Opening In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Saturday, September 21 from 7-9PM.

On View September 21 - November 10, 11AM-6PM.

We are also hosting an Artist Talk with Myra Mimlitsch-Gray on October 26, from 2-3pm in the Gallery.

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray explores facture, conceptualizing material conditions to construct fictions. The technical methods are both deliberate and open-ended, resulting in a range of outcomes that share certain through-lines. Tension builds between familiar surface and unconventional form. The organic process is tempered by an analytical slice.

Conduit presents interconnections across several series of works and  the ideas conveyed by their juxtaposition. 

Myra Mimlitsch-Gray (b. 1962) explores craft as subject and object, engaging the field’s history and methods to interpret utility and form. Her studio practice is at times speculative, theoretical, and in conversation with pedagogical concerns. She conceptualizes material conditions to construct fictions and portraits. Facture is explored as an idea and then constructed as an image; this research is reflected in the objects she generates.

Mimlitsch-Gray received her MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art. An American Craft Council Fellow, Mimlitsch-Gray was recently named Master of the Medium by the James Renwick Alliance. As professor she received two Chancellor’s Awards from the State University of New York: Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, and Excellence in Teaching. She has been awarded individual artist fellowships by the United States Artists Foundation, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Mimlitsch-Gray’s work is widely exhibited and included in public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museums of Scotland, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She maintains a studio in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Images courtesy of the artist: www.mimlitschgray.com

Opening In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Friday, July 12, from 7-9PM.

On View July 12 - August 25 11AM-6PM.

We are also hosting an Artist Talk with Sulo Bee on August 24, 2-3:30pm in the Gallery.

The otherness, the ethereal, and the shadows converge in a single moment to create a liminal space of gathered memories. Parts and pieces of pastel dreams, soft star dust, and flowers blooming on trellises— spectral echoes in an in-between place. 

Here, these elements intersect with the planes of reality, creating makeshift gardens where semi-corporeal creatures serve as artifacts of their melding — collecting stones and elemental spirits to manifest a physical body in an alternate realm called $P4RKL3_FiLTH_CL0UD_NiN3. 

Between destinations and uncertainties lies a mezzanine, a place that exists in transition, between what was and what will be, on the precipice of what has yet to become tangible— makeshift gardens not meant for staying, but merely passing through.

“For this specific exhibition, I am thinking about the moving targets of my identity and the intersecting planes of reality they exist within, specifically liminal spaces as moments of extreme transition — and how these ‘Makeshift Gardens’ act as a space of solace and comfort —- a combination of the uncertainties that surround moments of transition and illuminate the dark like bright starlight . These makeshift gardens act as a buffer between myself and society, an in-between place meant for passing or transitioning.” - Sulo Bee

Sulo Bee is a nonbinary creature maker and world builder based in Central Texas. They hold a BFA in Metals and Jewelry from Texas State University in 2018 and an MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2022. Sulo has exhibited their work nationally and internationally with various galleries in the United States, Europe, and Australia. They are a co-founder of Queer Metalsmiths where they seek to uplift queer voices in the field of metalsmithing and craft. Sulo was named one of ten artists in the nation for the 2022 Emerging Artist Cohort with American Craft Council and later received the esteemed Marzee Graduate Prize at the International Graduate Show with Galerie Marzee. Throughout 2023, Sulo was a participant in the GEMz talent programme with Current Obsession Magazine and developed a body of work for exhibition at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, Netherlands for the OBSESSED! Jewellery Festival on display through January 2024. Recently, they were commissioned to create a piece for the Museum of Art and Design. The acquisitioned work debuted at the Museum of Art and Design in April 2024 for the “OUT of the Jewelry Box” exhibition.

Sulo is currently a Lecturer in Metals and Foundations at the School of Art and Design at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas.

Opening In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Friday, May 17, from 7-9PM.

On View May 17 - June 30, 11AM-6PM

An extension of the hand, likened to a cupped palm, the spoon can be both simple and complex. This necessary object has developed over time to become ubiquitous, at moments prized, and even precious. 

Narratives, histories, and artists shape spoons, allowing them to evolve with each generation. Positioned at an intersection between familiar and strange, the works on view in Spoons encapsulate a diverse array of materials and processes. Functional or impractical, each piece serves as a testament to the distinct stories and creative perspectives brought forth by the participating artists, celebrating the enduring versatility and cultural resonance of the spoon. 

Featured artists include Adam John Manley, Addison de Lisle, Anna Koplik, Annie Meyer, Brian Weissman, Corey Ackelmire, David Harper Clemons, Elliot Earl Keeley, Emily Chen, Erica Moody, Erin S. Daily, Foley, Funlola Coker, Haley Bates, Hilla Shapria, Jenny Ibsen, Jessica Andersen, Jody Hanson, Naama Levit, Rachel Kedinger, and Suzanne Pugh.

This exhibition was curated by Brooklyn Metal Works Co-Founders, Erin S. Daily & Brian Weissman in collaboration with Naama Levit.

Opening In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Saturday, March 16, from 7-9PM.

On View March 16 - April 20th, 11AM-6PM.

We are also hosting an Artist Talk with Emily Culver on on April 20, 2-4pm in the Gallery.

Shop the exhibition here: Preludes

PRELUDES speculates on a multitude of possibilities by cataloging catalysts that hover on the cusp of becoming. The amalgamation of machinery and organic anatomy in these hybrid creations question whether transitions from the mechanical to the natural induce an elevated state of vulnerability and failure. Considering these Pinocchio-esque aspirations, Culver’s works contemplate the implications of (d)evolution and what it can mean to undergo such transformative processes.

Existing primarily as sculpture, objects and jewelry, Culver’s work explores notions of intimacy, (non)functionality, gender and identity through corporeal qualities. Through these works she considers how interactions among objects are interpreted, translated, and mutated by negotiations with the body and anthropocentric tendencies. Culver actively exhibits her creative work nationally and internationally and is the recipient of various awards and residencies, including a 2017 Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship and a 2022 residency at the James Castle House. She holds an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is an Assistant Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.

Images courtesy of the artist: www.emily-culver.com

Opening In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Dec 1, 6-8PM, with the lighting of the works happening at 6:30pm.

On View Dec 1 - Feb 11, 11AM-6PM.

Coinciding with the darkest time of the year when people gather together to warm by a fire, light candles with reverence, gaze at celestial bodies, and add magic to the evenings with soft twinkling bulbs. Lux is an invitation to find illumination during the wintertime. This exhibition will showcase new objects made by artists that bring and house light.   

Featured artists include: Amelia Toelke, Amy Lemaire, Angela Dai, Beca Acosta, Brian Weissman, Hilla Shapira, Ho'o Hee, Jo-Ann Arosemena, Madelaine Corbin, Mia Hebib, Moein Shashaei, Naama Levitt, Odette Channell, Rocío Inès Marsyas, Samuel Guillen, Shuoyuan Bai, Suna Bonometti, Suzanne Sullivan, Tamar Mogendorff, and Zahra Almajidi.

This exhibition was curated by Naama Levit, Erin S. Daily and Brian Weissman.

Opening In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on Sept 9th, 7-9PM.

On View Sept 9 - Nov 4, 11AM-6PM.

We are also hosting an Artist Talk with Funlola Coker on November 4th, 3-4PM in the Gallery.

I am interested in what brings people together. Objects, offerings and acts of care towards one another. This shows up in my relationships with family - traditional and chosen. I examine how these gestures and phenomena live within our consciousness.

These sculptures are imbued with meaning through the history of their materials and representation of objects. Their careful arrangement alludes to a place just visited or forgotten, relics of lived experience and shared memories. Inspiration of form comes from sculptural braiding styles in Nigeria that I observed as a child, as well as calabashes and objects in my home.

My material choices are specific. Mounds are constructed from materials typically found in scene building. They allude to the dream-like quality of memories, and the half-remembered facsimile of what was once tangible. Alabaster - light and glowing, it grounds my objects, it is heavy, yet soft to the touch and delicate if scratched. Pewter can appear slippery, soft, and retains its liquid-like qualities when poured without too much restriction. The imperfect pours and fluidity glisten like half-remembered thoughts.

Through this body of work, curious objects are more than they appear to be. I am building a connection to home with tools of navigation. They are maps, memories, and relics from the slippery spaces and the mundane.

- Funlola Coker

Funlola Coker is a metalsmith from Lagos, Nigeria.

In 2007 Coker moved to Memphis, TN to pursue a BFA in Sculpture from Memphis College of Art. Funlola is fascinated by history, the evolution of culture and storytelling. Funlola creates narrative sculptures that call on nostalgic memories and moments of the mundane that are held dear. Coker has taught at notable craft institutions such as Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Funlola’s work has been exhibited at Brooklyn Metal Works, the Fuller Craft Museum, Tone Gallery in Memphis and the National Ornamental Metal Museum. In 2020, Coker received the Arts Memphis Arts Accelerator grant, and was a 2022 Thayer Fellowship recipient from the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government. Funlola holds an MFA in Metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

A Fracturing Practice | Patricia Domingues

Read the AJF Interview featuring the exhibition with Patricia Domingues here: Lines and Fractures

Shop the exhibition here: A Fracturing Practice

Brooklyn Metal Works has the pleasure to invite you to visit the first solo exhibition of the jewellery artist Patricia Domingues in the United States.

Through my artistic practice I have been exploring fracturing movements in both artificial and natural materials. What specifically intrigues me is the tension between intentional acts, such as cutting into the material, and uncontrolled accidents, such as fractures. Through the will to control, the fractures develop and are liberated as the material inevitably cracks in release. The lines, fractures and cuts visible in my work are always the result of repetitive gestures performed on the material and its responsive language. They evoke a sort of geological archive, based on a succession of bodily actions or events. This perspective, that craft interplays with the wilderness found in materials, clashes with classic notions which consider it to be the exercise of masterly control over materials and techniques. Whilst the cut is a premeditated decision, the fracture is partially out of my control since I can never entirely control its shape and intensity within the material. From this non-anthropocentric view, skill is being reinterpreted as a way to relate to materials and landscapes. As I metabolise the crack in my practice, I sporadically feel in tune with it. Whilst creating stages for materials to perform on, establishing a relationship of authorship, I look at myself as an intermediator, as someone who initiates actions that end up having a will of their own.

Patricia Domingues gained a Master of Arts from the University of Trier, Department of Gemstone and Jewellery Design in Idar-Oberstein, Germany in 2013 and a PhD in Visual Arts from the University of Hasselt & PXL-MAD School of Arts in 2022. Since 2009 she has participated in group and solo exhibitions across Europe and further afield. 

Her work has received numerous prizes: New Traditional Jewellery in Amsterdam (2012), Talente Award in Munich (2014), Mari Funaki Award for Emerging Artist in Australia (2014) and the Young Talent Prize of the European World Crafts Council in Belgium (2015).

Currently, Domingues is a research fellow at Jewellery-Linking Bodies Department, Gerrit Rieteveld Academie where she investigates how artificial intelligence, metaverse worlds and digital structures frame the way humans think while drastically reshaping the way landscapes are handled. The main focus of her research involves exploring the way technology lives through extractivism, dependent on mineral and geological sources.

We are also hosting an Artist Talk with Patricia Domingues July 16, 2-3PM in the Gallery.

Additionally we are offering an Artist Workshop: Meeting Speculative Nature(s) with Patricia Domingues and Edu Tarín July 17 & 18, 10AM - 5PM 

Artist Website: patriciadomingues.pt

Please visit the links below to shop these amazing ceramic pieces!

Join us in the Gallery and in the Garden for a ceramic show featuring:

Suzanne Sullivan

Melissa Weiss

Maggie Boyd

Opening May 12th 7pm

The Show is Open during our business hours until June 30th 2023.

In the Gallery and in the Garden

Anonymous Brooklyn is for everyone.

Anonymous Brooklyn is an installation built one person at a time. Over the course of New York City Jewelry Week all artists are invited to bring a piece of jewelry for display In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works. All the work will be placed on one wall, and each artist will have only small nails to hang their piece. (We will have a hammer of course!) This is an accumulation, an accretion. Whoever hangs the first piece gets the first pick of placement and from there it grows. It might grow over, it might grow under. No artist will harm the work of another, but elbows will rub, hair may fall in your eyes, and proximity will certainly alter perception.

This call for entries in ongoing throughout the installation period. We will accept works until the installation closes on Nov. 19 at 5pm.

Drop off and installation:
November 14 – 18, 11am – 6pm
November 19, 11am – 5pm

Opening November 19, 6 – 9pm

De-installation:
November 20, 11am – 6pm
November 21, 11am – 6pm

In the Gallery @ Brooklyn Metal Works
640 Dean Street Floor 2
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Bring us your jewelry. One person, one piece. Check our open hours to bring and install the work. Your work will go through a formal documentation process where we photograph the work and receive your information. You will be given a coat check number in exchange for your work. You will participate in an installation performance. You will be photographed installing the piece and all pertinent information about that piece will be offered to the interwebs on all of our available platforms. Participants must be willing to wear a mask while performing these tasks. No name attribution will ever be publicly associated with the works or released by BKMW. If a work sells the name of the artist will be disclosed to the buyer if desired.

To participate in Anonymous Brooklyn, fill out this form before dropping off work.

All you need to do is fill out our intake form and then come by and install your pieces during our open hours. There is no review process to accept works, everyone is invited to submit one piece. Just fill out the form here!

Suzanne Sullivan

While I’m away, please mind my fountain.

Opening Reception September 16, 7-9 pm

Installation on view through October 30

I am a ceramicist based in Philadelphia.

I am preoccupied by what is popularly referred to as the literal – what an object literally is or does or is intended to do. I tend to shy away from metaphors. The pieces in this body of work all have to do with water. They are made to work with water. And in this exhibit, water represents preciousness but then again it doesn’t. Water’s preciousness is not abstract; water is precious, literally. With this in mind – and with water at the center of this project – I wanted to keep things practical. In so doing, I made buckets, goblets, pitchers, spoons, scoops – vessels of all kinds, using clay and glazes and gold. I made a fountain, and I set it in a room that encourages, I hope, the visitor to contemplate perceptions:  

·      What is precious? 

·      What is literal? 

·      What is function? 

·      What is abstract? 

Meanwhile, I would ask the viewer, if they would, to please mind my fountain while I am away. 

-Suzanne Sullivan

An exhibition of jewelry that explores the souvenir and sentimentality, on view at Brooklyn Metal Works, September 16 – November 12, 2021

Opening Reception: September 17, 6-8pm

Gallery Hours: 11am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday, or by appointment: info@bkmetalworks.com

Closing Reception and Artist Talk: November 12, 6-8pm

Workshop (2016–Ongoing) Participatory Community Event: September 18 & October 9, 4-6pm

Throughout history, people’s collecting of objects has served the same sentiment – an inherent and existential need to freeze time and authenticate experience.

However, the significance of the memento is rarely fixed as its meaning changes with the shifting recollection of its possessor. The souvenir’s value lies in sentimentality, not material worth, serving the impulse to recall, capture, and re-live.

In support of Hearts + Flowers, exhibiting artist Brice Garrett will be hosting ‘Workshop (2016–Ongoing)’ a participatory jewelry project made collectively with the public. Through the act of mold making, stamping, and plaster participants are invited to recreate pendants influenced by their own jewelry memories. Over the course of the exhibition, the installation of pendants grows with each participant’s contribution. Please join us.

Hearts + Flowers was recently reviewed by Steven KP for Art Jewelry Forum. Read the review here.

This exhibition was brought to BKMW via our call for Guest Curators by Leslie Shershow and Jessica Andersen.

Leslie and Jessica are both artists and transplants living and working in San Diego, California. They met through the jewelry community, as they found themselves in the same social circles but at different times.

Leslie Shershow grew up in the state of Maine and has lived all over the country; participating in residencies, exhibitions, and working as an educator of art and jewelry. She received her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has since been an active participant in many facets of the jewelry field – contributing to, and working in fine jewelry, production jewelry and contemporary jewelry. Within the past few years, she earned her MFA from San Diego State University, and acted as Visiting Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University. Her work was recently selected for the cancelled Schmuck 2021 Exhibition.

Jessica Andersen was born in the small farming community of Audubon, Iowa. She received a B.F.A. in Jewelry & Metal Arts in 2009 from the University of Iowa. In 2011, Jessica began graduate school at San Diego State University where she received her M.F.A. in Jewelry and Metalwork. Jessica has completed residencies at Craft Alliance in St. Louis, MO and at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft where she had time to experiment and develop her work as a studio artist.

This event requires proof of vaccination be shown, and masks are required at all indoor events, in accordance with NY State and City, as well as CDC guidelines for COVID Safety.

Vaccinations and ID will be checked at the door for this event, and masks are required.

Please join us for Site Non - Specific, a special event this July by Artist in Residence Naama Levit. The exhibition will take place On the Rooftop at BKMW July 10 & 11 and 17 & 18. The opening reception is July 10 from 6 – 9pm in conjunction with a performance of the works from 7-8pm. This performance is an ongoing activation of works by both Naama Levit and Hilla Shapira, and performed by Æirrinn Ricks.

An artist talk will be In the Gallery at BKMW on July 18 at 2pm. This lecture will also be aired via Zoom and registration is required. Masks are required for all in-person events.

“Site-non-specific is an installation, a performance, and wearable objects. 

This installation displays an arrangement of objects and shapes, mostly ones of the domestic environment, and free standing forms that were collected in the streets of New York. They are coated in a layer of beige/off-white gypsum and composed together to create an environment, a site within a site. It stands on a platform on the rooftop of BKMW studio, surrounded by vents, boilers, electricity cords and the building’s sides. 

The performance is an ongoing repetitive spectacle of movement and interactions around the installation as the performer activates the objects and materials. 

The installation suggests a liminal existence, a non specification of moments and objects. Fluidity of forms and functions, shapes that imply a utilitarian purpose to suggest occurrences or a ritual. Through displacement of materials and reconstruction of functional objects the aim is to question the common design order and the specification of things. Bodies and objects are in a constant mode of change. They are defined according to the context, environment, and the subjects around them. The ongoing performance suggests endless options of relationships with objects which invite the viewer to experience the non specification of the specific.

This project was made during the Designers in Residence 2021 at EMMA Kreativzentrum Pforzheim, Germany and in collaboration with Brooklyn Metal Works, Brooklyn, NY. The work is presented at 3 sites simultaneously- Pforzheim, Brooklyn, and in the virtual space.”

-Naama Levit & Hilla Shapira 2021

This past year Naama Levit was selected as an EMMA Designer in Residency, an international scholarship program for young fashion, accessory, industrial, and jewelry designers at EMMA Kreativzentrum Pforzheim, Germany. Due to Covid restrictions Naama was unable to travel to Germany for the spring residency and came to Brooklyn Metal Works to work “remotely” instead. We at BKMW have been very fortunate to have this time to get to know Naama’s practice and create space for this important project. We are also grateful for the opportunity to build relationships with EMMA. These are the types of exchanges that BKMW values and cultivates, and it is meaningful that even during very hard times we can always find ways to support one another.

Meet the 2021 Designers in Residence here.

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition at EMMA here.

This summer Brooklyn Metal Works is pleased to open Bloom, an exhibition by Commence Jewelry in support of recent Jewelry and Metals graduation work from programs across the country. Bloom features jewelry and objects made by 22 artists, all of whom were part of the 2020 Graduate Showcase, exhibited virtually during NYC Jewelry Week this past November.

With the ability to finally gather in person again, we could not think of a better moment to bring this cohort to light In the Gallery at BKMW. We appreciate the work Commence Jewelry is putting into supporting recent work by new graduates. Given the hardships of this past year for in-person learning, and with many students unable to have in-person graduation shows, providing a space to bring all of these new voices together is a true compliment to our programming.

Bloom is now on view In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works.

Please join us on July 10 from 6 – 9 pm for an opening reception. This reception will coincide with the opening and performance of works by Naama Levit, Site – Non Specific.

Bloom will be on view through August 30.

Masks are required for entry.

Commence Jewelry is an educational initiative that serves to support and amplify recent graduate work through professional opportunities, virtual programming, inclusion in an annual Yearbook, and participation in a Graduate Showcase during New York City Jewelry Week.

The Artist Talk Was held on September 10th, 2020 at 6pm via Zoom. Watch it here.

“A witness from inside, I tell a lost truth. Cradling stolen moments of breath and bearing the weight of memory, The Figure of the Falling exhibits works that refer to the center: the core, the spine, the gut, and the heart. Metal objects and necklaces point to sites on the body to interpret the impossibilities of telling. Like the armor they have become, these works serve as protection and give testimony to the privacy of night. The heartbeats of these memories are transferred into the stillness of the work, and here I learn to breathe again.”

-Betsy Lewis

Betsy Lewis investigates acts of offering by accumulating signifiers that allude to grief and hope; working together to realize a new form of telling the truth through our bodies. Making objects whose meaning is derived from the weight of memories and the methods we use to instill objects with meaning Lewis tends to use traditional silversmith techniques such as hollow forming, forging, and fabrication. Doing so establishes historical tension by asserting these methods’ value in a contemporary studio context.

Contributing actively to the field Betsy Lewis has held assistantship and teaching positions at Maine College of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Brooklyn Metalworks, and SUNY New Paltz, the latter of which she received her Master in Fine Art. Lewis currently lives and works in New York City.

One and the Other: Two of a Kind | Katja Prins

At the core of my work lies a personal fascination for the inter-relationship (and interdependecy even) between our fragile human bodies and our (technical) surroundings. By reading and researching my topics of interest, I have become aware that technology has always been our way to survive in this world and in order to survive we have been adapting our environment to our needs and by now we are adapting and enhancing our bodies and even merging it with our technologies. Will this bring us a utopia or a dystopia? It's the ambivalence, the contradictions, the thin line between good and bad, improvement and danger, the uncanny valley of familiar and unknown, what always intrigued me and what I've been trying to express in my jewellery.

-Katja Prins

Anonymous Brooklyn

Anonymous Brooklyn is an installation built one person at a time. Over the course of New York City Jewelry Week all artists are invited to bring a piece of jewelry for display In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works. All the work will be placed on one wall, and each artist will have only small nails to hang their piece. (We will have a hammer of course!) This is an accumulation, an accretion. Whoever hangs the first piece gets the first pick of placement and from there it grows. It might grow over, it might grow under. No artist will harm the work of another, but elbows will rub, hair may fall in your eyes, and proximity will certainly alter perception. 

This call for entries in ongoing throughout the installation period. We will accept works until the installation closes on Nov. 23 at 3pm. 

Drop off and installation:  
November 18 – 22, 11 am – 6 pm
November 23, 11 am – 3 pm 

Opening November 23, 6 – 8 pm

De-installation:
November 24 11 am – 1 pm & 5 – 7 pm
November 25 11 am – 7 pm

In the Gallery @ Brooklyn Metal Works
640 Dean Street Floor 2
Brooklyn, NY 11238 

Bring us your jewelry. One person, one piece. Check our open hours to bring and install the work. Your work will go through a formal documentation process where we photograph the work and receive your information. You will be given a coat check number in exchange for your work. You will participate in an installation performance. You will be photographed installing the piece and all pertinent information about that piece will be offered to the interwebs on all of our available platforms. Participants must be willing to wear a mask while performing these tasks. No name attribution will ever be publicly associated with the works or released by BKMW. If a work sells the name of the artist will be disclosed to the buyer if desired.

> | Jess Tolbert

Artist Talk September 7, 5PM
Opening reception September 7, 7-9PM
Please join us for a back-to-back artist talk and opening reception on Saturday, September 7.

A humble staple is often overlooked, simply used to bind a few pages together, or to post a flyer to a lamppost; its purpose does not often extend beyond what it was intended for. I am drawn to its recognizable form and to the rhythm of its use. Through repetitive actions of layering, patterning, and systemically constructing, I replicate the pace of mass production, but not its protocols. With infinite possibilities, I reflect upon the unknown makers and their process to create a product that is now my raw material, capturing labor in the form of jewelry.

Jess Tolbert

Jess Tolbert lives in El Paso, Texas where she is Assistant Professor of Art and Head of the Jewelry + Metals program at the University of Texas, El Paso. She received her Masters and Bachelors degrees in Fine Arts, both with a focus on metal and jewelry. Jess actively exhibits her work nationally and internationally. Her research and studio practice explores and reconsiders the commonplace objects of everyday life and mass production, creating an intimate link to our relationship with labor and the built environment.

jesstolbert.com

instants//intervals | Valerie James

Valerie James’ work conveys her interest in movement, mapping, and mark making. James observes the patterns and pathways that a body takes in its everyday routines and finds parallels within her studio practice. Engraving a sheet of metal is a process of ritual much like the act of walking. By physically embedding her movements into the surfaces James evidences a tangible relationship to the ephemeral. Through jewelry James sees a connection to landscapes that are traversed by a body, conforming to existing pathways, and landscapes that are created by wearing, tracing the curves of our physical existence.

“As we move, we begin to understand the spaces we encounter. I want to know the space of the body as it moves through specific environments and connect these to my research and inquiries. Walking is a way of knowing the body: the subtle gestures it makes while progressing through space, how it moves – how it interacts with its surrounding landscape. It is a collection of movements that live parallel to the interaction that happens with a piece of jewelry. The body is a dwelling for jewelry, and how we move affects its life. I am intrigued by the symbiotic relationship of body to jewelry, both on and off the body.”

- Valerie James

valerie-james.com

Makers 2018 & BKMW Trunk Show

Aviva Shapiro
Allison Krier
Bianca Abreu
David Hardcastle
Daniell Hudson
Eve Singer
Fannie Ip
Hanna-Katarina Edwards
Kathleen King
Michele Benjamin
Ope Omojola 
Samuel Guillén
Suna Bonometti
Vershali Jain
Wyna Liu 

Our 7th annual winter event is our biggest celebration of the year! Come out and enjoy an evening filled with friends, food, and art. Meet the artists that make BKMW the exciting community it is and peruse the jewelry and artwork that is made here. The trunk show will have jewelry perfect for gift giving this holiday season, or a well deserved gift for yourself.

We are looking forward to celebrating with you!

Anonymous Brooklyn

Anonymous Brooklyn is for everyone.

Anonymous Brooklyn is a installation built one person at a time. Over the course of New York City Jewelry Week artists are invited to bring a piece of jewelry for display In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works. All the work will be placed on one wall, and each artist will have only small nails to hang their display. (We will have a hammer of course!) This is an accumulation, an accretion. Whoever hangs the first piece gets the first pick of placement and from there it grows. It might grow over, it might grow under. No artist will harm the work of another, but elbows will rub, hair may fall in your eyes, and proximity will certainly alter perception.

THIS CALL HAS CLOSED

This installation/exhibition is part of NYC Jewelry Week 2018.

FAQs

1. Do I have to be from Brooklyn/New York/The United States to participate?
   No, this is the point. You just have to be here.

2. I’m going to be in town but my friend isn’t, can I hang their work for them?
   Yes, but one person, one work. If you also want to hang work, you’ll have to ask a friend too.

3. How do I get my work back?
   If you live out of town you must leave a prepaid shipping box when you drop off your work. We will return it in the box provided. You are responsible for insurance and any other extras you may need.
   If you live nearby you must come and pick up the work from 11am-6pm, November 18 or 19, or we will give it to our neighbors.

4. How long will the show be up for?
   This show will remain on the wall during NYCJW.

5. Does work need to be for sale?
   No.

6. I want to sell my work, how do I do that?
   We will have an online gallery/price guide that is updated in real time as works are installed. As soon as a work is listed it is officially for sale. Purchases can be placed online or in person. BKMW will handle all sales at 50/50 split. We will get your info when you install the work and all sales will be paid out within a month of the show closing.

7. How do I know my work will be safe?
   BKMW has successfully hosted exhibitions for over 6 years. Due to the nature of this exhibition we ask artists who have a high monetary and/or sentimental value work to carry their own personal insurance.

8. What can’t I submit?
   Nothing rotting, no noxious odors, no emitting of harmful chemicals, nothing that seeps/weeps/cries, nothing that attracts vermin, nothing that will cause harm to other work, nothing explosive, no guns. You get the idea. Please don’t make us wish we’d made this list longer.
   We reserve the right to reject pieces that exceed this criteria.

9. How does this all work?
   Fill out this form. Bring us your jewelry. One person, one piece. Check our open hours to bring and install the work. Your work will go through a formal documentation process where we photograph the work and receive your information. You will be given a coat check number in exchange for your work. You will participate in an installation performance. You will be photographed installing the piece and all pertinent information about that piece will be offered to the interwebs on all of our available platforms. Participants must be willing to wear a mask while performing these tasks. No name attribution will ever be publicly associated with the works or released by BKMW. If a work sells the name of the artist will be disclosed to the buyer if desired.

10. What is Anonymous Brooklyn?
    No one knows until it’s over.

Transmutations | Kerianne Quick

“When the Dutch VOC / WIC sailed up the Hudson River to trade with the colonists and native tribes of New Netherlands the ships often carried a ballast of brick. Those that were usable were traded, those that were not – were dumped on the riverbanks. Fast-forward two and a half centuries – the clay deposits of the Mid-Hudson Valley were dug and fired into the bricks that built much of Manhattan as we know it. The evidence of these now defunct brickyards dot the banks of the Hudson River from New Jersey to Albany – piles of bricks, industrial castoffs – native clay fired – but unsuitable for construction. These bricks, foraged out of the Hudson River, are a connection – to the post-industrial landscape and regional histories; but also a way to explore inheritance and transformation. 

The bricks used in the series Transmutations – dating from the early to mid 20th century – were foraged out of the river at Kingston Point and along the Rondout Creek. They were hand-cut and carved, and combined with heirloom pearls, shell, silk, silver, and gold. Through stringing and pearl-knotting techniques, the work draws from both the adornment ideals of the Dutch Golden Age and the ceremonial adornment of the native Lenape Tribes of the Hudson River Valley. Like the act of colonization – Transmutations, mashes together disparate cultures using native materials. Each piece references an uncomfortable combination of European and Native American adornments to create something unique to the Mid-Hudson River Valley.”

– Kerianne Quick

Through her creative practice, Kerianne Quick aims to tell hidden stories through objects – by considering source, conveyance, and material specificity. Her research is rooted in exploring craft and materiality as cultural phenomena with an emphasis on jewelry and personal adornment. Kerianne has produced several bodies of material specific work considering subject matters that range from communal sheep farming practices in the Orkney Isles to the derelict brickyards of New York’s Hudson Valley. She is currently researching contemporary forms of portable wealth. Kerianne Quick is the Assistant Professor of Jewelry and Metalwork at San Diego State University. Current projects include Craft Desert, a handmade zine exploring the craft landscape co-produced with Adam John Manley.

Kerianne Quick’s work is exhibited widely, most recently at LA FRONTERA: Encounters Along the Border, Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY; Heavy Metal – Women to Watch 2018, National Museum of Women In The Arts, Washington D.C.; and  The Language of Things, Dowse Art Museum, Wellington, New Zealand.

kerianne-quick.com

The Last Objects | MJ Tyson

MJ Tyson’s work is centered on the relationship between people and their possessions, and makes use of unconventional casting, re-use, and record keeping. The Last Objects features works from two main series: boxes from Inheritance and Dust to Dust, and vessels from Homes. Each work is comprised of personal objects left behind by deceased residents, sited at specific locations, and named accordingly. Looking into works like 102 Garden Hills Drive gives the viewer a glimpse of this past and offers the opportunity to reconstruct narratives with the remnants.

“All material carries a past. Whether we acknowledge this lineage or not, it exists. It may be to our advantage — as a way of orienting ourselves in our world — to consider the cycles of creation and destruction intrinsic to the objects that surround us.

Our individual lives are fleeting. We use objects to extend ourselves beyond the boundaries of our bodies and lifespans. We ask these objects to lend us immortality, and we practice collection, conservation, and restoration to that end. In reality, nothing is immune to change. Objects also die.

Embracing the destructive side of creation, MJ Tyson practices the reincarnation of personal objects. The resulting jewelry and vessels hold evidence of their past lives within their new forms. These are messy situations in neat packages, ready to go back into circulation. The last objects will become the next.”

- MJ Tyson

MJ Tyson is an artist and jeweler from New Jersey. She received her BFA from the Jewelry + Metalsmithing Department at Rhode Island School of Design in 2008 and returned to earn her MFA in 2017.  Interests in value and material culture have led MJ to the worlds of art appraisal and museum conservation. Research in these outside disciplines informs her studio work.

mjtyson.com

Till the Night | Kyle Patnaude

Kyle Patnaude’s work explores the emotive and humanistic coding of objects, specifically a certain “queerness” pertaining to the cultural guise of hypermasculinity. In Till The Night Patnaude works with queer narratives, from inherently counter-culture gay tropes to the Homoromanticism of masculine power within authoritarian regimes. Using historical figures as touch points Patnaude constructs representational characters to develop this dialog throughout the exhibition. 

Included in these investigations are themes of persecution. Says Patnaude “Where much of queer work celebrates the progressive gay narrative, I choose to cultivate from darker regions of my community and culture. For several years Russia and the southern Republic of Chechnya have committed hundreds of acts of abduction, torture, and murder of men suspected of being homosexual. The exhibition features nineteen aluminum photo prints of gay and trans men with their eyes pixelated. The audience determines their identities through implication as victim or criminal, their erasure, or preservation of anonymity—and themselves as either activist or bystander.”

The objects portrayed within Patnaude’s work often examine public elements such as city streets, restrooms, and parks, providing a subtext of “queerness” and double meaning. Till The Night includes three turned aluminum truncheons, the weapon of police and symbol of authority, as tokens of masculine prowess. These pieces are wearable as necklaces as is the rubber ‘sautoir’ made from a recurrent symbol in Patnaude’s work, a manhole cover pattern.  The latter is shown as a garland on Jacksie, a queer skinhead, the Alt-Right caricature of gay fascism in Patnaude’s narrative.

Kyle Patnaude is currently based in Portland, Maine as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Maine College of Art. He completed his BFA degree in Sculpture from Pratt Institute in 2006 and in 2012 received an MFA in Metalsmithing from the University of Wisconsin Madison. Embracing a hybrid practice as a sculptor rooted in the rich traditional methods of metalsmithing, the work unites contemporary sculptural forms with the skill and elegance of precious metalworking.

kylepatnaude.com

Nowhere | Nils Hint

Hint’s most recent jewelry pieces embody the iron work that he is known for in their sculptural and functional aspects. Working with found objects that performed utilitarian service as tools and cutlery, Hint repurposes these items into new wearable formats. His latest focus in Nowhere is on the kinetic relationship between static material and human force. The malleability of iron is evidenced in the gestural qualities present in these bold new pieces. Hint’s mastery elevates these once humble objects and pays homage to a noble material worthy of wearing and preserving as jewelry.

“Somewhere in my latest work I started focusing on the kinetic relationship between material and human.  A moving man staring at the static lump of matter. Although, this intrigue is nothing new to me. I guess It has always been present in my work in a way that I am not aware of.  

It started when I was around 5 years old. I remember sitting on the huge stack of brick stones and beating some aluminum wire to be flat with the half broken stone from the same pile. I did several shapes what I lost later. What remained was the satisfaction from being able to manipulate this material so easy. Now,  when I am more consciously tracking the origins of my actions I see that they all start in the middle of nowhere. The remote place I spent most of my childhood.”

-Nils Hint

 Nils Hint is an artist, experimental blacksmith, and art jeweler who lives and works in Tallinn, Estonia. His work is exhibited internationally with noteable inclusion in “Schmuck 2015” Munich, Germany; and “CULT”, Stedelijk Museum’s-Hertogenbosch, Amsterdam, Netherlands. A select list of gallery exhibitions include ATTA Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand; Gallery RA, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Gallery Four, Gothenburg, Sweden; and the Ruthin Craft Center, Ruthin, United Kingdom. His work is in the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design; Art St. Urban Art Center, St. Urban, Switzerland; Gallery of Art in Legnica, Poland, International Collection of Contemporary Jewellery; as well as private collections. Hint has won grants, prizes, and residencies for his outstanding work and has taught workshops internationally at Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, Tokyo, Japan; Rhode Island School of Design; and HDK Steneby, Sweden. In addition to his studio practice, Hint is currently an Associate Professor of Blacksmithing in the Jewellery and Blacksmithing department at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

nilshint.com

Makers 2017 & BKMW Trunk Show

Kate Taylor Design
Lucia Pearl
Dan-yell
Vershali Jain Jewelry
Samuel Guillén
Kristi Sword Jewelry
designs by ABREU
Beloved Little Lamb
Eve Singer
Daniell Hudson
FLRNZ
David Hardcastle
Rebecca Pinto
Wyna Liu
KK Wearable Sculpture
Meiyi Yang
Sena Huh

Our annual winter event is our biggest celebration of the year! Come out and enjoy an evening filled with friends, food, and art. Meet the artists that make BKMW the exciting community it is and peruse the jewelry and artwork that gets made here. The trunk show will have jewelry perfect for gift giving this holiday season, or a well deserved gift for yourself. 

We are looking forward to celebrating with you!

Icons at Play

Jisoo Lee
Emiko Oye
Ho’o Hee
Leslie Boyd
Edgar Mosa
Emily Cobb
Philipp Spillmann
Lauren Kalman
Tessa Kennedy
Natasha Morris
Akiko Kurihara
Alexandra Darby
Virginia Jakim
Sharon Massey
Mallory Weston

Pop-up shop featuring Ruta Reifen, Alex Ju, Sasha Nixon and more!

Curated by Manuela Jimenez and Kendra Pariseault. 

This show reinterprets cultural symbols and icons through the use of material, scale, wearability, and interaction. These pieces challenge and “play” with the viewer’s understanding of what symbols have come to represent in our everyday lives. Interpreted from a different viewpoint and providing the viewer/wearer a new lens to experience emblems, these works challenge our preconditioned definition of what an icon can represent.

Honeycrisp | Amelia Toelke

Honeycrisp is a collection of works by Amelia Toelke that continues to explore the various paths of human communication. This show is comprised of several of Toelke’s larger wall works and installation pieces that examines the iconography of signage. Pow Kapow, Compass, and Sparkle utilize similar formal qualities in surface and material while stylistically shifting in context. These pieces resonate with Toleke’s newer works on paper as another way to articulate her conceptual investigations.

In two of her most recent series Gem Face and High Five, Toelke playfully examines the succinctness of emojis and their ability to perform more accurately than language.  Gem Face is a series of gouache paintings on paper depicting images of jewelry. These paintings continue Toelke’s exploration of jewelry and its deep connection with people. By using a traditional gouache painting technique, a common  approach for jewelry designer’s renderings, she sheds light on the strong connection between people and their jewelry, the jewelry wearer and their admirers, and even the designer and the maker.

High Five is a series of  works using faux gold leaf on paper, that is cut and paste into a common symbol of communication—the high-five emoji —to build captivating mosaics that play with negative space. These abstractions of the original symbol draw you in with their familiar forms and tease your mind with their intricate overlaps, intersections, and connections.

“Emojis are wonderful things. Sitting quietly at our fingertips, they express that which cannot be said in words alone. They add emotion, humor, and sometimes-cryptic meaning to our flat, digital words. Through visually representing an action or physical expression, they capture something incommunicable no matter how many words, exclamations, question marks, or dot, dot, dots we type.”

- Amelia Toelke

Born in Chatham New York in 1983, Amelia Toelke’s work is a combination of sculpture and installation touching on the intersection of the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional.Toelke’s interest in collaboration and public art guides much of her practice, with recent projects for the Wisconsin Percent for Art Program, the city of Evansville, Indiana and a 2016 site specific work in The Republic of Georgia’s Artisterium project. During the summer of 2015 Toelke was selected as an artist in residence at Lanzhou City University in Lanzhou, China, and in 2016 she was an artist in residence at the Brush Creek Center for the Arts in Saratoga, Wyoming. With a BFA in metals from the State University of New York at New Paltz and an MFA in visual art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Toelke has exhibited nationally and internationally.

TAKEN | RISD Jewelry + Metalsmithing Graduates

The ring is taken. She is taken with the ring. The ring is her. 
The process is taken. She is taken with the process. The process is her. 
The lesson is taken. She is taken with the lesson. The lesson is her. 
The object is taken. She is taken with the object. The object is her. 
The world is taken. She is taken with the world. The world is her. 
The nature is taken. She is taken with the nature. The nature is her. 
The material is taken. She is taken with the material. The material is her. 
The journey is taken. She is taken with the journey. The journey is her. 
The love is taken. She is taken with the love. The love is her. 
The hate is taken. She is taken with the hate. The hate is her. 
The machine is taken. She is taken with the machine. The machine is her. 
The self is taken. She is taken with the self. The self is her. 
The value is taken. She is taken with the value. The value is her. 
The influence is taken. She is taken with the influence. The influence is her. 
The gem is taken. She is taken with the gem. The gem is her. 
The work is taken. She is taken with the work. The work is her.   

TAKEN, which highlights the immersive processes that are the origins of this jewelry work. Featuring the work of 7 artists from the RISD Jewelry + Metalsmithing graduate department.

Iris Han has taken traditional stone setting in a revolutionary direction. She introduces an unconventional system of value that considers vulnerability, color diversity, and openness.

Heesu Kim considers how love and hate are unconsciously taken. In nature Heesu finds examples of resilience, and learns lessons about slowing down and connecting with her surroundings. Her work pays tribute to this force.

Chubai Liu is (re)defining and questioning the existence of the self through physical works made by the self. She considers ways the human and mechanical have taken over each and become hybridized.

Molly Palecek brings together methods and motifs taken from different fields. In her work, sacred architecture, algorithms from digital fabrication, and jewelry forms and techniques intermingle, growing into and out of each other.

Neta Ron makes as a process of healing and recharging. When Neta is taken with her process, when she stops monitoring her making through the exterior world, she is freed from worry; the work comes through her fingers and is resolved.

Yue Tan is taken with the texture and quality of the woods, where the scene varies from each difference angle. She builds connections between yarn and wood, using contrasting materials to share the atmosphere of the forest.

MJ Tyson works with objects taken from their roles in the world. She destroys and reworks the captured objects into transmissions that tell of multiple generations.