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Memphis Museum Features Exhibit Of Fine Jewelry By Black Artists August 31, 2021 (0 comments)
Memphis, TN—“Divine Legacies in Black Jewelry,” on display at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN, features a collection of more than 80 jewelry pieces representing the work of 25 Black jewelry designers. The exhibit runs through September 12.
Brooke Garcia, collections and exhibitions manager, told The Memphis Flyer, “This exhibition centers the works and lives of over 25 jewelry artists to explore the diverse histories of jewelry creation and production in the Black Diaspora of the Americas. [It] provides a lot of information about jewelers that aren’t documented otherwise. We hope that visitors walk away understanding that these jewelers are not only expressing themselves and their identities, but they are also part of the broader history of American jewelry.”
Pieces on display range from the 1940s through today and the exhibit is an expansion upon Chicago-based curator LaMar R. Gayles Jr.’s “Conjuring Black Histories in Jewelry,” says the paper. Inspired by his great-grandmother’s collection of jewelry by Black artists, Gayles began to research the category at age 13 and curated the “Black Histories” exhibit while still a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. He also curated this exhibit for the Metal Museum.
An interview with Gayles is available on the museum’s YouTube channel.