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March Issue 2009
Mint Museum
of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC, Features Works by Bruce Metcalf
The Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC, is presenting the exhibit, The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf, featuring the engaging and spirited work of prominent art jeweler Bruce Metcalf, on view through May 17, 2009. This first major exhibition of the artist's work examines social, moral and political issues in relation to Metcalf's interests in architecture, comics and the narrative voice.
In this show, small size matters. Cast in silver or carved in wood, Metcalf's tiny characters act out issues on the stage of miniature worlds. Most of his pieces serve dual purposes as both sculpture and wearable brooches in which the characters "venture" out into the world and engage the unsuspecting viewer with their stories.
The exhibition features
76 pieces by the artist, dating from the 1970s to 2001. Taking
center stage are Metcalf's emotional characters, distinguished
by their distorted bodies that manifest inflicted pain from human
nature's "dark side." Big-headed with atrophied limbs,
all of Metcalf's figures are born from cartoon traditions, yet
appear strangely credible as they address the artist's overreaching
themes of the human condition and issues of dissent.
Born in 1949, Metcalf has long been revered as a leading art jeweler,
curator, essayist and critic of contemporary craft. Most recently,
he co-authored Makers: 20th Century American Studio Craft,
to be published by the University of North Carolina Press in late
spring 2009.
The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf was curated by Signe
Mayfield and organized by Palo Alto Art Center, Division of Arts
and Sciences, City of Palo Alto, Palo Alto, CA, and has been made
possible through the support of the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation;
Rotasa Foundation; Windgate Charitable Foundation; the Arts Council
Silicon Valley; and private contributions. The exhibition is sponsored
by The Founders' Circle Ltd., the national support affiliate of
the Mint Museum of Craft + Design.
For further information
check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at
704/337 - 2000 or visit (www.mintmuseum.org).
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