 |
Résumé |
|
|
Close Window |
Bio
Helen Shirk grew up in Buffalo, New York and went to undergraduate school at Skidmore College, where she took her first jewelry course with Earl Pardon. Following graduation from Skidmore in 1963 she went to Denmark to study on a Fulbright Grant. In 1967 she returned to the States to do her MFA in jewelry and metalsmithing with Alma Eikerman at Indiana University in Bloomington. She taught at Indiana University from 1971-73 and after that at the Des Moines Art Center from 1973-75. In 1975 she accepted a position at San Diego State University where she is currently Professor of Art and Head of the Jewelry/Metalsmithing program. She has been the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1978 and 1988 and was made a Fellow of the American Crafts Council in 1999. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and abroad and included in many public collections, among them the Schmuckmuseum (Pforzheim), National Museum of Modern Art (Kyoto), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Mint Museum of Craft and Design, American Craft Museum, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, Carnegie Museum, and Oakland Museum.
Education
| 1963 | BS, Skidmore College, Saratoga, NY |
| 1964 | Kunsthaandvaerkerskoten, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| 1969 | MFA, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN |
Employment
| 1975 - present | Professor of Art, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA |
Grants and Honors
| 1963 | Fulbright Grant to Denmark |
| 1978, 1988 | National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman's Fellowship |
| 1999 | Fellow of the American Craft Council |
Public Collections
| Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England |
| Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany |
| National Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan |
| Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, NY |
| Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC |
| American Craft Museum, New York, NY |
| Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA |
| Oakland Museum of Art, Oakland, CA |
| Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC |
| Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA |
| Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA |
| Minnesota Museum of Art St Paul, MN |
| Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN |
| University of Texas, El Paso, TX |
| Marietta College, Marietta, OH |
Selected Exhibitions
| 2003 | Solo Exhibition, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC |
| 2002 | Escape from the Vault, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii |
| 2001 | Invitational Exhibition of the International Craft
Biennale, Cheongju City, Korea |
| 2000 | Twenty Objects from the Late Twentieth Century, Jerald Melberg Gallery. Charlotte, NC |
| 1998 | Brooching it Diplomatically: A Tribute to Madelaine Albright, Museum Het Kruithuis, 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, and the Museum of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland |
| 1998 | Benchmarkers: Women in Metal, National Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN |
| 1997 | American Masters of Late 20th Century Holloware, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA |
| 1997 | Celebrating American Craft 1970-1995, Danish Museum of Decorative Art, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| 1995 | Helen Shirk: Contemporary Jewelry 1970-1995, Helen Drutt Gallery, Philadelphia, PA |
| 1994 | American Craftsman Series: Vessels, Castle Gallery, New Rochelle, NY |
| 1993 | Corpus: Norwegian and International Craft Art, Vestlandske Kunstindustri Museum, Bergen, Norway |
| 1993 | Sculptural Concerns: Contemporary American Metalsmithing, Cincinnati Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH |
| 1991 | Design Visions, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia |
| 1990 | Helen Shirk: Vessels, Kurtz-Bingham Gallery, Memphis, TN |
| 1989 | Helen Shirk: Twenty Years, National Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN |
| 1988 | Craft Today USA, Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France |
| 1988 | By Hammer and Hand: Four Contemporary Silversmiths, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1986 | Masters of American Metalsmithing, National Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN |
| 1988 | Oxford Gallery `68-'88, Oxford Gallery, Oxford, England |
| 1984 | Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York, NY |
| 1984 | Contemporary Jewelry: The Americas, Australia, Europe and Japan, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan |
| 1984 | Modem Jewelry: 1966-84, Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada |
| 1983 | International Schmuckshau, Munich, Germany |
| 1982 | Tendenzen '82, Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany |
| 1981 | Good as Gold: Alternative Materials in American Jewelry, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC |
| 1981 | Helen Shirk: Linear Sketches, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1980 | Armschmuck, Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany |
| 1978 | Modern American Jewelry, Mikimoto & Company, Tokyo, Japan |
| 1975 | Forms In Metal: 275 Years of Metalsmithing In America, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY |
| 1970 | Goldsmith 70, Saint Paul Art Center, St. Paul, MN |
Selected Bibliography
| 2001 | Color on Metal, Tim Mc Creight, Guild Publishers |
| 2000 | Women Designers in the USA 1900-2000, Pat Kirkham, Bard Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York. |
| 2000 | Contemporary Silver, Seymour Rabinovitch and Helen Clifford, Merrell |
| 1999 | Modern Jewelry 1955 - 1995, Fritz Falk, Amoldsche |
| 1998 | Dictionnaire International du Bijou, Edition du Regarde, Paris, France |
| 1997 | Curators Focus: Turning in Context, Wood Turning Center |
| 1996 | Nouvel Objet, Design House, Seoul, Korea |
| 1995 | Jewelry of Our Time, Helen Drutt English /Peter Dormer, Thames and Hudson |
| 1994 | One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today, Susan Lewin, Harry Abrams |
| 1992 | Design Visions, edited by Robert Bell, Art Gallery of Western Australia |
| 1991 | Crafts, edited by Martina Margetts, Thames and Hudson |
| 1990 | Product Design 4, edited by Joel Sokolov, PBC International |
| 1990 | 80's Style: Designs of the Decade, Albrecht Bangert and Karl Armor, Abbeville Press |
| 1985 | The New Jewelry; Trends and Traditions, Peter Dormer and Ralph Turner, Thames and Hudson |
| 1988 | International Design Yearbook 4, Arata Isozaki, Abbeville Press |
| 1988 | Contemporary American Craft Art: A Collectors Guide, Barbara Mayer, Peregrine Smith Books |
| 1986 | Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, American Craft Museum, New York, NY |
| 1982 | Jewelry Concepts and Technology, Oppi Untracht, Doubleday, NY |
| 1990 | Metalsmith, Fall 1990; Metalsmith Exhibition in Print 1994,2000,2001 |