ceramics at Birmingham University, College of Art. After teaching at the University of London he became Head of Silversmithing, Jewelry, and Allied Crafts at the Sir John Cass College of Art in London. Ward served as consultant designer for Spink & Sons in London (by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen ) where he designed and produced presentation pieces for Revlon of Paris, Harvey Nichols, Margo Fonteyn, and Royal family of the United Arab Emirates. Ward’s work is included in several books including “Contemporary Silver ( Rabinovitch ) which illustrates his work that now held in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1984 Ward became Director of the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Tennessee. During his tenure at Winthrop University Ward designed presentation pieces for Andie McDowell and brooch pins for the Ten First ladies of South Carolina.