Wayne State University
Elaine L. Jacob Gallery

480 W. Hancock
Detroit, MI 48202

313-993-7813
www.art.wayne.eduTues-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 11am-5pm.

Nov 22-Jan 24.





Kim Cridler “Foil”


If your only experience with the art of metalsmithing consists of jewelry and functional objects, Elaine L. Jacob Gallery’s current show proves that metalsmithing is definitely not in Kansas anymore. Curator and WSU metals professor Evan Larson writes, “this exhibition focuses on the craftsperson’s role of making meaning through objects.” Modern sensibilities coupled with an age-old tradition create a vital look at the role of craftsmen today.


As the vessel played a major role in the functional work of metalsmiths in the past, the vessel as metaphor plays a significant role for these artists. The vessels these six women create outline a road towards discovery of meaning. The empty vessels come in many forms – from a cup to hold our courage, a hollow cavity to house our hearts, an empty head to fill with knowledge, or the vessels we call home.





Kim Cridler “Kept”





Kim Cridler Close up


Kim Cridler presents perhaps the most visually engaging pieces in the show. She deals with the vessel as vessel, creating ornate, decorative lattice works, that outline magnificent three-dimensional large vessels. She also operates on the opposite scale, installing a tiny lattice of a deer head inside an Ostrich egg. Her choice of the egg, nature’s first vessel, which appears throughout her pieces, reinforces the idea of a container and the emergence of new life from within.





Myra Mimlitch-Gray “Decanters”


Myra Mimlitch-Gray also works with the vessel as vessel. Her pieces are solid blocks cut open to reveal the negative space from which a vessel could be molded. The vessel’s presence is revealed with its absence.





Lin Stanionis


Lin Stanionis’ work deals with the body as vessel. The anthropomorphic forms she has created are vessels that echo what H.R. Giger might have created had he been female. Forms that are alien yet disturbingly human at the same time. In “Ascension” she creates a human heart – yet one shielded by cold, hard defensive scales. How we think of ourselves is reflected in the works we create as Stanionis demonstrates.





Heather White’s Retractable Crown Series





A visitor enjoys White’s work.


Heather White’s “Retractable Crown Series” are all vessels for the head – the crown or the hat, as a mobile stand-in for one’s home, a sign of culture and of rank. The inclusion of the retractable armature indicates a well-developed sense of humor, another intelligent trait housed in our heads.





Suzanna Spier


Suzanna Spier’s austere, weight and pulley contraptions, demonstrate the human intelligence to measure, balance and gain knowledge about the world outside our heads. Both these artist’s works contain elements of whimsical yet poetic moments, in their matter-of-fact, yet subtly beautiful forms.





Beverly Penn’s “The Border: Pas de Deux”


Beverly Penn’s “The Border: Pas de Deux” is an installation composed of music, a series of altars displaying tiny spinning mechanical ballerinas and recipes for a Mexican “mole” sauce. The installation is set up like the border between the United States and Mexico, with one row of altars faced off against its foreign neighbor. Visitors walk in between, disoriented by surreal music playing from the ballerina’s music boxes. Without the vessel to call a home, displaced people suffer in this no man’s land. Penn may go overboard with symbolism, but the piece creates a disturbing, thoughtful presence.


Together these artists, through deep thought and fine craftsmanship, have established the continued relevance of metalsmithing. It’s a meaningful look at the vessels we create to hold, to live in and the vessels that are ourselves – the next thousand years of metalsmithing look promising.