San Francisco’s VELVET DA VINCI is proud to present Stonecutting, an exhibition of work by New Zealand artists Craig McIntosh + Joe Sheehan
Opening reception with the artists will take place on Friday, May 1, from 6-8 pm.
Craig McIntosh’s most recent series of brooches are hand carved and fabricated from Pakohe (argillite), a material rich with metaphor for New Zealand’s cultural and natural landscape. A highly indurated sedimentary rock, hardened through intense compression and heat, Pakohe is often described as “basement rock,” as it literally represents the material New Zealand is built from and upon. Calling to mind visions of topographical maps and aerial nature photographs, McIntosh’s process channels the aesthetic and symbolic implications of his material, resulting in fractured, layered, and laminated compositions. According to the artist:
“The brooches… are abstract forms arrived at through the making process, and the associations with landscape and boundary are the result of thinking through making. When I’m working with stone I take the perspective that I am in some way are some way working with land, or can be seen as working with place, or even working possibly with here…. Landscape is a human construct, it is the way we see and interpret the physical environment. The division and breaking up of land into the idea of a system of human made spaces has shaped our environment. So for me it is therefore critical, when using stone in a contemporary jewelry context to have an understanding of both identity and boundary, jewelry can not be made concerning anything else until this is considered.”
McIntosh earned a Bachelors of Visual Arts and Masters Degree from the Dunedin School for Art. His works have exhibited in Japan, New Zealand, and Germany. Highlighted shows include WUNDERRUMA, a touring exhibition that debuted at the 2014 Schmuck conference. The artist presently lives and works in Dunedin.
Craig McIntosh, Pakohe Brooch 004, 2015, Carved Pakohe (Argillite), 1.85 x .25 x 2.15″
Craig McIntosh, Pakohe Brooch 006, 2015, Carved Pakohe (Argillite), 2.15 x .25 x 2.15″
Craig McIntosh, Pakohe Brooch 0011, 2015, Carved Pakohe (Argillite), 1.65 x .35 x 2.80″
Craig McIntosh, Pakohe Brooch 003, 2015, Carved Pakohe (Argillite), 3.65 x .25 x 2″
Joe Sheehan’s series The Quick and the Dead is a collection of remote controls meticulously carved from stone. Presented as artifacts in the style of classic typological museum display, the work takes the form of whole units and broken pieces, calling to mind futuristic archaeological documentations of contemporary culture. Arranged by similarity and type, the series poses questions about contemporary methods in museum studies, addressing notions of preservation and historiography from a global perspective. Working with New Zealand native stones such as greywacke, basalt, and argillite, Sheehan shines a light on the heavy historic symbolism of each material from a South Pacific cultural context, referencing prominent museum collections of Toki: stone adzes made by Maori and other Polynesian cultures.
Joe Sheehan, The Quick and the Dead (Group 5), Greywacke, basalt, argillite, Sizes vary. Photo Credit: Kallan MacLeod.
Joe Sheehan, The Quick and the Dead (Group 4), Carved basalt, Sizes vary. Photo Credit: Kallan MacLeod. Velvet da Vinci
2015 Polk Street,
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: 415-441-0109
Email: info@velvetdavincigallery.com
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am – 6pm, Sunday, 11am – 4pm.
Craig McIntosh – Bague – argilite, argent – 2013
Areta Wilkinson – « Hei Tupa »
