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.