Everybody's Bolos Traveling Exhibition at Fuller Craft Museum

WHERE: Fuller Craft Museum
455 Oak St, Brockton MA 02301

EXHIBITION DATES: January 25 - June 8, 2025

Everybody’s Bolos features the work of thirty contemporary artists who brought their unique voices to bear on the bolo tie, a type of neckwear traditionally constructed with a cord or braided leather string. The exhibition examines the cultural history and significance of the bolo tie in marginalized communities as well as its expressive potential and relevance as a gender-neutral form of personal adornment. Everybody’s Bolos encourages visitors to acknowledge, explore, and challenge cultural stereotypes, fostering a broader understanding through the inclusivity and creativity of craft. In addition, Everybody’s Bolos cultivates new audiences for contemporary makers who innovate in the realm of the bolo tie.

Everybody’s Bolos was co-organized and co-curated by Ana M. Lopez, professor of Studio Art: Metalsmithing and Jewelry at the University of North Texas; Brian Fleetwood, assistant professor of studio art at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM and citizen of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma; and Hannah Toussaint, metalsmith and craft artist and current MFA candidate at the University of Georgia.

This exhibition was supported by the Gretchen Keyworth Exhibition Fund.

Photos by Dasha Wright

Participating Artists:

Julie Barello
Sulo Bee @sparkle_filth
Raquel Bessudo @raquelbessudo_jewelryartist
Kate Cusack @instakatecusack
Motoko Furuhashi @motokofuruhashi
Fabiana Gadano @fabiana_gadano
Renee Holliday @reneehollidayjewelry
Lorena Lazard @lorenalazard
Andy Lowrie @starbreakr
Rosa Murillo @murojewelry
emiko oye @emikooreware
Nanette Pengelley @hewjewelry
Louise Perrone @louise.perrone
Vania Ruiz @casakiro
Liz Steiner @lrsteiner7
Anna Talbot @annatalbotjewellery
James Thurman @jamesathurman
Jessica Tolbert @jessietolb
Marlene True @marelenetrue
Dongyi Wu @dongyi.w

Looking back at One World Exhibition - Gallery Loupe

My favorite exhibition that I was invited to participate in 2020, and what will forever encapsule how the pandemic has affected artists globally was Gallery Loupe’s One World: 40 Artists Respond to Covid-19.

Our world as we knew it shut down early March 2020, and Patti Bleicher of Gallery Loupe responded by contacting the gallery’s many artists and inviting us to create pendants to reflect what we were experiencing, how we saw this global crisis. Within a few weeks she and her team pulled this together as an online exhibition and a gorgeous, accompanying book.

I certainly did not make much artwork or jewelry in 2020, but this call got me back in to the studio to create my SUNDAY Pendant and inspired a new offshoot series of work for me that year.

Read this EXHIBITION REVIEW by Makiko Akiyama of Japan for Klimt02.net (I have a lovely feature in it).

ONE WORLD: 40 Artists Respond to COVID-19
Online Exhibition, Gallery Loupe
April 30 - Aug 30, 2020

EXCERPT FROM GALLERY LOUPE’S WEBSITE:

Throughout history, jewelry has often served as touchstones for health and well-being, charms for good luck, or symbols of faith in a better future. The novel coronavirus, with its fearsome implications and daily inconveniences, has brought the international community to a standstill, confronting us all with a common peril, and thereby illustrating just how interconnected we truly are, and unified we must continually be, to fight this existential threat together.

All of the works in Gallery Loupe’s virtual exhibition were priced at $750 or less, with most of the proceeds going to the artists to help them in their time of need.

A gorgeous E-Book Catalog showcases all of the pieces in the show, including artist statements and video clips.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Annamaria Zanella, Attai Chen, Barbara Seidenath, Biba Schutz, Caroline Gore, Deganit Stern, Schocken, emiko oye, Esther Knobel, Eva Eisler, Evert Nijland, Florian Milker, Georg Dobler, Jess Tolbert, Karin Roy Andersson, Kiff Slemmons, Klaus Burgel, Lané Vorster, Luci Jockel, Lynn Batchelder, Margit Jäschke, Matt Lambert, Millie Behrens, Missy Graff Ballone, Naama Bergman, Noam Elyashiv, Peter Bauhuis, Reiko Ishiyama, Renzo Pasquale, Rian de Jong, Robert Baines, Sandra Enterline, Seung-Hea Lee, Shachar Cohen, Stephen Gordon Holman, Thomas Gentille, Tim Veske McMahon, Uli Rapp, Urmas Lüüs, Vered Kaminski, Yutaka Minegish