Jewelry, for the Sienna Gallery, rarely merely adorns.  In fact, most of the work the gallery features lays bare the assumptions we traditionally bring to every object in our home and on our person. 

Take Myra Mimlitsch-Gray’s work, “Trinity”.  Three saucepans of brass, each plated with a different metal (nickel, chrome, and Particle Vapor Deposition).  Functional, yes, but with enough artistry so you’ll never bring yourself to set it on a stovetop, should you find one conforming to these works.  Each plays with shape, the third almost heart shaped, and none of them conforms to the ever-familiar circles and cylinders. One has two handles. 

By breaking with the norms that we usually expect of cookware, chiefly uniformity in its design, the viewer is invited to reexamine his preconceptions.  Cookware—hidden in the kitchen, a thing of utility like a piece of furniture, but seldom noticed or admired for anything more than function.  With such pieces, Mimlitsch-Gray leads us away from the prefab world and pure commodity; the utensil becomes humanized, meaningful.

The art of Lauren Kalman, on the other hand, presents grotesques of jewelry.  Gilded tongues, large “aurel gems” and “mouth gems” which look more painful than flattering, and dental rims which present a novel alternative to grills.  By such calculated left turns at the values typically ascribed to what we adorn our bodies with, Kalman’s work depersonalizes jewelry, makes it seem both alien and ostentatious.  The effect is almost punk in its departure, but shocking as a punk style can no longer be because of her work’s material resemblance to ordinary jewelry.

Perhaps the most evocative depiction of the personal aspect of jewelry comes from Melanie Bilenker.  As the Victorians would often keep a loved one’s hair in a locket to remember them, Bilenker creates small pieces of jewelry with strands of her own hair, gently depicting everyday scenes that often come and go unnoticed.  With a mixture of gold, sterling silver, ivory piano key laminate, epoxy resin, pigment, and hair, Bilenker creates delicately layered scenes of casual moments, soft and emotional as memory.

Sienna Gallery will be showing the work of these three fascinating artists plus others at the Bridge Art Fair this weekend.  The Bridge Art Fair takes place at the former home of the Tunnel nightclub in New York City after a string of successful shows in Miami, Chicago, and London.

(Bridge Art Fair Preview: Thu 27^th, 12-4pm. Opening night reception: Thu, 5-10pm. General admission during show hours: Fri, Sat, 12-9pm; Sun, 12-7pm. The Waterfront, 222 12th Avenue, New York, NY. Opening Night Reception: $25. Tickets: $10)