Join the Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Design and Decorative Art, Sarah Schleuning, for an exciting overview of our long-anticipated contemporary jewelry exhibition including the evolution of the collection over the past seventy-five years. Schleuning will then be joined on stage by Bettina Dittlmann and Leslie Shershow, artists represented in the show. Schleuning will lead a conversation that explores their individual works in the exhibition and the significance of contemporary jewelry in a museum collection.
Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art showcases more than 350 wearable works of art, many of which have never been on view before. The exhibition surveys nearly a century of creativity and celebrates the ingenuity of jewelry artists from across the globe. It provides a fresh perspective on contemporary jewelry, illuminating the delightful connections that unite established masters and burgeoning talents and transcend chronological boundaries and geographical borders. Featuring golden crowns formed to look like cardboard, enchanting necklaces made from plastic bags, and whimsical brooches resembling toast, Constellations does not simply highlight the treasures of a world-class collection, but captures the depth, breadth, and diversity of contemporary jewelry design.
About the Artists:
Leslie Shershow is a jewelry artist and educator whose work explores themes of memory, nostalgia, longing, and the souvenir. She received her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and her MFA from San Diego State University. She has taught at jewelry and metalwork programs including The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, MA; New Mexico State University; and Penland School of Crafts, NC, and she is currently a lecturer at San Diego State University and San Diego Continuing Education.
Recent exhibitions include the transborder museum exhibition La Frontera (Mingei Museum, San Diego) and Material Witness (City Gallery, San Diego). Her solo exhibition Escape Route was presented at the internationally prominent Sienna Patti Contemporary in 2023. In addition to her exhibition work, Shershow's professional research encompasses curatorial and virtual projects, such as the Jewelry Generator (www.jewelrygenerator.com), the Hearts + Flowers exhibition at Brooklyn Metal Works, and a feature article for Metalsmith magazine.
Bettina Dittlmann lives and works in her native Germany. After completing a goldsmithing apprenticeship in Neugablonz, she joined the prestigious Kunstakademie in Munich, where she studied under Hermann Jünger until 1989. She then came to America to complete a master’s degree at SUNY New Paltz in New York State before returning to the Kustakademie in 1993 to complete her diploma under Otto Künzli’s supervision. Having moved her studio between the United States and Europe on several occasions, she has been settled in Breitenbach, in Western Germany, since 2008.
Well known for her enameled iron wire brooches, Dittlmann is presenting new work made with iron mill scale, which consists of ferrous oxides that form onto iron when heated and forged. Coupling this material with rare earth magnets, she takes advantage of physical laws in order to determine the orientation and organization of each element of the piece. Through the power of magnetic fields, Dittlmann metaphorically represents the social and political turbulence in which we all evolve, constrained by invisible and uncontrollable forces. Arranged concentrically by the magnet’s force, like flowers, Bettina Dittlmann’s brooches express turmoil, change, and the ephemeral aspect of life.
This talk is open to the public; exhibition preview tickets can be purchased at checkout. DMA Members are invited to reserve free tickets to attend the talk during the members-only preview celebrating the opening of Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art. Become a DMA Member today and register for free tickets.
Image (left to right): Leslie Shershow, Brian Fleetwood, Bettina Dittlmann.
