Cover, Vanity Fair On Jewellery, August 2013, Elizabeth Saltzman (ed.), London: Condé Nast, cover photographer: David Slijper Every August, the British edition of Vanity Fair magazine publishes a supplement or bonus issue called Vanity Fair On Jewellery. Mimicking the look and feel of the original, Vanity Fair On Jewellery is, as the name suggests, dedicated…
Seasoned art reporter and author Lindsay Pollock was named editor of Art in America in January 2011. She joins the magazine following a distinguished tenure as a contributor to Bloomberg News and the London-based Art Newspaper. Pollock has previously written for ARTnews, Art & Auction, and the New York Sun. In 2009, she founded an…
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray portrait, photo: artist Susan Cummins: You are a forceful person and seem to have been born fully formed out of the head of Vulcan, but the baby Myra must have had a journey to get to your position of great silversmith and professor. Can you tell me how that happened? Myra Mimlitsch-Gray: Wow…
Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts is presenting new work by Myra Mimlitsch-Gray called Something for the Table. Myra has been a professor at State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz for the past 20 years and a master metalsmith with numerous awards to her credit, including a 2012 United States Artist Fellowship. As the gallery notes explain, “deliberately tentative, this work investigates fracture, explores gesture, and embodies utilitarian notions, suggesting a return to the table.” Myra is articulate and very funny as well as a force to be heard. She is entertaining and challenging at the same time.
Susan Cummins: You are a forceful person and seem to have been born fully formed out of the head of Vulcan, but the baby Myra must have had a journey to get to your position of great silversmith and professor. Can you tell me how that happened?
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray: Wow Susan, that’s quite the lead in! I do have a thing for hammers, and as far as force, well, that’s probably the result of having four older brothers and parents who made physical labor into educational projects—fun for the whole family. In the 70s, we built a house together, and I was assigned the task of straightening nails for reuse. It turned out I was pretty good at it. The baby Myra wanted to be a painter and set out for art school. As it so often happens, the class I wanted was full, so I got stuck in a jewelry class. The bug bit, and that was that.
But really, the crafts were in me at the start. I recall sticking pins into dolls’ ears as a child, and I was a self-taught macramé artist, which resulted in some pretty awful jewelry. Camping trips prompted a fascination with technical planning, problem solving, teamwork, and modes of efficiency that inform my working methods today.
In her article on the closing of Galerie Louise Smit, jewelry historian Liesbeth den Besten painted a rather unflattering picture of the contemporary jewelry market and what she feels is an unbalanced relationship between galleries and their artists. Citing the mounting pressures exerted on makers, den Besten ends her article with an appeal to galleries for more…
Is this for sale? Are you actually waiting for customers to pass through these doors, try this necklace on, and walk out with it? While contemporary jewelers often invoke the wearer or the collector as end destinations for their creative efforts, this was not always apparent in the crop of exhibitions and projects we visited…
Recently, Kobi Bosshard was honored as part of an ongoing series at New Zealand’s Object Space called “Master of Craft.” It celebrates the achievements of outstanding New Zealand practitioners working at the highest level. The show and catalogue are the work of AJF’s former editor Damian Skinner. In the mid-twentieth century, Kobi brought his jewelry skills to New Zealand and provided a link from the old world to the new. In this show at The National in Christchurch, he is looking back at his heritage and to his grandfather Jacob Bosshard for new ideas.
Susan Cummins: You are the third generation in a line of Swiss goldsmiths. Why does this seem important for you to explore in this exhibition?
Kobi Bosshard: I like to remind myself, and others, that the world did not begin with me. That our forebears, for example my grandfather and my father, were highly skilled goldsmiths, and that I am at the very present edge of a very long tradition.
