The Saddest Aisle – A talk by Keith Lewis

The Center for Enamel Art is honored to sponsor a talk by enamelist/jeweler Keith Lewis.

For over 20 years, Lewis has investigated the ways that jewelry can represent a form of regard and remembrance. Beginning with a series of brooches commemorating friends and acquaintances who died of AIDS and continuing through work that explored gay male identity and sexuality, Lewis has used jewelry as a vessel of love, regard and political memorialization.

In his newest body of work, “The Saddest Aisle”, Lewis addresses his longstanding belief in the obligations of empathy through the abandoned, forlorn baskets in the aisles of Goodwill. Silent, uncomplaining receptacles of joy and pain, he believes that they deserve redemption and regard. So he takes them, renders them permanent and then dresses them in finery as a recognition of the lives that they have witnessed.

In his talk, Lewis will discuss the trajectory of his work and the ways that the current series–– despite being ornamental and non-narrative–– continues to allow him to explore his longstanding goals and preoccupations.

This is a free talk, so there’s no need to register. Everyone is welcome to come and learn about Keith’s work and his techniques for enameling. The talk is in conjunction with the Enamel Oddities workshop he is teaching at Silvera Jewelry School this weekend. The workshop is hosted by Silvera and is part of the Center’s 2019 workshop series.