Join MAD and New York City Jewelry Week for a stimulating panel discussion featuring queer artists SULO BEE, Funlola Coker, Everett Hoffman, steven KP, and moderated by Andrew Kuebeck. Together, the panelists will discuss their diverse studio practices, the changing landscape of art jewelry, and social engagement through making. Dramatically changing the landscape of art jewelry though the use of materials, imagery, audience and message, these makers are embracing the field’s traditions, while prioritizing their own voices.

This program is presented during  New York City Jewelry Week (Nov 14–22, 2022) in conjunction with the exhibitions Queer Maximalism x Machine Dazzle and Jewelry Stories. Ticket holders are invited to visit the exhibitions after the program. 

Participants

SULO BEE earned their BFA from Texas State University with a focus in Metals and Jewelry in 2018 and their MFA from SUNY New Paltz in 2022. They have exhibited their work nationally and internationally with Heidi Lowe Gallery, Ombre Gallery, Galerie Marzee, Temp/Contemp Gallery, Athens Institute of Contemporary Art, Gallery 2052, Budapest Jewelry Week, New York City Jewelry Week, and Milan Jewelry Week. They were included in the One for the Future program with NYC Jewelry Week and completed a three-month residency at the Baltimore Jewelry Center in 2018. SULO is featured in the Smithsonian Learning Lab highlighting LGBTQIA+ artists, SNAG JaMS, Klimt 02, ARTISTAR Jewels, and Accessory Vanity Fair Magazine. BEE works with the Queer Metalsmiths organization where they seek to center and uplift individuals on the 2SLGBTQIA+ spectrum in the field of craft. BEE was named one of ten artists in the nation for the 2022 Emerging Artist Cohort with American Craft Council and received a grant from the Charitable Windgate Foundation to dedicate to their studio practice. They were recently awarded the Marzee Graduate Prize at the Marzee International Graduate Show in Nijmegen, Netherlands. BEE is currently the Artist in Residence at the Mendocino Art Center in California.

Funlola Coker is a metalsmith from Lagos, Nigeria. In 2007, Fun moved to Memphis, Tennessee to pursue a BFA in Sculpture from Memphis College of Art. They are fascinated by history, the evolution of culture, and storytelling. Fun creates works that call on nostalgic memories and moments of the mundane that are held dear. Coker has taught at notable craft institutions such as Snow Farm: The New England Craft Program and Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. Fun’s work has been exhibited at Brooklyn Metalworks, the Fuller Craft Museum, Tone Gallery in Memphis, and the National Ornamental Metal Museum. In 2020, Coker received the Arts Memphis Arts Accelerator grant and was a 2022 Thayer Fellowship recipient from the SUNY Rockefeller Institute of Government. They hold an MFA in Metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Everett Hoffman is a cross-disciplinary artist, currently completing a three-year residency at Penland School of Craft where he lives with his partner and their dog Clementine. He received his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (2018), and BFA from Boise State University (2013). He has completed residencies at Arrowmont School of Art and Craft (2018-19), and the Baltimore Jewelry Center (2019). Everett has written for the publications Metalsmith, and Art Jewelry Forum, and his work has been published in BmoreArt, Metalsmith, and Jewelry and Metalsmithing Survey. His work has been exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Contemporary Craft Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, Soil Gallery, Seattle, WA, and the Benaki Museum in Athens Greece. Everett’s current body of work examines contemporary forms of protection and iconographic communication, illuminated through lights and sculptural forms.

steven KP is an artist, jeweler, and educator based in Providence, Rhode Island. Currently a visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, KP received their MFA in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the Rhode Island School of Design and holds a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. KP’s studio practice is centered around investigations of empathy, material culture, and queer experience. KP is a 2017 Windgate Fellow awarded by the Center for Craft, Ashville, North Carolina and a winner of the 2020 Marzee Prize from Gallerie Marzee in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. In 2021, KP was named a New York City Jewelry Week One for the Future honoree.

Andrew Kuebeck is an assistant professor and area hgead of the Jewelry/Metals/Enameling Department at Kent State University.  He works in a variety of formats, ranging from functional jewelry to vessels, and has lectured nationally on the incorporation of photographic images onto metalwork.  He has exhibited widely, and his works appear in numerous publications.  His work is held in private and public collections including the Museum of Arts and Design, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Yale University.  He is represented by Charon Kransen Arts.  Kuebeck holds a MFA in Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing from Indiana University.