Sarah Perkins: Red
November 8, 2016 – December 15, 2016
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One of the best enamelists in the country, Sarah Perkins is no shrinking violet to experimentation. Her pieces amaze the viewer with superb forms, brilliant colors and stylistic surprises like stitched seams, gemstones, and unusual textures. Perkins’ incredible vessels, containers and jewelry are decorative and expressive works that are both beautiful and emotive.
STATEMENT
In my work the metal forms and the enamel imagery work together to make a whole, with the two materials complimenting each other rather than one being visually more important than the other. Technically as well as visually, the pieces are a unit, which is a manifestation of the ideas of integration and relationship that the work addresses. The forms, colors, and imagery in my work derive from two sources: metal technology and natural forms.
I feel a strong affinity for metal and I am fascinated by its permanence, malleability, strength and surface qualities. I use directly or copy in enamel some of the colors and surfaces which naturally occur through the various working processes. It is also important that some metal show on the surface, rather than being simply the support mechanism for the enamel, because I want to show that the finished piece is a relationship between and a collaboration of two media.
My work reflects my emotional response to my environment, referring to landscape, body part, or natural object. In the jewelry pieces and recent vessels I am concerned with organic imagery. The forms and color imagery are derived from leaves, fish, and other natural objects because I find these modulations of color, texture, and surface both appealing and very intimate.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
- Decorative Arts Collection, Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY
- Enamel Arts Foundation Collection, Los Angeles, CA
- Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, IN
- National Ornamental Metal Museum, Memphis, TN
- Numerous private collections throughout the United States and internationally