Please join us for an artist talk with Steven Gordon Holman and Zachery Lechtenberg In the Gallery at Brooklyn Metal Works on April 2 at 3pm.
This talk is in support of the upcoming exhibition “The Body Electric” at Gallery Loupe featuring the work of Matt Lambert, Steven Gordon Holman, and Zachery Lechtenberg, opening on April 1. Holman and Lechtenberg will be speaking about their work in conversation with studio jeweler and writer Bruce Metcalf.
Holman utilizes both actual animal skulls and antlers, as well as carved potatoes and woven synthetic tape, to fabricate trophy-like fetish necklaces and brooches triggered by childhood memories of his upbringing in Utah’s Western Desert, specifically the creation myths of the region’s indigenous peoples and legends passed down from Norse settlers, mixed with personal family lore and markers from urban culture. Holman’s iconography rests in contemporary hunting culture, talismans, amulets, and objects of remembrance.
Popular culture is the backbone of Lechtenberg’s narrative, based in contemporary cartoon imagery and realized through the exacting technique of champlevé. His colorfully eccentric cast of characters populate pendants, brooches, necklaces, and laser-engraved enamel plates, with each jewel sporting an incised message on the reverse and housed in a dedicated box topped by a hand painted illustration. Lechtenberg channels animator Matt Groening’s The Simpsons, pop imagery by artist/designer KAWS, and painter Takashi Murakami’s figurative synthesis of “high” and “low” art, along with visual imagery in the music videos of hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
– Gallery Loupe
Lechtenberg received a BFA from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and MFA from East Carolina University. Holman received a MFA from SUNY New Paltz and BA in Architectural Studies and Visual Arts (with honors) from Brown University.
The Body Electric will run from April 1-22 at Gallery Loupe, 50 Church Street, Montclair, NJ 07042. An opening reception will be held Saturday April 1, 6-8pm.