Helen Shirk
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Artist Statement

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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 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

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