Artist

Sandra Enterline and Valerie Mitchell are old friends. Both attended Rhode Island School of Design and drove across the country together after graduation. They stayed in California and so called this show 30 Years West. For the past 30 years, they have shown together, vacationed together, exchanged ideas, and generally remained an important element in each other’s lives. Their show at Gravers Lane Gallery in Philadelphia seemed like a good time to catch up with both of them.

Susan Cummins: Did you discover you were a jeweler while you were attending Rhode Island School of Design, or did you know before that? Please tell the story of how you became a jeweler. Did you grow up on the east coast? Where?

Valerie Mitchell: I was born in Hollywood, California, where my dad Victor was shop foreman at the established Allan Adler Silversmiths. At age six, we moved east by train, and I grew up in Bristol, Connecticut. My genetic influence was increased by the curiosity of odd jewelry parts, stones, and hand tools stored in an old workbench in our basement my dad infrequently used. My first jewelry lesson was the summer after receiving my BFA, followed by other area workshops. In 1977, I moved to the Hartford, Connecticut art community, where I developed as an artist, utilizing jewelry as a sculptural, wearable expression while a member of Artworks Gallery. I had a one-person show titled Jewelry from my Environment at the nonprofit downtown space and also a four-person exhibition called City Limits of work inspired by visuals from my urban environ at the Old State House Gallery. My training was minimal but my artistic energy strong. Five years later, I decided to be serious about my training as an artist and craftsperson and chose RISD and Providence for my MFA in light metals.  

Peter Hoogeboom and Shu-Lin Wu have collaborated on an exhibition at Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h in Montreal, Canada. They both work with ceramics and participated in the Un Peu de Terre sur la Peau, where they met. The rest is history and a fascinating one at that.

This show will travel on to venues in the US, Thailand, China, and the Netherlands.

Susan Cummins: When did you two meet?

Peter Hoogeboom: We met some years ago in France, when the first edition of the exhibition Un Peu de Terre sur la Peau was shown in Limoges. We stayed in the same hotel there, so we talked at breakfast and also did things together during the days, apart from the exhibition things. For instance, we went to a cemetery known for its porcelain decorations and plaques on the graves. (Limoges is the porcelain city of France.) Shu-Lin decided to visit me after I returned home, so a few days later I showed her around in Amsterdam. When the show went to Taiwan at the end of 2011, Katja Prins and I were invited to attend, and Shu-Lin showed us around in Taipei.

Ellen Maurer Zilioli has curated a show of the work of Bruno Martinazzi called Vivere Essere Volere Bene, which translates to something like “To Live, To exist, To Love: for the Pinacoteca Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti in Turin. This city has been Martinazzi’s home base for most of his life, so at 90-years-old, they are celebrating him. Martinazzi is a unique figure in the art world and one with a philosophical bent. I was very pleased to have his answers to some of my questions.

Susan Cummins: You are now 90-years-old, and you have accomplished many things in your lifetime. What are you most proud of?

Bruno Martinazzi: To get my ideas across, I cite Gianbattista Vico, an Italian philosopher and author of the volume Principi di Scienza Nuova, written between 1725 and 1744. In Volume 1, Part II, line 3, he writes, “First human beings hear without attention, then they keep attention with confused and touched souls, and finally, they reflect with pure minds.” From that principle, art and poems take form.

Caroline Billing, owner of The National in New Zealand, participated in a fair with three of the artists she represents, and AJF took this opportunity to interview all of them about their work. They are articulate and smart. No wonder the New Zealand jewelers are making their mark internationally.

Susan Cummins: Can you describe the Kete fair and symposium event?

Caroline Billing: Kete was a four-day art fair and symposium that was recently held in Wellington, New Zealand. It is a new event (this was its second incarnation) and the first of its kind here for us. The concept is to bring together galleries to showcase their selected artists across different craft mediums. Talks around the subjects of collecting, artists’ practices, and current issues in craft were held, and it included keynote speakers during the daytime and evenings.

What part did you play?

Caroline Billing: I represented three of my jewelers at Kete with the aim of highlighting three distinct and successful current practices by New Zealanders in contemporary jewelry.

Two friends answered some questions about the show they arranged to have together and their lives as jewelers in wonderful and unassuming ways. Their exhibit called Salty at Quoil Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand, is filled with references to nature and the place they come from.

Susan Cummins: Please tell the story of how you both decided to show together in the exhibition at Quoil?

Lisa West: We shared a workshop for years and we’re good friends, so it seems natural to me that I approach Tania about doing the occasional show together. We have shown together previously at Quoil. We often work independently on quite similar things without realizing it, so I think we make things that are quite cohesive when they’re displayed together.

Tania Patterson: Lisa and I are old friends. We have shown together in the past, and it seemed about time we did it again. We seem to work on similar themes, and our work sits well together. 

Karen Pontoppidan is having numerous shows as part of a series called CANVAS CONTEXT CASH. The first part, called just CANVAS, was presented in 2011 as a solo exhibition at three different galleries—Galerie Rob Koudijs, Galerie Spektrum, and Gallery V + V. The current show called CONTEXT was first presented at Galerie Rob Koudijs last April and is now at Galerie Spectrum. CASH will be presented for the first time with Gallery Maurer-Zilioli as a solo exhibition in March 2014, and then continue to a group exhibition in Poland. The concept of rolling out a big collection of jewelry using related ideas is very ambitious. And Karen is trying out and really experimenting not only with that but with ways of working as well. Pretty fascinating stuff.

Susan Cummins: Karen, can you fill us in on your background, and when it was that you decided to become a jeweler?

Karen Pontoppidan: When I was 13-years-old, I decided to become a jewelry artist. It was an easy decision because, growing up on a farm in Denmark, my imagined future profession and my imagined future “glory” seemed far away. Looking back at my decision, I believe it was mainly made against my parents and against the unbearable conservatism of the environment in which I grew up. Becoming an artist would make me untouchable for the measurements of a farmer’s mind, and therefore it was the best escape I could imagine. But no matter why I developed this goal, I am very happy with my choice of profession.

Katja Prins has expanded her views of the relationship of humans to technology in her new show with Galerie Rob Koudijs. Her new jewelry continues to research the way the two interact in the modern world. It is something no one today can deny confronting. These beautiful, clean, and provocative pieces are very suggestive and thought provoking. 

Susan Cummins: Can you tell the story of how you discovered that you wanted to be a jeweler?

Katja Prins: I think that the need to express oneself by creating things and using visual language is something that doesn’t come like a discovery or epiphany. It’s something that is just part of you, and it simply needs to have the opportunity to develop. I’ve always been interested in all kinds of art and have always liked to make things, so I just followed my heart. 

As soon as I started my technical education as a goldsmith at Schoonhoven, it was clear to me that there was more. I wasn’t too interested in traditional jewelry, and so right away, I focused on going to the art academy. There wasn’t much about jewelry there, but much more about expressing yourself, developing a visual language, and telling an interesting story. It made me an artist whose medium happens to be jewelry.

Dutch jeweler Beppe Kessler took some time out of her visit to Thailand to answer questions for AJF about her work, and specifically about the work in the current show at ATTA Gallery in Bangkok, Thailand. She expresses what a lot of jewelers think about making work with her hands more than her head, and how that translates to her jewelry and painting.

Currently, Thailand is experiencing protests against the government, and I asked Atty Tantivit, the owner of ATTA about it. This is a contrast to this interview, but I thought it was important to note Atty’s response.

“Though corruption is known in Thailand, this is the first time that the people have taken it to centerstage and marched against it, including the corrupted government. The situation is mostly peaceful. There have been some incidents of violence against the protesters by “unknown” attackers, and so far there are about 10 casualties. The protesters occupied the central part of Bangkok. Unless they march the streets asking for support along various roads in Bangkok, we at ATTA Gallery do not feel any disruption.

Pray for us. We need your understanding and support. We are fun- loving, peaceful people. But, when there’s a need for us to fight for what is right, we will not stop short of it. I continue to open the gallery as I think that I owe it to the artists to present their work to the best of my ability. I also think that, at time like this, we could use art to heal our souls. What we have at ATTA Gallery could give people a bit of an uplifted feeling during this tough time.” Atty Tantivit

Our best wishes go with you Atty.