You Got the Look

Exhibition Website

Nov 23 2018 - Dec 22 2018

The exhibit derives its name from a 1987 song by Prince bearing the same title and blends jewelry and art, while raising questions about jewelry’s social and political meaning in contemporary society. In addition to the typical call of beauty, the exhibit explores vulnerability and cleverly transforms emojis, parking lot detritus, brightly-colored toys, and a few medical devices into fun adornments to accentuate and transform the body.

From 55 submissions from all across the US, the panel of jurors selected Emily Blodgett-Panos (Laurence, KS), Melanie Brauner (Everett, WA), Jana Brevick (Seattle, WA), Ann Chikahisa (Seattle, WA), Rebecca Cummins (Seattle, WA), Alexis Devine (Tacoma, WA), Marita Dingus (Seattle, WA), Denise Emerson (Burien, WA), Molly Epstein (Seattle, WA), Ray C. Freeman III (Seattle, WA), Motoko Furuhashi (Las Cruces, NM), Catherine Grisez (Seattle, WA), Frances Pookie Halpern (Philadelphia, PA), Sarah Hood (Seattle, WA), Holland Houdek (Rochester, NY), Han-Yin Hsu (Tacoma, WA), Katie Kameen (Graniteville, SC), Micki Lippe (Seattle, WA), Kim Merritt (Seattle, WA), Eileen O'Shea (Mercer Island, WA), Polly Purvis (Seattle, WA), Nina Raizel Hartman (Seattle, WA), Anne Randall (Sammamish, WA), Emma Rose (Vancouver, WA), Sylwia Tur (Seattle, WA), and Megan Wachs (Ossining, NY).

Featured Seattle-based artist Nancy Worden is inspired by the events she experiences as an American woman. Her piece, Literal Defense, is included in the show and “was made for those who are soldiers in the battlefield of arts education. On the neck piece, quotes from arts advocates are stamped into the front and sides. The back contains a passage from Ovid about the Muses, who were the patrons of the arts in Roman mythology.”

Seattle metalsmith, educator, and writer Andy Cooperman will present a group of work centered around non-traditional jewelry materials including Poison, which alludes to poison rings that have appeared throughout history.

“I like the idea of improbable, sometimes prosaic materials incorporated into something that can be as staid as jewelry. Poison was on my mind ever since I found a rattle at a Western boot store giveaway. The idea of a ring as a cautionary object, along with being a signifier of status and affiliation, appealed to me.”

San Francisco designer Emiko Oye creates bold and colorful jewelry from precious metals and repurposed LEGO®. Utilizing such a globally beloved material, she tugs on the nostalgic heartstrings across generations, cultures, and genders, artfully embedding memory into conversation-sparking, contemporary adornment.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

  • Decorative Arts
  • American
  • Contemporary
  • Jewelry
  • Nancy Worden
  • Andy Cooperman
  • Emiko Oye
  • and others

Exhibition Venues & Dates