As a maker of hollowware, Sarah Perkins uses properties of the metal: the plasticity, the permanence and the dimensionality. As an enameler, she uses the properties of the glass: the preciousness, the texture and the color. In her work these properties function together to make a whole, with the two materials complementing and completing each other, rather than one being visually more important than the other. 

Perkins' exhibition will consist of small, lidded containers made of enameled metal. She is interested in the social implications and uses of forms. Subtle differences in shape affect the meaning of the piece dramatically: an open form is generous and a tighter one more austere and self-sufficient. 

In conjunction with her exhibition, Sarah Perkins will give a public lecture at Memphis College of Art on Thursday, December 8 at 7pm in Callicott Auditorium. We will have an opening reception December 11, 12-5pm at the Metal Museum. Free admission and refreshments. This event coincides with our Holiday Open House. We will have items for sale in the museum store, hands-on activities, blacksmith demonstrations and music performed by Ms. Hayley Roth (St. Mary's Episcopal School). Perkins will also teach a course at the Metal Museum, Enamel on Copper, April 14-15. For more information and to register, click here.

About the Artist

Sarah Perkins received her BA from San Diego State University and her MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Since 1994, she has been Professor of Art at Missouri State University teaching all levels of Jewelry/Metals. She has also taught numerous workshops at Penland and other schools and universities across the US and internationally. Her work has won awards and been featured in solo and group exhibitions, publications, and public collections.

Tributaries: Sarah Perkins will be on view at the Metal Museum from December 9, 2011 - February 19, 2012.

We would like to thank WRUG MEDIA group for recording our Tributaries lectures and for providing us with the means to offer them as webcasts for our archives and for those who would like to watch them but are unable to attend. The lectures will be posted on our website or YouTube channel once they are formatted and uploaded. Stay tuned!