June 2013

Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, Features Works by Jessica Calderwood

The Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, is presenting an exhibition of new work by artist Jessica Calderwood, on view through June 16, 2013.

This show includes jewelry, collage, wall pieces, and sculpture. Calderwood is an image maker, jeweler, and sculptor who works in enamel on metal and mixed-media collage. The work at the Penland gallery combines floral and botanical forms with human forms to create ambiguous narrative pieces.

Calderwood says she uses floral imagery because of the long history of flowers being used as symbols of femininity and as carriers of complex emotion. Her pieces are intentionally humorous and ironic. The mixed-media collage Loss, for instance, shows a floral arrangement with legs (wearing high heels). The flowers have shed some petals so they are perhaps past their prime, but the colors are still vibrant and alive.

Calderwood’s work has been exhibited throughout the US and internationally. It has also been published in Metalsmith, American Craft, NICHE, Ornament, and in The Art of Enameling by Linda Darty. She taught at Penland School in 2011.

Penland School of Crafts is a national center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in Western North Carolina, Penland offers workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, printmaking and letterpress, photography, textiles, and wood. The school also sponsors artists’ residencies, an outreach program, and a gallery and visitors center. Penland is a nonprofit, tax-exempt institution which receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the School at 828/765-6211 or visit (www.penland.org).

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