2013 Artist Market Judges
Regina Imbsweiler
www.imbsweiler.com
Education:
Goldschmiedeschule, Pforzheim, Germany, 1974-76
Journeyman Goldsmith’s Exam, Handwerkskammer Karlsruhe, 1977
Studies of Drawing, Fachhochschule für Design, Hamburg, 1980
Studies of Philosophy at University of Hamburg, 1981-87
Professional Affiliations:
Georgia Goldsmiths Group- Head of Professional Development Committee
Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc.
Professional Data:
1987-91 Co-owner Arts and Crafts Gallery, Hamburg, Germany
1992-1998 Owner, Goldsmiths Gallery, Atlanta
Since 1998 Studio Artist at Irvindale Studios, Chamblee
Currently exhibiting at:
Piedmont Craftsmen Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC
Grovewood Gallery, Asheville, NC
Edgewood Orchard Galleries, Fish Creek, WI
Artisana, Sebastopol, CA
Topaz Gallery, Atlanta, GA
Zarks Gallery, Eureka Springs, AR
Fire Opal, Jamaica Plain, MA
Artist Statement:
From the beginning, jewelry making has been a passion for me. Going to goldsmithing school and working during the day I had set up my workbench at home and created my own pieces at night. I was experimenting, fabricating landscapes in silver after watercolors that I made while traveling in the south of France. Soon I had my own collection, selling in stores around Germany. With a ceramicist friend I started a small gallery called “Arts & Crafts”. In 1991 I moved to the United States with my American husband, Ted, and our two children. My work is sold by select galleries across the United States and I have trained many apprentices in my studio. My jewelry pieces are improvisations on themes of free flowing as well as classical forms, performed with a wide variety of goldsmith’s techniques. I love luminous cabochon stones such as aquamarines and tourmalines. I hope that, holding or wearing one of my pieces, you will experience some of the passion that goes into each of them.
Matt Janke
Janke Studios, Glassblowing Studio
http://www.jankestudios.com/
Matt Janke has a B.A. in Jewelry Metals (1984) and an M.F.A in Glassblowing (1992) both from Kent State University (KSU), Kent Ohio. He continues to be mentored by Henry Halem (Glass) and Bruce Metcalf (Metals), men with whom he formed strong bonds while he apprenticed with both during his tenure at KSU.
Matt has worked in both mediums since 1980. Janke and his family relocated to Atlanta in 1986 where he worked as a master jeweler for ten years. While metal was his first love; his interest in glass and a desire to continue to work in the medium prompted him to build and open Atlanta’s first glassblowing Studio in 1996. Janke Studio’s originated in Marietta, Georgia and since 2000 has been permanently located at 659 Auburn Ave. in Atlanta’s historic Fourth Ward District. The Old Fourth Ward is the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr, the gallery and studio are located two blocks from the King Center National Park in downtown Atlanta.
Creatively Matt believes that:
“The process of creating a piece of art for me is an intuitive as well as, an intellectual and technical challenge. In my work the purpose of a piece directs and dictates the use of different materials, while the scale of a piece is determined by where it is to be viewed or interacted with. Deeply rooted in my being is the belief that the material used is far less important than the actual process of expressing ideas and manipulating materials to a high degree of quality. ”
His signature creations are placed both nationally and internationally. In Atlanta, you’ll find his work placed as the signature chandelier at the Sweetwater 420 Brewery, pendants at The Optimist and Watershed on Peachtree Restaurants, the Triple Block sculpture and chandelier at Block Lofts and the signature sculpture in One Midtown Plaza as well as many other locations. He is represented by River Gallery in Chattanooga, TN and Glassworks in Louisville, KY
Upon opening the studio in 1996 Matt was confronted with the realization that Atlanta is a young city with respect to the craft and medium of Art Glass. Matt and his wife Kim decided that the mission of Janke Studios would first be “To promote and expose the art of glassblowing throughout the southeast”. The strategy being to teach glassblowing classes, host events, build a mobile studio and to open a functional art glass gallery to engage not just the refined collector; but those new to art glass and glassblowing by presenting work they understand.
Sixteen years later Matt is living his mission of exposing and promoting the art of glassmaking throughout the southeast. 2012 brought mobile studio shows at the Montgomery Museum of Art in Alabama with glass artist Stephen Rolfe Powell, a mobile show and a personal show of his work at The LaGrange Museum of Art in LaGrange Georgia and several projects with the Carlos Museum at Emory.
Julia Woodman
Designer Master Silversmith
www.juliawoodman.com
Julia Woodman has lived in Lahti, Finland where she studied with second and third generation Fabergé masters while on a Fulbright Grant and was certified Master Silversmith in Finland, the first American. She has a MFA degree from Georgia State University and has studied with Heikki Seppä and other masters at the Penland School of Craft during many summer sessions. Also, she teaches at the Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta, Chastain Arts Center and substitute taught at GSU. She has won several national awards and her work is in private collections throughout the US, High Museum of Art, Atlanta and Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Eng., Georgia State University, Temple Sinai, Holy Innocents Episcopal Church, Cathedral of Saint Philip, St Thomas More Catholic Church, Atlanta.
Dave Campbell
David Campbell has a Bachelor of Applied and Fine Arts (1977) from the University of Akron. Since graduation, he has worked as an artist and illustrator for several agencies and studios with many national clients. He uses many mediums to fits the needs of his clients. After relocating to Atlanta in 1980, he has free-lanced for many Fortune 500 companies, such as Coca-Cola, Siemens, IBM, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg’s, UPS, Bank of America, Goodyear, and Blue Moon Brewing Company.
In 1998, he began to bridge the gap between the commercial and fine art worlds by painting murals. In addition to murals painted for several corporate clients (including Barton Malow Company and Goodyear), you can see his work on display in several local schools (Bryant Elementary, Renaissance Middle, Bear Creek Middle, and Peachtree Middle), and he is currently on the Blue Moon Brewing muralist team. He has painted a number of murals in private residences, as well. As an artist, David has exhibited in numerous galleries and shows throughout the US.
David has an extensive teaching background as well. In 1986, he began as an adjunct instructor teaching illustration, drawing, watercolors, acrylics, and pastels at the Atlanta College of Art. He later became the coordinator for the Atlanta College of Art’s Continuing Education Program, Design Department. Also, he is credited with implementing an art program for the Atlanta Union Mission. He has judged and juried several art shows, including the Decatur Arts Festival. Currently, David teaches drawing and painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Continuing Education Program and works from his studio in Atlanta, Georgia.
Veronica Kessenich
Kessenich Contemporary
www.kessenichcontemporary.com
Veronica Kessenich received her professional training at renowned Atlanta gallery, Fay Gold Gallery. As director of the gallery, Kessenich worked side-by-side with esteemed gallerist, Fay Gold, whose mentorship helped facilitate a deep love of the art business. Receiving her formal education with a Bachelor’s of Arts from Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, IN and a Master’s of Philosophy (in Art History) from St. Andrews University, Scotland, Kessenich combines her business acumen with a concentrated education in Art History.
Kessenich is an Art History instructor at the Art Institutes of Atlanta, the Art Institutes of Atlanta-Decatur and the Savannah College of Art & Design (Atlanta). She is also an active member of the arts advisory board for The Creatives Project, the Fundraising Board for Flux Projects, and exhibition curator at the Janet S. Day Gallery (the Art Institute of Atlanta). She has curated a number of exhibitions around the Atlanta area and has served as a panel member for the Lamar Dodd School of Art Professional Practice Panel (University of Georgia, Athens, GA).
Karen Lowe
Chastain Arts Center, Cultural Affairs Facility Manager
www.ocaatlanta.com
Karen Comer Lowe is currently working as Facility Manager and Curator of the Chastain Arts Center, the oldest art center in Atlanta. She began working with the center in August of 2010.
Karen has a passion for the arts and has experience in museums, galleries, and arts institutions for over eighteen years. She has worked in curatorial and educational positions in institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, the Tubman African American Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has also worked as an independent Art Advisor and Appraiser and developed relationships with The Westminster School, The National Black Arts Festival and many private clients. Karen has built connections with artists and arts institutions nationwide. From 1999--‐2003, Karen was the curator of City Gallery East, a former program of the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs.
In that role, Karen was responsible for producing exhibitions and ancillary events. She also curated a number of groundbreaking exhibitions, which included but are not limited to Curves and Swerves by Herbert Creecy and Habitats and Shotgun Shacks by Beverly Buchanan. She also curated exhibitions of artists works including Lorna Simpson, James Van deer Zee and Elizabeth Catlett. Karen has given lectures on artists and art movements throughout the southeast. She has also given workshops on collecting art throughout the region.
Currently she manages the programs and facility of the Chastain Arts Center and independently curates exhibitions of local artists at the Rialto Center for the Arts in Atlanta.