Past Exhibitions
High Low High 2024
The High Low High exhibition spawned when Chelsea Radka, a local shop owner with First Nations Oneida/Mohawk heritage, talked with Heidi Lowe, a Lewes jewelry gallery owner, about a recent injustice toward an Indigenous couple that became known to her. The collaborators, working with a well-known athletic brand, reneged on an order of 200 pairs of custom handmade silver and turquoise buttons made by a Diné (Navajo) couple, Marie and Daman Thompson. These buttons were intended to be incorporated into a new collection as part of the collaboration's campaign to celebrate Indigenous cultures and crafts and promote diversity.When Marie and Daman were ready to deliver the finished buttons, the collaborators tried to haggle over the agreed-upon price. The buyer ended contact with the couple after they could not lower their pricing any more than they already had.Heidi and Chelsea came together and, after getting Marie and Daman’s blessing, decided to produce an art show. The show intends to turn an unjust situation into something beautiful and thoughtful. It will hopefully bring more awareness to often overlooked situations like these. The buttons were sold to artists for the same amount as the original deal and will be incorporated into new pieces. The buttons act as a starting point for the artists and could be used as they are or be reconfigured, deconstructed, or added to in some fashion. While each piece is a collaboration between the artist, Daman, and Marie, artists were free to approach this from any perspective: as a form of activism, formal exploration, a statement, etc.“Although we wish this situation had not happened, we hope this exhibition will bring some light to an otherwise uncertain journey. We are so grateful for Daman’s and Marie’s enthusiasm and support for the show and how the artists rose to the occasion and contributed with creativity, kindness, and integrity.”A week after the exhibition opened in May, the original collaborators returned and purchased the remaining buttons from Daman and Marie. The collaboration resumed with the inclusion of the Thompsons’ work in a limited-edition run.- Heidi and Chelsea
Jewelry with a View
Jewelry with a View is an exhibition featuring Heidi Lowe’s Landscape Jewelry Collections. This work creatively shows how nature is an important source of inspiration. In one collection, she uses silver sheet metal as her canvas and tools as her pencil to make landscape drawings of the local area. The markmaking is made with an engraver, stamps, hammers and roller printing into silver. Her other collection is fully based on the stones and their unique colors, patterns, striations and forms. She marvels at their beauty, and how they are formed in the earth but often look like nature above its surface, like little paintings of clouds, tree branches, or landscapes.
Love Letter to Lewes
This exhibition investigates a place and one's relationship to it over a long period. She uses the landscape as an entrance point, the continuity discovered in the change. This show highlights the feelings brought about by a place that has reflected and left an impression. It speaks to care and community, to grace and growth.
Heidi combines drawing and printmaking practices with work for the body. Her method is slow and laborious, allowing her time to contemplate and redefine her relationship to place. She explores her connection to energy and the energy of a place as it creates a vortex of good. It is through this observation that the pieces emerge. The process is therapeutic, a type of mending, paying close attention to the tear or rip. By bringing the parts together, Heidi creates a new
Earrings Galore 2023-2024
Earrings Galore, is an annual juried exhibition, exemplifying a rich and diverse array of earrings made by emerging and established studio jewelers. Each artist’s unique approach to the earring format will be represented in a cohesive grouping of earrings. The exhibition is intended to create more access for the public to see art jewelry, cultivate connections with the community and provide an opportunity for visitors to add new pieces to their jewelry collections.
Artists:
Aimee Petkus, Alejandra Campos Taylor, Alejandro Palencia, Alex O'Connor, Alice Kresse, Ashley Buchanan, Barbara Bayne, Beru Inou, Brice Garrett, Cynthia Nge aka Minicyn, Dongyi Wu, Donna D'Aquino, Eero Hintsanen, Elaine Zukowski, Elise Thompson (Mejia Jewelry), Emily Rogstad, Erika Novak, Gabriela Sierra Torres, Gabrielle Gould, Gaby Alvarado, Gokul Bakshi, Heather Guidero, Helen Dorion, Iker Ortiz, Isabelle Busnel, Jennifer Merchant, Jess Tolbert, Jim Cotter, Julie Pierre, Karola Torkos, Kelsea Carter, Kerianne Quick, Laura Wood, Luana Coonen, Lyndsay Rice, Maria Eife, Meghan Schmiedel, Melissa Broek, Morgan Hill, Namkyung Lee, Nana Watanabe, Nick Rosin, Nikki Couppee, Rachel Rader, Sandra Salaices, Sarah Holden, Sharon Massey, Shella Robinson, Shira Brown, Sulo Bee (they/them), Susanne Henry, Tanya Crane, Tracy Steepy, Xinia Guan, Yael Pilo, Ye-Jee Lee, Yevgeniga Kaganovich
Plan B Art Project
Heidi Lowe Gallery is hosting Plan B Art Project, a traveling Contemporary jewelry exhibition, from October 8th through November 8th, 2022 at her space in Lewes, DE. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, October 8th, 5-7 pm. The curator of the exhibition, Shauna Blythe Burke, states that “Plan B” is an Art Statement to raise money for and awareness of Planned Parenthood and issues surrounding a person’s right to make choices about one’s own body.” Twenty-five percent of all artwork sales will be donated to Planned Parenthood.
The title of the show, Plan B, refers to a type of emergency birth control medication (aka the Morning After Pill) that can be taken to prevent pregnancy. Throughout history, there have been various forms of a ‘plan B’ and many cultures used medicinal herbs to end pregnancies, sometimes with poisonous or deadly results. The amphora bottle which dates back to ancient Greece was used as artistic inspiration for this show to symbolize vessels that were used to contain herbs and medicines.
For this project, Burke invited artists to transform a cast silver amphora bottle or use their own interpretation of Plan B as a starting point to create a unique wearable or sculptural object. As Burke observes “[a]rt has always been a symbolic tool to bring societal injustices to light.” Plan B Art Project is a poignant example of this notion by representing over 60 artists’ voices. The art objects in this exhibition are symbols of protest against the threats and abolishment of the rights to access a safe and legal abortion and reproductive healthcare in the United States.
Plan B Art Project was shown at Ombre Gallery in Cincinnati and then at Pistachios Gallery in Chicago during the summer of 2022. After being exhibited at Heidi Lowe Gallery from October 8- November 8, it will be shown at Pratt University in Brooklyn, NY by Shauna Blythe Burke during NYCJW (New York City Jewelry Week, November 14th-20th, 2022).
Photos by Cole Rodger
Artists:
Debra Adelson, Steve Alexis, Rachel Atherley, Karen Bachmann, Krista Bermeo, BiraBiro, Hannah Blount, Belle Brooke, Ashley Buchanan, Shauna Burke, David Butler, Jessica Calderwood, Shelly Cavanaugh, Liz Clark, Kelly Jean Conroy, Luana Coonen, Julian De La Garza, Umut Demirgüç, Ben Dory, Brie Flora, Brice Garrett, Sara Giordano, David Giulietti, Joanna Gollberg, Stefan Gougherty, Jill Baker Gower, Mia Hebib, LeeAnn Herreid, Russell Jones, Jacob Keleher, Shana Kroiz, Lynn Latta, Maia Leppo, Cindy Liebel, Thomas Mann, Sharon Massey, Michel McNabb, Tom Muir, Ayala Naphtali, Rachel Quinn, Monique Rancourt, Melinda Risk, Emily Rogstad, Cyd Rowley, Linda Savineau, Biba Schutz, Leslie Shershow, Rebecca Strzelec, Didi Sudyam, Kelly Ann Temple, Billie Theide, James Thurman, Yuri Tozuka, Munya Avigail Upin, Francesca Vitali, Maya Rose Weiss, Sam Woerhmann, Liaung-Chung Yen
Earrings Galore 2021-2022
Earrings Galore, Heidi Lowe Gallery’s signature annual juried exhibition, is a rich and diverse array of earrings made by emerging and established studio jewelers. Each artist’s unique approach to the earring format will be represented in a cohesive grouping of earrings. The exhibition is intended to create more access for the public to see art jewelry, cultivate connections with the community and provide an opportunity for visitors to add new pieces to their jewelry collections.
Enlilghtenment : Stacey Lee Webber
This classically inspired collection was designed using unique freshwater pearls, hand sawn vintage silver coins featuring Lady Liberty, and 14 karat vermeil.
Stacey Lee Webber was born in Indianapolis, IN, in 1982. She received her BS at Ball State University, Muncie, IN, (2005) and her MFA at the University of Wisconsin,Madison, WI (2008). In 2009, she was awarded a yearlong residency at Lill Street Art Center in Chicago, IL. In order to pursue her dream of becoming a full-time artist, she later moved to Philadelphia, PA., where after four bustling years of teaching while working as a production jeweler, her dream came to fruition in 2015.
Webber's work pushes the boundaries of everyday recognizable objects to the point of unidentifiable.Through material, she strives to make artwork that challenges viewers’ preconceived notions of the objects that surround them.
Mineral Instincts : Aimee Petkus & Anna Johnson
AIMEE PETKUS "My background in geology combined with my desire to create, manifests itself in the work that I make. I take the unique, magical, and mesmerizing world of rocks, gems and minerals, and present them in a way that sparks a curiosity in the stones that are being worn. I am inspired by the vast canvas nature provides, where one will find geometric patterns, order and repetitive elements along with haphazard, disordered chaos. I combine geometric and organic forms to show the duality of art and science within my life, but also to mimic these juxtapositions as found in nature."
ANNA JOHNSON Through adornment I strive to highlight the incredibly high value of nature. Jewelry has provided me with a platform to interpret a survey of plant and animal life mixed with gems and minerals in a way that creates a direct and intimate connection with its viewers and wearers. As an artist my intention is to create soulful pieces that present nature in an unfamiliar context that will perhaps trigger people to make more conscious efforts to protect the environment. There is intense beauty all around us, I hope we, as a culture, can learn to see it and form a mutualistic relationship within it and as well as between ourselves.”
Earrings Galore 2019-2020
The objective of Earrings Galore is to show rich and diverse examples of earrings madeby emerging and established studio jewelers. Although each jeweler’s artisticintent maybe specific, the show consists of a broad range of thoughtful work. The exhibition createsaccess for the public to engage with art jewelry for the first time or to add to theircollection. Featuring 53 artists from around the world, Earrings Galore 2019 will be onview at Heidi Lowe Gallery throughout the year, with pop-ups in Chicago and New YorkCity
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Subtle Fictions : Alexandra Hopp & Lydia Martin
My recent work explores how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder relates to myself, the culture at large, and especially its relationship to the identity and practices of the goldsmith. I make visible...
Subtle Fictions : Alexandra Hopp & Lydia Martin
My recent work explores how Obsessive Compulsive Disorder relates to myself, the culture at large, and especially its relationship to the identity and practices of the goldsmith. I make visible...
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(un)natural : Jina Seo & Lindsay Locatelli
The extraordinary power of objects is obtained because people believe in them. The more mundane the objects are, the more powerful they become. My practice contextualizes the embodied energy that...
(un)natural : Jina Seo & Lindsay Locatelli
The extraordinary power of objects is obtained because people believe in them. The more mundane the objects are, the more powerful they become. My practice contextualizes the embodied energy that...
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Arrayed : Rod McCormick
I like resistant media. Pushing against a recalcitrant material forces one to define and clarify one's ideas. As an art school student I took to metal and to this day...
Arrayed : Rod McCormick
I like resistant media. Pushing against a recalcitrant material forces one to define and clarify one's ideas. As an art school student I took to metal and to this day...
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CrossPASS : Demitra Thomloudis & Motoko Furuhashi
CrossPASS is a project featuring collaborative and individual works by artists Demitra Thomloudis and Motoko Furuhashi that examine place through expanded media and the intimate lens of jewelry and small...
CrossPASS : Demitra Thomloudis & Motoko Furuhashi
CrossPASS is a project featuring collaborative and individual works by artists Demitra Thomloudis and Motoko Furuhashi that examine place through expanded media and the intimate lens of jewelry and small...
