July 2024, Part 1
Art Jewelry Forum is pleased to share the news that members of our community find noteworthy. Is something missing? The success of this compilation of compelling events, news, and items of interest to the jewelry community depends on YOUR participation. If you’re a member of AJF at the Silver level or above, you can add news and ideas to this bi-monthly report by going here. If you aren’t a member, but would like to become one, join AJF here.
Listings gathered with assistance from Carrie Yodanis.

AJF LIVE WITH BRYAN PARNHAM, JULY 31, 2024, 12 P.M. EST
We’ll be speaking with the 2024 Young Artist Award winner. Jewelry-making is a bit of an accident for Parnham. He wants to be a painter, a photographer, a printmaker, a sculptor, an engineer, a scientist, a philosopher, a comedian, a scholar. But not just one— he wants to pick and choose combinations and weave between them. Jewelry is small and relatively permissive. It’s the right place to poke at the boundaries that separate different mediums. Online, free and open to all. Register here.

EVENTS
We have a dedicated page for them. Go here to see the list.

FEEL LIKE SEEING A JEWELRY SHOW?
Find these listings and many, many more on our dedicated exhibition page:

• Heather White—Open, Closed, Ajar, at Jewelers’Werk Galerie through July 5
• Carlier Makigawa | Manon van Kouswijk, at Gallery Funaki through July 13
• Beppe Kessler: Double, at Kessler’s workshop, July 13–14
• Mass Migrations Seth Michael Carlson, at Gravers Lane Gallery through July 15
• Transforming the Prototype, at Baltimore Jewelry Center through July 26
• Artists Soar in 2024: Neil Adcock, at Mobilia Gallery through July 31

FROM OUR MEMBERS

MOBILIA’S NEWEST EXHIBITION SPOTLIGHTS TAKASHI KOJIMA
The gallery is celebrating summer with Kojima’s shimmering jewels. Shop in person or online through August 17, 2024. The online catalog is here.

ON VIEW: A COLLECTOR’S JOURNEY: SUSAN GRANT LEWIN AND THE ART JEWELRY WORLD 
Preeminent collector Susan Grant Lewin traces her passion for art jewelry back to her work in the 1980s and ’90s as a journalist and communications executive. Although not the only exhibition to feature Lewin’s impressive holdings, this is the first to survey her four-decade commitment to this phenomenon. At the Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL, through September 14, 2024. Info.

ORIZZONTI D’AUTORE: SEPTEMBER 14, 2024–JANUARY 6, 2025
Since its first edition in 2022, this biennial dedicated to contemporary has aimed to create a cultural and enriching interchange among invited artists, art lovers, and experts in the field. This year’s exhibitions and collateral events, at the Civic Museum of Asolo, in Italy, include Between Body & Soul and a Robert Smit retrospective. Curated by Thereza Pedrosa. Info.

ZU DESIGN & JANE BOWDEN AT JAMFACTORY JULY 19–SEPTEMBER 15, 2024
Zu design, established in 1997, has represented 300+ contemporary jewelers from Australia. As its founder and owner, Jane Bowden is central to its story. This show celebrates the creative connections forged in the workshop and the makers’ material and technical diversity with a selection of works by Bowden and the current “Zu crew.” More.

APPLY TO GRAVERS LANE GALLERY’S SERIOUS FUN EXHIBITION
This exhibition will feature works by contemporary jewelers who apply their expert craftsmanship to playful designs, creating work that both honors the deep history of craft and celebrates contemporary whimsy and creativity. It will center around artists who devote their skills to creating works that surprise and delight audiences with their forms, subject matter, or ingenious mechanisms. Scheduled for September 1–October 15, 2024. Guest curators: Ellyse Bendillo and Kate Dannenberg. Deadline: June 30, 2024. Apply here.

ON VIEW AT MAD: WORK BY CHERYL R. RILEY
Two of the three Sculptures in the Form of a Necklace, which Barbara Paris Gifford acquired for the Museum of Arts and Design, are currently on display in the museum’s OUT of the Jewelry Box show—congrats, @cherylrriley! Don’t miss this exhibition! Info.

NEW BOOK ABOUT BILL HARPER
Bizarre Beauty: The Art of William Harper is slated for release this month. Over six decades, the American artist (b. 1944) has conjured a body of work unique in the realm of jewelry. Crafted in enamel and gold, his pieces explore multiple realms—from ancient mythology to personal iconography—and draw on influences such as African sculpture, medieval art, and modernist dance. Harper’s oeuvre branches into formats including paintings, ornamented casks, artist’s books, and more. The visual feast provides an intimate look at this imaginative artist. With texts by Glenn Adamson, Toni Greenbaum, and many others. From Arnoldsche. More.

SHARON MASSEY WILL TEACH “SHIMMERING ENAMELS”
Take a seven-hour workshop with the winner of AJF’s 2009 Emerging Artist Award to learn to fire mica powder into vitreous enamel and create shimmering surfaces. July 13, 2024, at Contemporary Craft, in Pittsburgh. More.

ART IN AMERICA INTERVIEWED JOYCE J. SCOTT
“I insinuate beads into anything,” said the queen of Baltimore. Read it here. The 75-year-old artist’s exhibition Walk a Mile in My Dreams, at the Baltimore Museum of Art, closes soon: July 14, 2024.

PASSINGS

FRED FENSTER (1934–2024)
The revered metalsmith attended City College of New York, then received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, in 1960. Shortly afterward, he began teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He retired as professor emeritus in 2005. The American Craft Council gave him its Gold Medal in 2005. The Metal Museum named him a Master Metalsmith in 2011. He received SNAG’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

BERND MUNSTEINER PASSED AWAY, AGED 81
The world-renowned gemstone cutter, who invented of the fantasy-cut gemstone, died on June 6, 2024. Learn about his life and extraordinary career in AGTA’s remembrance, here.

OTHER NEWS

KENDRICK LAMAR WANTS DRAKE TO RETURN TUPAC SHAKUR’S RING. WHY?
The two rappers have been dissing each other for a while. Things just escalated over the crown-shaped ring, one of the most iconic jewels in hip-hop. When Sotheby’s auctioned it 11 months ago, it sold for a million dollars—three times its estimate. Learn about its history here, and about the current feud here.

BEJEWELED CUTLERY MAKES MEALS BETTER YET
But ready the sponge and dish soap: Orit Elhanati and Conie Vallese’s Gothic fantasies are not dishwasher friendly. More.

EVENTS

“BODY AS MEASURE” SEMINAR: OCTOBER 2, 2024
It will explore themes such as wearability, the performative nature of craft and jewelry practices, and the physicality involved in making and wearing. Delve into the transformative potential of craft-based practices that use the body as both a point of departure and a contextual framework. In Stockholm. More.

OPPORTUNITIES

DOES THIS OPEN CALL GIVE YOU GOOSEBUMPS?
This exhibition, to be held in Graz, Austria, in October, will explore the theme of jewelry and goosebumps from as many angles as possible, from excitement, to stress, fear, disgust, or pleasure. Deadline: August 23, 2024. Info.

PAGES

JEWELRY’S SHINING STARS: THE NEXT GENERATION: 45 VISIONARY WOMEN DESIGNERS
Beth Bernstein’s book compiles 45 talented designers who have bent the rules, broken with tradition, and changed the way we view and buy jewelry. While some create with their own hands at the bench, others work alongside artisans. More.

ELISABETH HOLDER: FROM JEWELLERY TO CONTEXTUAL ART
Presents the work of the artist and professor and showcases her evolution. She posed the fundamental question of what jewelry is and can be and recontextualized the form. More.

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