“Striking Gold” Exhibition at Fuller Craft Museum features Dutch Artists

Sat, Sep 7 - Sun, Apr 5  2020

About “Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty”

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, Fuller Craft Museum has opened the exhibition “Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty”. The exhibition, which opened on September 7th and will be on display until April 5th, 2020, explores the storied traditions, contemporary interpretations, skillful applications, and conceptual rigor of gold as an artistic material while investigating the multitude of cultural, material, and sociopolitical associations.  Among the exhibition themes to be explored are avarice, vanity, consumption, environmental consequences, power, divinity, cultural and social measures, alchemy, repair/kintsugi, artifice, transformation, and the body. Exhibited works will include craft media as well as fine art mediums to fully reflect Fuller Craft’s dual histories as both a fine art institution and a craft museum. For the 57 artists, gold remains central to their work as they delve far deeper than embellishment or decorative effect. The exhibition features the work of four Dutch artists.

Barbara Nanning

Barbara Nanning studied at the Royal Academy for Art in Amsterdam where she focused on monuments and at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where she focused on ceramics. She mainly creates ceramics and sculptures. On her website, Barbara explains a bit about her work:

“I always work from the circle, it’s an archetype.

The center of the circle is a resting point, from there, the movement emanates …

That’s what I do: capturing the essence of movement and growth in my work.”

Art by Barbara Nanning in the exhibition “Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty” at Fuller Craft Museum, courtesy of the artist and Fuller Craft Museum.

Ted Noten

Ted Noten is a Dutch artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Acadamy in Amsterdam and the Academy for Applied Arts, Maastricht. The general theme in Ted Noten’s work is to challenge convention and processes of habituation. It acts as a critique on contemporary life. A particular topic that Ted critiques is the history of jewelry and product design. Many of his most recent works are parts of larger projects in which Noten investigates familiar themes like violence, mortality, greed, love, and aging. But he also turned his attention to the means of production that are not only influencing contemporary notions of mass production, but also the domain of craftsmanship.

Art by Ted Noten in the exhibition “Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty” at Fuller Craft Museum, courtesy of the artist and Fuller Craft Museum.

Frank Tjepkema

Frank Tjepkema is a Dutch designer based in Amsterdam. After graduating cum laude from Design Academy Eindhoven in 1996 and obtaining an MA Degree from the Sanberg Institute in Amsterdam in 1998, he was selected to work for Droog Design. Frank’s work with Droog resulted in multiple successful projects the award-winning British Airways Executive Lounge at Heathrow in 2004 and the Chair of Textures presented during Art Basel Miami Beach 2006.

Art by Frank Tjepkema, in the exhibition “Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty” at Fuller Craft Museum, courtesy of the artist and Fuller Craft Museum.

Bouke de Vries

Bouke de Vries studied at the Design Academy Eindhoven, Central St. Martin’s, and West Dean College in London. After his studies, Bouke worked as a private conservator. In his work as a private conservator, he was conflicted about the contradictions surrounding perfection and worth in art: “The Venus de Milo is venerated despite losing her arms, but when a Meissen muse loses a finger she is rendered virtually worthless”. Bouke began focusing on “the beauty of destruction”. He deconstructs ceramic objects, but instead of reconstructing them to the exact objects they were before and hiding the damage, he emphasizes the objects’ new status, virtues, and values.

Art by Bouke de Vries in the exhibition “Striking Gold: Fuller at Fifty” at Fuller Craft Museum, courtesy of the artist and Fuller Craft Museum.

About Fuller Craft

Fuller Craft Museum offers expansive opportunities to discover the world of contemporary craft. It was first opened in 1969 as a space where lectures and exhibitions of mostly drawings and paintings could be held for its members. Eventually, the museum began collecting artwork in every medium. However, as of 2004, Fuller Craft focuses solely on contemporary craft. By exploring the leading edge of craft through exhibitions, collections, education, and public programs, they aim to challenge perceptions and build appreciation of the material world.

Susie Ganch, Soot Balls, featured in exhibition “Striking Gold”, courtesy of Fuller Craft Museum