Summer Recap!

We would like to invite you to our studio this First Thursday (10/6/2011 5-8pm) for a Summer Recap!
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Our summer was busy, yet gratifying... at one point we had three shows happening simultaneously! We developed new work, organized two exhibitions, traveled to the East Coast and Germany, were written about in blogs and magazines... however we were SO busy we could not keep our own blog up to date! So Summer Recap! We are doing one massive update on the blog and on Thursday opening our studio to show a selection of work produced this summer.
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More information at our facebook invitation:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=230998493625220

Talents at Tendence

Talents at Tendence
Frankfurt, Germany

The Opulent Project was honored to be sponsored by Messe Frankfurt and travel to Germany to represent jewelry design from the US. We spent a week exhibiting our work in the Talents section at Tendence trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany. Talents is an international platform for young, emerging designers to expose their designs and make connections with industry. Here we debuted a few new projects as well as a few additional pieces for our luxury based silhouette series!

COSTUME COSTUME

Sienna Gallery
Lenox, Massachusetts + Online
July 4 - August 31
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COSTUME COSTUME is a collection of work made by emerging contemporary art jewelers. It is an exploration of costume jewelry as subject; jewelry about jewelry.
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This project started last April with Sienna Gallery at the international exposition of Sculpture Object + Functional Art (SOFA) in New York. We invited the public to try on our jewelry collection and step into the Costume Costume photo booth for a souvenir photo-strip.
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Read the reviews from the SOFA NY project!
What's Happening? [Part Three] by Timothy McMahon
Notes on SOFA NY by Damian Skinner
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Artists involved include Sarah Abramson, Mikael Arsjö, Kate Bauman, Michael Dale Bernard, Thyra Bessette, Allyson Bone, Jenny Bradley, Raissa Bump, Sarah Kate Burgess, Alice Jee Chung, David Choi, Meg Drinkwater, Anne M. Fiala, Erin Gardner, Maricha Genovese, Anna Hinkes, Rory Hooper, Soyeon Kim, Courtney Kemp, Seohee Koh, Tara Locklear, Sarah Loertscher, Julia Elizabeth Louise, Edgar Mosa. Jimin Park, Mary Hallam Pearse, RT Peters, Katie Poterala, Cynthia Rohrer, Earl Ross, Leslie Skalin, Theresa Sterner, Monika Strasser, Kristi Sword, Islay Taylor, Melissa Tolar, Stephanie Tomczak, Ben Ulsh

Come Apart

Heidi Lowe Gallery
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
August 13 – September 17

to break apart, to break up.
to fragment - break or cause to break into pieces become separated into pieces or fragments
burst - break open, split, come open suddenly and violently, as if from internal pressure.
bust - break open or apart suddenly and forcefully.
smash - break suddenly into pieces, as from a violent blow.
break - destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.
snap, crack - break suddenly and abruptly, as under tension.
crush - become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure.

Come Apart featured a selection of works by T.O.P. The work in this show explored various forms of fragmentation visually, physically and/or conceptually. Wall Tile is the second collaborative piece produced by Meg Drinkwater and Erin Gardner that explores adornment related to the body and interior space. The viewer is invited to participate by pulling jewelry from the wall to adorn themselves while at the same time revealing a pattern in the negative space that remains.

Check out the 2Modern Blog review!

COSTUME COSTUME Part II at Sienna Gallery

July 4 - August 31, 2011

COSTUME COSTUME Part II Guest curated by Arthur Hash COSTUME COSTUME (an opulent project) is a collection of work made by emerging contemporary art jewelers. It is an exploration of costume jewelry as subject; jewelry about jewelry.

We are thrilled to have Arthur Hash curate a selection of new designers and artists to expand the COSTUME COSTUME collection! View select pieces online or model entire collection in the Costume Costume Photobooth at Sienna Gallery in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Current and past artists include Sarah Abramson, Mikael Arsjö, Kate Bauman, Michael Dale Bernard, Thyra Bessette, Allyson Bone, Jenny Bradley, Raissa Bump, Sarah Kate Burgess, Alice Jee Chung, David Choi, Meg Drinkwater, Anne M. Fiala, Erin Gardner, Maricha Genovese, Anna Hinkes, Rory Hooper, Soyeon Kim, Courtney Kemp, Seohee Koh, Tara Locklear, Sarah Loertscher, Julia Elizabeth Louise, Edgar Mosa, Jimin Park, Mary Hallam Pearse, RT Peters, Katie Poterala, Cynthia Rohrer, Earl Ross, Leslie Skalin, Theresa Sterner, Monika Strasser, Kristi Sword, Islay Taylor, Melissa Tolar, Stephanie Tomczak, Ben Ulsh

 Sienna Gallery debuted the project last April at SOFA NY where we installed a photobooth. This format provided visitors with an experience outside of the typical museum-like presentation of jewelry and objects at SOFA. We encouraged people to have fun interacting with our jewelry. Viewers instantly became wearers, modeling our jewelry for a printed souvenir photo-strip. And in some sense the wearer became a "collector" and jewelry became "collected" through physical printed image and solidified through social media.

Gallery Reject (an opulent project)

First Thursday open studio May 5, 2011

We had piles of samples and leftover awesome jewelry, but not awesome enough for the gallery... So we invited Portland friends and fans to our open studio and sold our "rejects" at garage sale prices! seconds, slightly less than perfect, flawed, cast offs--- call it whatever, call it worn!

Over 150 pieces sold! Idea based jewelry ...starting at just $1

Participating jewelers:
Ben Ulsh
Anna Hinkes
Erin Gardner
Thyra Bessette
Theresa Sterner
Julia Elizabeth Louise

COSTUME COSTUME Photobooth

with Sienna Gallery at SOFA NY!

Everyone enjoyed the COSTUME COSTUME photobooth at SOFA!
Peruse selected images of participants and see the jewelry in action on Sienna Gallery's facebook page.

And read Damian Skinner's "Notes on SOFA NY" on the Art Jewelry Forum Blog.

COSTUME COSTUME with Sienna Gallery @ SOFA NY

COSTUME COSTUME (an opulent project) is a collection of work made by emerging contemporary art jewelers. It is an exploration of costume jewelry as subject; jewelry about jewelry.

Representing a vast range of styles, qualities, and designs, costume jewelry is almost always mass produced and affordable. Frequently costume jewelry mimics existing jewelry or implies a notion of a historical style. It is a unique category of jewelry in that the original intent was not to be a priceless object or heirloom, but simply to be fashionable and, when a trend passed, dispensable. Masquerading as something of abundance, costume jewelry, which has very little actual material value, makes luxury seem attainable.

Repurposing costume jewelry has been the subject of the do-it-yourself craft movement and high fashion alike, and is further popularized by the eco/green fashion trend. The Opulent Project proposed COSTUME COSTUME as a project for contemporary art jewelers to address the current trend to re-consume material culture, and to question the nature of costume jewelry. We were drawn to costume jewelry because of our interest in objects that exist as simulations of unattainable luxury items. Costume jewelry holds fascinating potential for exploration as it manages to exist with unparalleled duplicity. It is disposable luxury, a common rarity; it can be both dispensable and coveted. By replication and alteration we seek to further remove this jewelry from its historical context. Adding to it until it takes on a new character – thus costuming the costumed.

Participating artists as of April 2011 Mikael Arsjö, Kate Bauman, Michael Dale Bernard, Thyra Bessette, Sarah Kate Burgess, Erin Gardner, Anna Hinkes, Rory Hooper, Courtney Kemp, Julia Elizabeth Louise, Jimin Park, Mary Hallam Pearse, Earl Ross, Leslie Skalin, Theresa Sterner, Monika Strasser, Kristi Sword, Islay Taylor, Melissa Tolar, Ben Ulsh.