FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Springfield, MO. (October 16, 2023) – The Springfield Art Museum is pleased to announce the acquisition of work by Indiana artist Jessica Calderwood. Calderwood is an enamellist and metalsmith and an Associate Professor at Ball State University. Her work was recently featured in the group exhibition Holding Space: Contemporary Enamel Vessels, the Museum’s first exhibition devoted solely to the enamel arts. That exhibit featured significant loans from public and private collections including the Metal Museum, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, and the Enamel Arts Foundation.
Calderwood was a Resident Artist at both the John Michael Kohler Arts and Industry Program and at the Mesa Arts Center. Her work has been exhibited extensively, including at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN, the Pittsburgh Contemporary Craft Museum, and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Limoges in France. She is particularly interested in the “labor of craft” and the use of traditional craft media including enamel, fiber, and glass beads.
Striped Crossweave: The couch in the waiting room of my son’s piano teacher is from Calderwood’s most recent body of work revolving around interpretations of textile patterns. To create the work, she first spins a copper disc to create the form, and then meticulously arranges and fires glass seed beads on the enameled surface. She notes that “The melting of the beads permanently fuses the pattern but also encourages distortions. The creation of repetitive patterns is a meditative process, born out of the need to create order from chaos.”
This work not only highlights multiple techniques using enamel and copper, which complement the Museum’s collection of enamel-ware, but also connects to the Museum’s textile collection which includes historic costumes and rugs. Prior to this acquisition, the Museum had no work by Calderwood in the permanent collection. Calderwood is the second artist featured in Holding Space: Contemporary Enamel Vessels that the Museum has acquired work from. The Museum previously announced the acquisition of new enamel works by Sarah Perkins in August. The Springfield Art Museum is located at 1111 East Brookside Drive. Admission is always free. Donations are gratefully accepted.
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Image credit: Jessica Calderwood, Striped Crossweave: The couch in the waiting room of my son’s piano teacher, 2023, Glass beads, vitreous enamel, and spun copper. Collection of the Springfield Art Museum.
The Springfield Art Museum is Springfield, Missouri’s oldest cultural institution, founded in 1928. A department of the City of Springfield, the Museum invites you to connect with the world, your community, and yourself through active engagement with art objects. For more information, please visit www.sgfmuseum.org or contact Joshua Best, Museum Affairs Officer at (417) 874-2859 or jbest@springfieldmo.gov.
