Exhibition: CHESS at Velvet da Vinci Art Jewelry and Sculpture Gallery, San Francisco

As part of the exhibitions surrounding the Society of North American Goldsmiths’ conference held in San Francisco in May of 2003, Velvet da Vinci presents CHESS.

People have been creating chess pieces for over 1000 years including the famous Viking Lewis chessmen in the British Museum up to the modern Bart Simpson family. The design of the playing pieces has an amazingly rich history. The game has been played in ancient Europe, Russia, India, Southeast Asia and China. The characters of the pieces have ranged from warring armies to Islam’s abstracted forms.

The Velvet da Vinci exhibition will present pieces by individual artists that will be combined to create complete chess sets. There will be approximately 90 artists from 10 different countries making the pieces.

Dates for the exhibition are:
• Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco, May 1-31, 2003
• Vennel Gallery in Irvine, Scotland, June 28 - July 28, 2003
• The Gallery, Ruthin Craft Centre, in Denbighshire, Wales, November 15, 2003 - January 4, 2004
• The Crafts Council Gallery at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England, February 4 - March 13, 2004
• The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, April 26 - August 1, 2004
• Thomas Mann’s Gallery I/O in New Orleans, October 5 - November 15, 2004
• Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, February 12 - June 3, 2005

There is an exhibition catalog available.

Participating artists:
Abrasha • Gregor Anderson • Curtis Arima • Brooke Battles • Kristin Beeler • Inger Blix Kvammen • Elisa Bongfeldt • Deborah Boskin • Reina Mia Brill • Helen Carnac • Peter Chang • Patty Cokus • Andy Cooperman • Whitney Couch • Sarah Crawford • Jack Cunningham • Donna D'Aquino • Linda Darty • Marilyn da Silva • Jack da Silva • Mary Donald • Bob Ebendorf • Dawn Emms • Tony Esola • Lisa Fidler • Susie Ganch • Michael Gard • Jennifer Gardner • Eileen Gatt • Karen Gilbert • Anna Gordon • Katy Hackney • Maria Hanson • April Higashi • Tom Hill • Dorothy Hogg • Mike Holmes • ilo • Xavier Ines Monclus • Masato Inoue • Dave Jones • Marion Kane • Kimberly Keyworth • Diane Komater • Florian Ladstaetter • Andrew Lamb • Tim Lazure • Ann Little • Kristin Lora • Deborah Lozier • Andrew Macdonald • Marcia Macdonald • Tom Mann • Leslie Mathews • Grant McCaig • Judy McCaig • Bruce Metcalf • Christina Miller • Adam Musto • Susan Myers • Heidi Nahser • Dawn Nakanishi • Hratch Nargizian • Ben Neubauer • Matt Neubauer • Paula Newman • Wendy-Sarah Pacey • Adam Paxon • Hilary Pfeifer • Ramon Puig Cuyas • Orfeo Quagliata • Anette Rack • Shella Robinson • Marjorie Schick • Biba Schutz • June Schwarcz • Joyce Scott • Sam Shaw • Helen Shirk • Jan Smith • Catherine Stafford • Eitoku Sugimori • Matthew Tomalin • Julia Turner • Felieke van der Leest• Silvia Walz • Kiwon Wang • Judy Wenig-Horswell • Greg Wilbur • Duke Williams • Carol Windsor • Susan Wood • Yuko Yagisawa • Sayumi Yokouchi