What: Cold Connections, an exhibition of wearable decorative jewelry and metal artworks made using classic techniques and new technologies by UNT College of Visual Arts and Design metals and jewelry alumni and master's students
When/Where: Now through April 16 (Thursday) at UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St., Denton. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Cost: Free and open to the public
DENTON, Texas (UNT) – Wearable and artistic metal art pieces that highlight the work of College of Visual Arts and Design alumni and students are on display now through April 16 at UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St., Denton.
The 56 pieces in the Cold Connections exhibition vary greatly, showing the ways metalsmiths use classic techniques and new technologies to create jewelry and wearable pieces as well as artwork said Tamar Navama, whose work is exhibited in the show. The show is a retrospective of the CVAD metals and jewelry program, she said, focusing on artists who are creating works and living in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin areas. It was organized and curated by current CVAD master's students Navama, Liana Tomchesson, Hetty Estes and Erin Turner.
"The UNT program has been creating metalsmiths for many years and this is a rare look back at the years of study by viewing work from artists who are still in the program and who have graduated – some several years ago," said Navama.
Each artist is showing three to seven pieces of art and has shared information about themselves or their work in the exhibition. Some artists have statements about the inspiration for their pieces, while others have shared photos and information about their studios, said Navama. All of the artists have exhibited items that have strong concepts behind them, she said, whether that is concerns about society or personal issues, ecological observations or political statements.
The artists work mainly with metal, but the pieces in the exhibition also include leather, rawhide, granite, beads, precious stones, enamel, fiber and pearls.
Cold Connections will be on display through April 16 (Thursday) at UNT on the Square, 109 N. Elm St., Denton. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Thursdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Free and open to the public
About the Cold Connections artists
Umut Demirguc Thurman, alumna and adjunct faculty member
She graduated with her master's from UNT in 2005 and returned to the College of Visual Arts and Design as an adjunct faculty member in fall 2013. Additionally, she is a metalsmith and enamellist with works for sale in her native country, Turkey.
Hetty Estes, master's student and teaching fellow
Her work connects art, literature and nature and is inspired by scenery found upon her travels and research about literature significant to those places.
Anne E. Jones, alumna and metalsmith
Jones studied Architecture at Yale University but realized that her true passion was ornamenting bodies and not buildings. In her work, she combines traditional metalsmithing techniques with crocheted and knitted metal to create airy, lacy designs in fine silver.
Masumi Kataoka, alumna and jewelry maker
Kataoka's jewelry is composed of animal material and at the same time refers to animal parts. This evolved from her interest in why children/people anthropomorphize stuffed animals for security, or why humans have used animal motifs symbolically throughout history. She has a studio in Austin.
Natalie Macellaio, alumna and artist/metalsmith
Macellaio's new body of work deals with senses, each piece provides a sensory experience to the wearer.
Michelle Milner, alumna, art teacher and metalsmith
Milner graduated with her master's from CVAD and has made both jewelry and other metalsmithing pieces.
Tamar Navama, master's student and teaching fellow
Navama brings awareness to how culture relates to leather in her work. She sees exotic skins as a precious material. In her jewelry, she takes the original precious material and offers a new life to it through the cast resin pieces, plastic, and the use of programing to manipulate and reproduce their patterns. She is a metal and leather artist from Israel.
Deanna Ooley, alumna and adjunct professor
Ooley creates wearable works that combine concepts of the business world with the aesthetics of fine art.
Susan Sitess, alumna, mixed media artist and designer
In addition to small sporadic interior design projects, she designs and creates limited production jewelry, objects and small-to-medium scale sculptures.
Liana Tomchesson, master's student and teaching fellow
Liana's work is an investigation into the meaning of value and cultural psychology. Expressed explicitly at times, she sees her work as an investigation into the psychology of culture. She maintains a jewelry studio in Austin.
Erin Turner, master's student and teaching fellow
Her childhood moments continued to develop into an ongoing love of all things space and astrological. A long growing fascination of the stars and space authored the body of work she displays in this exhibition. This allowed her to bring a visual representation of the beauty and depth the sky holds, she said.