Thursday, January 17, 2008

Writer/contact: Nora Wendl, 706/542-0069, nwendl@uga.edu

Anya Kivarkis brings critical practice to historical jewelry designs in “White on White” at Broad Street Gallery

Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art Galleries will present White on White, a solo exhibition by artist Anya Kivarkis, on view from Jan. 29 to Feb. 29 at Broad Street Gallery. The opening night of the exhibition will unfold with two events: a visiting artist/scholar lecture on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 5:30 p.m. in room 102 of the Student Learning Center, followed by the artist’s reception at Broad Street Gallery from 7 to 9 p.m.

Lush/austere, ornamental/minimal, exuberant/restrained: the most accurate experience of this latest body of work by Anya Kivarkis lies in the tension between descriptions. Culling new ideas and methods from the world of tradition, beauty and adornment, Kivarkis continues an inquiry into our perceptions of jewelry and the body. With White on White, Kivarkis interprets and reconsiders a wealth of visual evidence from the history of jewelry design, with a particular focus on the Baroque period.

Studying the archival materials, period paintings and drawn records of craftspeople who created jewelry, then often melted down and re-worked their designs, Kivarkis inserts herself in this quick-changing history, using her contemporary practice to provide a critical perspective, and new interpretations, on traditional jewelry design – as well as our relationship with flourish and embellishment. Rather than concern herself with faithfully replicating the original, however, she creates these designs anew through the inevitable mis-readings of the imprecise and incomplete records available. Kivarkis’ practice operates in the space between the drawing and the artifact, the past and the present, with the brooches themselves rendered only in white, as though literally “drawn,” a flat, white, industrial ground bridging the distance. 

Anya Kivarkis is visiting assistant professor in metals and jewelry at the University of Oregon. She received a B.F.A. in craft (jewelry/metalsmithing) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a M.F.A. in metal from the State University of New York (SUNY), New Paltz.

Recent exhibitions include Sculptural Objects Functional Art (SOFA) Chicago 2005 with Sienna Gallery; Markers in Contemporary Metals II at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, N.Y.; and the Emerging Jewelers Exhibition at Sienna Gallery, Mass. She has recently lectured at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and participated as a panel discussion member in the Art Jewelry Forum Symposium at the State University of New York in New Paltz. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, N.Y.

All Broad Street Gallery events are free and open to the public. The Broad Street Gallery is located at the Broad Street Studios Complex, 257 West Broad Street, in Athens, Ga. Broad Street Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For further information, contact Nora Wendl, Gallery Director, Lamar Dodd School of Art at 706/542-0069 or nwendl@uga.edu, or visit www.art.uga.edu.

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