Velvet Da Vinci Gallery News

Coming Soon: Magic City (Starts Wednesday, June 12)

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:37:39 +0000

Work from Artists from the School of Jewellery, Birmingham

MAGIC CITY is an exhibition of current work from recent graduates and established artists from the School of Jewellery, Birmingham.

Flourishing despite the recent global downturns, jewelers coming out of Birmingham have shown a resourcefulness and resilience in the making and presentation of their work. Velvet da Vinci is pleased to showcase a selection of this talented group.

Contrary to the often-remarked grey of its post industrialism, Birmingham, a city of multiple cultures, has become a vibrant center for the arts. The artists of this city are forging a strong presence within the art jewelry world. They are making a name for themselves for producing distinctive and desirable work that is offbeat, loud, quiet, funny, thoughtful, unfamiliar and unabashed.

Xiaohan Vincent Ren, "Painting Fish" brooch

Nanna Grønborg, "Twin Parts" Necklace

Fliss Quick, "Scissors Talisman" brooch

View all available images from this exhibition

Velvet da Vinci Gallery
Contemporary Art Jewelry and Metalwork
2015 Polk Street (between Pacific and Broadway)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-441-0109

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Coming Soon: Karin Johansson: Collecting Butterflies (Starts Wednesday, June 12)

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:30:18 +0000

"I am sitting with a few of Karin Johansson's butterfly brooches in front of me. After letting one of them rest in my palm for a while, I pin it to my shirt. When a few moments later I look at myself in the mirror, I am struck by the realization of how much these simple events my fingers' action on the brooch, the fixing of the pin to my shirt, and the surveying of my image in the mirror in different ways parallel many of the processes and themes that resonate within the group of work Karin Johansson, its creator, calls The Butterfly Collection.
The meeting of my fingertips with the metal of the brooch carries a distant echo of the patient manipulation to which the artist, using her hands and her instruments, has subjected the material. Pinning the brooch in its place brings to mind how butterflies and other insects are mounted for display and storage in museums and personal collections. And when, adorned by the beautiful brooch, I no longer can resist the impulse to set myself before a mirror, I am reminded of that streak of vanity that permeates all collecting. To this way see oneself with a coveted object is to engage in a particular kind of self-contemplation, one that is closely connected to the desire to have the relationship between oneself and the object affirmed.

Collecting means not just procuring things. It is also about cherishing the dream of a totality transcending its parts, of a collection larger than oneself.
As a phenomenon, collecting is coupled with an urge to order and arrange things, establish connections, and create images. In all this, the notion of growth and increase is elementally present. For a true collector, collecting will never end and the collection will never be complete "

(Excerpt "The Butterfly Collection" catalogue essay by Love Jönsson, Curator at the Röhsska Museum for Fashion, Design and Decorative Arts, Gothenburg)

View all available images from this exhibition

Velvet da Vinci Gallery
Contemporary Art Jewelry and Metalwork
2015 Polk Street (between Pacific and Broadway)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-441-0109

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Coming Soon: La Frontera (Starts Wednesday, August 14)

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:01:50 +0000

Opening at the Museo Franz Mayer, Mexico City on June 6, and runs through July 28, 2013

La Frontera

"Borders separate but also unite" (Octavio Paz)

Historically the relationship between Mexico and the United States has been complicated, deep, and conflicted. Due to geography, this relationship is unavoidable and comprised of many underlying currents: economic, political, social, cultural, ecologic and ideological.

La Frontera (The Borderlands) is the physical space where the relationship between Mexico and the U.S is most evident. In recent years, drug trafficking and violence have made it the focus of almost daily news. However, the extremely porous nature of the border allows not only the illegal passage of arms and drugs, but also ideas, money, projects, families, and culture.

The border is an environment of opportunity both legal and not. Nearly 2000 miles long, the U.S. Mexico border is the most frequently crossed international border in the world. Companies use differences in labor and environmental regulations to their advantage and create discontent on both sides of the border. Since the 1980s economic and political refugees from Central America have swelled populations at the border and migrations across it. The construction of the 700- mile U.S. Mexico Border Fence of the past several years is the most tangible symbol of failed politics.

The exhibition LA FRONTERA seeks to explore this physical space and what it represents. This is why we want artists either born in either of these countries or who live in either of these countries to express how they understand the border.

La Frontera

"Las fronteras Separan Pero También Unen" (Octavio Paz)

Históricamente la relación entre México y Estados Unidos, ha sido una compleja, profunda, llena de encuentros y desencuentros. Debido a su realidad geográfica, esta relación es inevitable para ambas naciones. Abarca múltiples aspectos tanto económicos, políticos, sociales, culturales e ideológicos.

La frontera es el espacio físico en donde la relación entre México y Estados Unido sucede. En los últimos años el narcotráfico y la violencia la han puesto en la mira de todos, sin embargo esta frontera es sumamente porosa y por ella además de las armas y las drogas, pasan ilegales, ideas, dinero, proyectos, familias, cultura.

Esta frontera con sus 3185 Kilómetros de extensión es la más cruzada a nivel internacional en todo el mundo. Este espacio está lleno de oportunidades tanto legales como ilegales. Algunas compañías utilizan las diferentes posiciones que tienen estos países en cuanto a política laboral y medio ambiente, para buscar ventajas, creando descontentos en ambos lados. Desde los años 80 refugiados políticos y económicos de America Central han aumentado la población en la frontera y las migraciones a través de ella. Desde hace varios años la construcción de una barda que separa ambos países es el símbolo mas tangible de políticas fallidas.

La exposición LA FRONTERA tiene como objetivo explorar este espacio físico y lo que representa. Es por ello que se buscan artistas que hayan nacido en México o en los Estados Unidos o que independientemente de su lugar de origen vivan o hayan vivido en algún momento en cualquiera de estos dos países.

Velvet da Vinci Gallery
Contemporary Art Jewelry and Metalwork
2015 Polk Street (between Pacific and Broadway)
San Francisco, CA 94109
415-441-0109

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