Artist Statement

Traces

I have long been conscious of my instinctual longing for the natural world; I am drawn to its mystery and inevitability, and to the sense of place it gives me.

Awareness of the increasing degradation of the earth and foreboding about the capacity of humanity to restore its health have embedded a layer of melancholy into this series. It made me consider the vital role nature plays in my enjoyment of life everyday.

After years of making pieces that did not involve the body, I chose to return to the smaller scale and traditional materials of jewelry for this work. The sense of intimacy and preciousness that jewelry imparts, as well as its long history of botanical imagery, seems central to this reflection on the natural world our children will inherit, a reflection on both pleasure and loss. These jewelry pieces are commemorative, celebrating the resilience and infinite variation of the natural world, and regretting the deepening shadow around it.

Résumé

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 Emerita.

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

Present Position

 1975 - present Professor of Art Emerita, 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
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC
Museum of Art and Design, 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, HI
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
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Helen Williams Drutt Collection, Houston, TX

Selected Exhibitions

2009 Read My Pins: the Madeleine Albright Collection, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
  Remake/Remodel, Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN
  Talking Hands: Spectrum of Contemporary Metal Works, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2008 Form and Function: American Modernist Jewelry, 1940-1970, Fort Wayne Museum of Art , IN
  New West Coast Design, Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2007 Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
  Field of Vision , SoFA Gallery , Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
  The Art of Conceptual Craft: Selections from the Wornick Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
  Jewelry by Artists: the Daphne Fargo Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
  Craft In America, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX
2006 Challenging the Chatelaine, Design Museum, Helsinki, Finland
  Basket (R) evolution, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
  Symbols of Identity: Jewelry from Five Continents, Miingei International Museum, San Diego CA
  Material and Space, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN
2005 Transformations: the Language of Craft, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia
2004 A View From America: Contemporary Jewelry, Gold Treasury Museum, Melbourne, Australia
  Historical Connections, Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge, MA
  Crafts, Etc.: American Master Jewelers and Metalsmiths, Buddy Holly Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX
  NCAD Master and Student, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
2003 Solo Exhibition, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC
  Beyond the Mines: The California Art of Gold, Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, CA
  Extreme Metal, Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, Tallahassee, FL
  Artists and the Cultivated Landscape, Wustum Museum, Racine, WI
2002 Steel City: Contemporary America in Metal, Sangre de Crista Art Center, Puebla, CO
  Escape from the Vault, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI
2001 Challenge VI -Roots: Insights and Inspirations to Contemporary Turned Obiects. Susquehanna Art Museum, Indianapolis Art Museum, Indianapolis, IN
  Cheongiu International Craft Biennale, Cheongju-city, Korea
2000 Twenty Objects from the Late Twentieth Century,  Jerald Melberg Gallery. Charlotte, NC
  Who Knows Where or When, Wustum Museum, Racine, WI
  20th Century at the Turn of the Millenium, Helen Drutt: Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
  Twenty Objects from the Late 20th Century, Jerald Melberg Gallery, Charlotte, NC
1999 World Competition of Arts and Crafts, Kanazawa, Japan
  Seoul Internatianal Metal Artists Invitational. Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
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
  Benchmarkers: Women in Metal, National Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN
1997 American Masters of Late 20th Century Holloware, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
  Celebrating American Craft 1975-1995, 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
  Sculptural Concerns: Contemporary American Metalsmithing, Cincinnati Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH
1992 New Acquisitions. American Craft Museum, New York, NY
1991 Design Visions, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia
1989 Helen Shirk: Vessels, Kurtz-Bingham Gallery, Memphis, TN
  Helen Shirk: Twenty Years, National Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN
1988 Craft Today USA, Musee Des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France
  By Hammer and Hand: Four Contemporary Silversmiths, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA
  Oxford Gallery `68-'88, Oxford Gallery, Oxford, England
1986 Masters of American Metalsmithing,  National Ornamental Metals Museum, Memphis, TN
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
  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
  The Goldsmith, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC 1975
1970 Goldsmith 70, Saint Paul Art Center, St. Paul, MN
1967 American Jewelry Today, Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA.
1962 Young Americans '62, Museum of Contemporary Crafts, New York, NY

 Selected Bibliography

2009 Read My Pins: Stories From a Diplomat’s Jewel Box, Madeleine Albright, Harper Collins
2008 Form and Function: American Modernist Jewelry, 1940-1970, Marbeth Schon, Schiffer
2007 Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection, Arnoldsche , Stuttgart, Germany
  500 Metal Vessels: Contemporary Explorations of Containment, curated by Fred Fenster, Lark Books
2006 Challenging the Chatelaine, Marianne Aav and Helen Drutt English, DESIGNMUSEO. Helsinki, Finland
  Contemporary Enameling: Art & Techniques, Lilyan Bachrach, Schiffer Publishing Ltd., Jan 2006
  500 Baskets, curated by Jan Peters, Lark Books, Asheville, NC
  500 Necklaces, curated by Marjorie Schick, Lark Books, Asheville, NC
2005 Transformations: the Language of Craft, published by National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
  Transformations, artist interview video http://www.nga.gov.au/Exhibition/Transformations/Default.cfm
  Silver Magazine, May/June 2005, p 44.
  Penland Book of Jewelry, Lark Books, Asheville, NC
2004 1000 Rings, curated by Robert Ebendorf, Lark Books, Asheville, NC
2001 Color on Metal, Tim Mc Creight, Guild Publishers
  Challenge VI – Roots: Insights and Inspirations in Contemporary Turned Objects, Wood Turning Center
2000 Women Designers in the USA 1900-2000, Pat Kirkham, Bard Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, NY
  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
  Brooching It Diplomatically; A Tribute to Madelaine Albright, Helen Drutt
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 Silbergestaltung: zeitaenossische Formen und Tendenzen. Weber, Klinkhardt & Biermann
  Design Visions, edited by Robert Bell, Art Gallery of Western Australia
1991 International Crafts, edited by Martina Margetts, Thames and Hudson
1990 Product Design 4, edited by Joel Sokolov, PBC International
  80's Style: Designs of the Decade,  Albrecht Bangert and Karl Armor, Abbeville Press
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
1985 The New Jewelry; Trends and Traditions, Peter Dormer and Ralph Turner, Thames and Hudson
1983 American Crafts: A Source Book for the Home, Stewart, Tabori, and Chang
1982 Jewelry Concepts and Technology, Oppi Untracht, Doubleday, NY
1976 California Design '76. California Design Publications
Various American Craft. Apr 1980, Jun 1981, Oct 1986, Aug 1988, Jun 1989, Oct 1990, Feb 1995, Jul 1995, Oct 1999
Various American Style, Fall 1998, p. 48, October 2006 (cover)
Various Metalsmith. Fall 1980, Fall 1981, Summer 1984, Winter 1985, Summer 1987, Fall 1987, Fall 1990, Summer 1996, Fall 2006
Various Metalsmith Exhibition in Print, 1994, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2009