Seattle Metals Guild

Symposium Location:

Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) Map
2700 24th Ave East
Seattle, WA 98112

Doors open at 8:00am for coffee, treats and registration. Program begins at 9:00am and ends at 5:30pm.

If you are considering attending the Symposium and are traveling from outside the Seattle area, there will be a limited number of housing options available. Details about housing opportunities and registration will be posted soon.

This year's presentations:

Klaus Bürgel

Endless Conundrum

The relationship between the small object and the large is one of comparative intimacies and formal echoes. Klaus Bürgel produces installations, drawings, objects and jewelry that relate to each other across the broad terrain of scale, explore that region and comfortably live within it. Earning his MFA from the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich, Germany he is the subject of the recently published monograph, “Endless Conundrum. Klaus Bürgel, Drawings, Sculpture, Jewelry.” Speaking about his work, Bürgel says: “I like to think of my jewelry as a secretion. Like a bee produces honey, the jewelry is what comes out of me.”

Kim Cridler

Beauty and Its Pursuit - The Aesthetics of Pleasure

To paraphrase art historian James Trilling, “The use of ornamentation to enrich objects and environments is as old as humankind. Yet, in the wake of modernism, it has for most of the twentieth century been excluded from mainstream Western art making.” Kim Cridler, Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin, Madison is on a mission to reestablish the importance of the decorative in our society and our culture. Cridler will explore the recent resurgence of ornamentation in a variety of craft disciplines and how its legacy has influenced her studio practice and holds the promise to enrich our day-to-day lives.

Arthur Hash

Crafting in the Digital Age

Known for his varied approach to both making and marketing, Arthur Hash produces work that defies easy categorization. Currently a Metals Lecturer in the Metals Department at SUNY, New Paltz, he teaches a catalog of classes that include Digital Design in Studio Arts and Blogging, Packaging and Assembly, Processes and Techniques. Hash, who earned his MFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design from Indiana University, will speak about how digital tools and technologies are changing art and design in the classroom and in the working craft studio.

Marvin Jensen

From Here to There: Many Paths and Only Two Feet

Some might consider a wide and varied list of acquired skills and seemingly unrelated accomplishments the mark of an unfocused person. But artist, designer, metalsmith, machinist, teacher and innovator Marvin Jensen would more accurately be characterized as a Renaissance Man. He is known not only for his exceptional mokume gane vessels, his furniture and stainless steel jewelry but also as an iconoclast who doesn't cleave to the conventional notions of what it means to be an artist. Jensen has taught at venues such as Penland and RIT and his work is included in the permanent collection of the Art Museum of Rhode Island School of Design and the Mint Museum. The artist will speak about the paths that he has chosen to walk as a maker.

Elizabeth Shypertt

Velvet daVinci: the Broad View

In a world of galleries that so often seems to be polarized in its aesthetic identities, Velvet da Vinci has become known for its refreshingly eclectic and global curatorial philosophy, featuring traditionally executed metalwork alongside pieces by artists who are utilizing radically new approaches and materials. Opened in San Francisco on a shoestring in 1991 by Elizabeth Shypertt and her business partner Mike Holmes, the gallery has evolved from its humble beginnings into a must-visit destination for collectors, jewelry and small object enthusiasts and artists. Shypertt will talk about her experiences as a gallerist and her observations of the field from her unique perspective.