It's been a few weeks since the conference now but I figured it was about time I finished this post. It is definitely going to be heavy on the photos because there was so much to see and be inspired by at the SNAG (Society of North American Goldsmiths) conference. The shows that I got a chance to see during the exhibition crawl were pretty incredible.
The first images are from "À Table!" at the Design Exchange an exhibition of sixteen Canadian metal artists
Mary Anne Barkhouse:
Charles Funnell:
One of my NSCAD professors Kye-Yeon Son:
Michael Belmore (who also did a really wonderful presentation during one of the rounds of rapid-fire presentations)
Another exhibition, also at the Design Exchange was "Design Sans Frontières: Metal Arts Guild of Canada Juried Exhibition". It was great because artists were encouraged to collaborate with another outside of their medium, and we all know how much I love interdisciplinary work! This is an installation by Marina Babic and Sally McCubbin.
We were surprised and delighted to see the work and the face of Karin Jones who is currently doing her MFA at NSCAD. Karin says about this work:
The work I'm doing in the MFA program at NSCAD is all about hair and (racial and cultural) identity. I made some brooches out of synthetic hair extensions using Victorian techniques, and then Kristy Depper photographed me wearing wigs that match the jewellery. (Is hair a body part, or is it adornment?) The intention was to be a bit silly and awkward, and to see how it would feel wearing "someone else's" hair.
I wish I had though to get the name of the artists on this one, because I absolutely love the textures here. This was at the beginning of the night and I was already starting to get anxious about not seeing everything we wanted to, so names of artists became much less important
After leaving the Design Exchange we happened upon this little slice of Nova Scotia. It was especially funny for all of the "Scotians" who had come to Toronto for the conference.
A Peggy's Cove lighthouse in the financial district!
This is from "Opine" the student exhibition at OCAD's Student Gallery. This is a piece by one of my NSCAD studiomates Yuanyuan Zou.
more lovely pieces from Opine:
I think my favourite exhibition was "Making It Real" which showcased digitally fabricated work. There is so much potentially in this kind of technology and work and it was truly amazing to see what people were doing with it.
so beautiful:
Our next stop was "Moving Metal: Canadian Silversmiths at Work" at shopAGO. There was some really beautiful work in this show. Having taken holloware I have such an appreciation for these pieces.
Speaking of holloware! Here is another piece by NSCAD prof Kye!
Amazing piece by Mike Sharpe:
We also stopped at 18 KT gallery for their show "Ferrous". I was overwhelmed by the small gallery that was crammed with interested onlookers, but the work there was incredible. Love this piece by Maureen Faye-Chauhan:
More gorgeous work by Melissa Cameron:
Fast forward another day. After another day of lectures Emily and Alice took a break from jewellery when we arrived at Harbourfront Centre for the happenings there to play with some puppets
After the brief puppet break we were once again overwhelmed by the work we saw:
And if all of those shows weren't enough, some galleries held pop up shops in their hotel rooms during the conference. Galerie Noel Guyomarc'h had some amazing work. I fell in love with Peter Hoogeboom's pieces immediately.
Heidi Lowe Gallery had an amazing display of earrings in their pop up shop. I really loved how they were displayed.
The last night of the conference we had a little bit of a kitchen nightmare. No really, we were waiting for the cameras to pop out and for Gordon Ramsay to arrive. I have never experience such rude service, it was so bad to the point that we cancelled our orders and left the restaurant. We ended up at Jack Astor's which was cheaper, came with friendlier service and crayons to draw on the table with! Naturally when you put four artists at a table, they are going to start drawing...
SNAG ended with desserts and a big dance party. It was so wonderful getting to spend some time with my east coast friends. It was like a mini reunion only two weeks after having left!
