The creations of 35 metal artists from northern California will be assembled in a stunning exhibition at Ukiah’s Grace Hudson Museum to open July 21, 2007 and run through October 14, 2007. Featuring artists from the Bay Area to Arcata, “Metal Works North” will include pieces that span the spectrum from delicate jewelry to massive yet graceful hand-forged furniture. Nine Mendocino County artists will be represented in the exhibit, as well as one from Lake County and one from Humboldt County. The exhibit is co-curated by Colleen Schenck, a well-known metal sculpture and jewelry artist, and her husband, Marvin Schenck, curator of Grace Hudson Museum. The free opening reception for the exhibition will take place on Saturday, July 21, 2007 from 5-7:30 p.m. A week later, on Saturday, July 28, the Schencks will conduct a free tour of the exhibit for the public at 2 p.m. 

The history of metal artistry in California is long and distinguished. In recent years northern California has witnessed a renaissance in the art of metalsmithing, thanks to the presence of several college metal arts departments as well as programs at institutions such as the Mendocino Art Center. Many of the artists in the exhibition have taught classes at the Mendocino Art Center as well as at other regional institutions. A strong network of communication, knowledge, and creative experimentation now exists among these fine art metalsmiths and their students.

Premiere northern California metalsmiths as well as “rising star” artists will be participating in the exhibit with exquisite pieces fashioned in gold, silver, copper, and wrought iron, often mixed with other media. These artists draw on a lineage that includes centuries of silver and goldsmith techniques, the folk artistry and ingenuity of the village blacksmith, and a century of modern art design. The heritage of craftsmanship is evident throughout the show.

The natural beauty of northern California has inspired many of the stylized trees, shells, and kelp that appear in a number of the pieces. Oakland blacksmith Shawn Lovell has created a four-poster bed in which wrought-iron “tree trunk posts” give rise to leafy branches that meet overhead in an intricately fashioned bird’s nest. Little River’s René Roberts has shaped coralline algae into a bowl rimmed with delicately protruding fingers, encrusted it with electroformed copper, and tinted it to match the natural pink tones of the algae. Toby Hickman of Westport has fabricated a hammered-copper door that depicts the fish and undulating seaweeds of an underwater kelp forest.

In a departure from historic gender roles, many women are involved in contemporary metal arts, including Lovell, Roberts, Dana Driver of Albion who inlays silver and copper into beach stones and creates exotic jewelry out of reworked bottle caps, and Marilyn da Silva, who fabricates small fantasy sculpture in precious metals. In fact, more than half of the exhibitors in “Metal Works North” are women.

Tree Bed by Shawn Lovell, Iron

Warming Trends by René Roberts, Electroformed Copper, Coralline algae, patinas, and dyes.

Study for hammered copper kelp door by Toby Hickman of Westport