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Selections from the Exhibition
John Rais, Tonare, steel and paint, 2009
John Shearin, Reliquary for Iku-Turso, steel, wrought iron, glass, mica, 2007
Chris Shea, Anthropod Side Table, steel and cast glass, 2007
Tessa Wittman, Cleaver, wrought iron, ebony, silver, 2009
Bill Price, Cooling Breeze, steel, 2008
Stephen Yusko, Square Oil Can, steel, 2009
Iron: Twenty Ten
With
an eye toward the future of a vital art form, Iron: Twenty Ten offers a survey of the finest contemporary blacksmithing in the United
States. Employing both traditional and innovative approaches, the
selected work demonstrates the tremendous breadth of ideas and depth of
talent found in American blacksmithing today. The work, from an exciting mix of established and emerging artists, was selected by a jury of prominent blacksmiths and scholars,
including Anna Fariello, Tom Joyce, Richard Quinnell and James Wallace. The exhibition demonstrates the variety of forms that contemporary blacksmithing can take, including abstract and representational sculpture, vessels, architectural ironwork, firescreens, furniture, and other functional items. The qualities that unite the exhibition are a commitment to the highest levels of craft and a point of view that is both distinct and contemporary. Taken as a whole, the exhibition offers both the casual viewer and the seasoned metalsmith a comprehensive picture of the state of American blacksmithing today. The exhibition will travel to the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum (June 25 - August 28, 2011), Southern Illinois University Museum January 17 - March 9, 2012), and the Fuller Craft Museum (June - October, 2012).
(below: Lee Sauder's Odalisque, bloom iron with steel base, 2007)
The Artists
Elizabeth Brim, Jason Reed Brown, Richard Carr, Paul Cheney, Page Davis, Mary Catherine Floyd, Joshua Goss, Seth Gould, Gary Griffin, Robert Griffith, Jorgen Harle, Adam Hawk, Andrew Hayes, Jeff Holtby, Jake James, Sean Kingston, Brent Kington, Caleb Kullman, Susan Madacsi, Marc Maiorana, John Medwedeff, Michael Migala, Daniel Miller, Joe Muench, Louise Pezzi, Bill Price, John Rais, Route, George Rousis, Eric Ryser , Lee Sauder, Chris Shea, John Shearin, Rick Smith, Doug Wilson, Tessa Wittman, Stephen Yusk, John Yust and Tom Latane
The Jurors
A
professional curator and former James Renwick Fellow in American Craft, Anna
Fariello is currently Research Professor and Director of the Craft Revival
project at Western Carolina University. She is co-author of the text, Objects
and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft and Art Editor for the Encyclopedia
of Appalachia. Exhibitions and lectures include: Samuel Yellin Metalworkers, 1998; Samuel Yellin at Reynolda House
Museum, 2003; Hammer & Hand: Contemporary American Metal, 2004;
and Metal/Southeast, 2004.
Tom Joyce was apprenticed to a blacksmith at the age of 13 and
subsequently dropped out of high school to become a full time craftsman. His
works are included in public collections around the world including the Museum
of Arts and Design, NY; the Smithsonian Institution Renwick Gallery, Washington,
DC; the Metal Museum, Memphis, TN; and the Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths,
London, England. Awards include the
prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the American Craft Council College
of Fellows Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Field.
During his career, Richard Quinnell has produced some of the most
significant twentieth century ironwork in the U.K. and overseas, including the
gates to Shakespeare's Globe in London, the coat of arms for the British
Embassy in Rome and the gates to the National Ornamental Metal Museum in
Memphis, Tennessee. In 1989 Quinnell was awarded an M.B.E. for his part in the
revival of what had been, for many decades, a dying craft in the United Kingdom.
Richard and his late wife Jinny founded the British Artist Blacksmiths
Association in 1978 and the Fire & Iron Gallery in 1982.
For nearly thirty years, Jim Wallace served as the Executive Director of
the National Ornamental Metal Museum.
An accomplished blacksmith, Wallace
earned a BA from Western State College, Gunnison, CO in 1971 and an MFA from
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL in 1977. Wallace has been awarded fellowships from the Tiffany Foundation, the
National Endowment for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission and is a
member of the American Craft Council College of Fellows.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by
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