Group exhibition: 'JEWELRY OF IDEAS: THE SUSAN GRANT LEWIN COLLECTION'

The SCAD Museum of Art presents "Jewelry of Ideas," a group exhibition of exceptional jewelry from the Susan Grant Lewin Collection. This traveling show exhibition is organized by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, New York. The pieces, many of which were part of a recent gift from Lewin to the Cooper Hewitt, exemplify innovative practice by leading designers and artists, showcasing works that make use of unexpected material, surprising form or radical developments in the field of jewelry making. Through brooches, necklaces, bracelets and rings, the exhibition demonstrates personal narrative, unique abstraction or social commentary embedded in each designer’s works.

Included in the exhibition are more than 140 pieces, mostly produced within the last 15 years, with some dating to the mid-20th century. Among the collection are notable influential designs that have broken from conventions of traditional jewelry. Conceptual pieces question notions of value, as seen in Otto Künzli’s "Gold Makes You Blind (Gold Macht Blind)," a rubber bangle bracelet in which a gold bead is hidden within the confines of black rubber, or Ted Noten’s "Fred Pendant Necklace," in which the artist encased both the precious and the quotidian — a pearl and a housefly — in cast acrylic resin. Experimental uses of material are seen in works like the "Blinker Brooch" by Gijs Bakker, in which the artist embellished a newspaper cutout with gold and a single aquamarine. Anchoring these radical designs are historic examples of pioneers in the field of jewelry. Both American and European influencers are featured, who turned to the music, art and theater of contemporary society for inspiration for their wearable art, rather than the traditions of luxury jewelry.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website