Beyond the Precious: Exhibition Review by Sarah Elliott

The Vancouver Metal Arts Association is a growing community with many talented artists. The opening reception held on Thursday Sept.18th 2014, for the Beyond The Precious Exhibition was buzzing with VMAA talent of all kinds. The exhibit was held at the Port Moody Arts Centre, a beautiful heritage building with three gallery exhibition spaces. The exhibition brought together twenty-five jewelry artists and sculptors who tell stories with precious and non-precious metals that reflect their diverse cultural backgrounds, techniques, skills and interests.

One of the artists that stood out for me was Urszula Petrykowska, I found her nature inspired designs to be eye catching. Zula Graduated from Vancouver Community College in 2010 with her Jewelry Arts & Design diploma, since then she’s been working hard at establishing her brand in the jewelry industry by attending markets, networking and getting her brand into retail stores across Canada.

Two of the three pieces that she is featuring at the exhibit are root brooches made in silver and steel, with baltic amber stones. Like many of Zula’s designs, she used an actual root that she found and then cast it in silver. The third piece she featured was the “white rabbit” necklace made with baltic amber and silver. I love the silver wire work on this piece, which reminds me of the remnants of an old spiderweb over a rock.

This was the 2nd exhibition that the VMAA has held since their community was first started in 2012. It was a roaring success with many designers and art gazers in attendance. You can view the Beyond The Precious Exhibition at the Port Moody Arts Centre from Sept 18th through October 9th.

Sarah Elliott was a Jewellery Design student at La Salle College in Vancouver in 2014. This piece was originally published in the Vancouver Metal Arts Association's December 2014 newsletter issue.