Velvet da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco presents “Michael Brennand-Wood: Vase Attacks” and “Maybe Just One More” by Lynn Christiansen. This exhibition opens March 11, with an artists’ reception on Friday, March 13 from 6 to 8 p.m. with a gallery talk by Michael Brennand-Wood at 6:30.

Michael Brennand-Wood: Vase Attacks

UK-based fiber artist Michael Brennand-Wood was inspired by 1950s science fiction movie posters for his new installation, Vase Attacks. Bouquets of machine embroidered flowers and cross-culturally based designs form the vases that explode from the wall more with exuberance than violence. The patterns of color, form and dimension are very decorative but also thought provoking such as where fighter bomber butterflies swarm around a mushroom cloud of plastic toy army men. Combining fiber, plastic, metal, and wood Brennand-Wood pushes the boundaries of contemporary fiber art.

Michael Brennand-Wood exhibits internationally and his work is featured in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Vase Attacks is the largest installation of his work in the US. Brennand-Wood will give a talk about his work at the opening reception.

Lynn Christiansen: Maybe Just One More

Local jeweler Lynn Christiansen has recently assembled a mouth-watering menu of wearable food.

Statement: “Food is my obsession. My heart races, all senses heightened as I stand in a bakery or chocolate shop enveloped by the sublime smells, the exquisite beauty of assorted truffles and pastries, the anticipation of the perfect cupcake. Pure joy!

Food is my obsession. My earliest and my most vivid memories are centered on food. A dropped ice cream cone, a butterscotch candy pulled from my grandfather’s pocket, the ultimate warm cinnamon bun. First comes the memory I can taste… the perfect chocolate cake … then comes the who, where and when.

Food is my obsession. Just one more … one too many.

Food is my obsession. I wear what I eat … both in my body and on my body. To be surrounded by truffles, pastries, ice cream … pure joy!”

Velvet da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco presents “Flip side: Jewelry from JamFactory”, a show featuring new work from eight established Australian jewelers. Sue Lorraine, Creative Director of the Metals Design Studio and curator of Flip side, explains that the intention of this exhibition was to push these artists into a new dimension of their work. “There is always more than one point of view, always several ways to look at something, from the back and the front, the inside and the outside, the upside and the downside, the safe side and the flip side.” However, instead of creating drastically new pieces for the exhibition, Lorraine found that their mature and assured practice has allowed them to push the boundaries of their everyday work. For the last 30 years, JamFactory Contemporary Craft and Design Centre, located in Southern Australia, has been a center for the design, production, exhibition and sale of work by leading and emerging Australian designers / makers.

An exhibition catalog is available.
The artists exhibiting in the show are: Alisa Dewhurst, Kath Inglis, Tassia Joannides, Sim Luttin, Sally Mahony, Lauren Simeoni, Belinda Newick, Melissa Turner.

Tassia Joannides uses the common zipper as her medium. She has given this one-dimensional form body and substance. The armbands intentionally blur the boundaries between the inside and out. By unzipping and zipping they become part of the wearer, an intimate experience.

Melissa Turner uses stainless steel to create fluid and soft forms of beauty. There is no front or back, no pin back, no pendant, no ring shank, only fluid forms. These forms stand as an act of defiance to the jewelry world, without a wearable function.

Sally Mahony uses primarily stainless steel in her work. She manipulates the material to both extremes, making it corrode and shine to a satiny, seductive black. The brooches peel away from the body exposing fabric or metal beneath.

Kath Inglis again is a manipulator of materials. She carves PVC into three-dimensional wearable sculptures. Kath is inspired by the colors of shadows and reflections in water. Just as water has no top or bottom, no starting or ending point, her jewelry is a continuous ripple on the wearer.

Lauren Simeoni’s brooches reflect the impact materials have on the world. She is a lover of materials and the impact these material leave. In this series of brooches she has printed nostalgic images on aluminum and reveals a time of personal innocence.

Sim Luttin made this body of work while recently living in the U.S. As a visitor she was hyper-aware of her surroundings. Her necklaces reflect and magnify nature with their seed-like forms as vessels strung from dark beads.

Alisa Dewhurst and Belinda Newick have used the body as their starting points. Alisa crochets necklaces illustrating the repetitive genetic message of DNA, the building material that makes up each individual. She mimics this process in crocheted wire. Belinda uses the necklace to discuss the fragility, fertility and fecundity of the female anatomy.