Join Mike Holmes and Lorena Lazard, curators of La Frontera: Encounters Along the Border, for a tour of the exhibition. The tour will be followed by a short in-gallery Q&A, moderated by Barbara Paris Gifford, MAD’s Assistant Curator. 

Nearly two thousand miles long, the US–Mexico border (la frontera) is the most frequently crossed international border in the world. Although predominantly depicted in the American media as a hub of drug trafficking and violence, the border—porous in nature—also allows for the exchange of ideas, wealth, and culture.

The exhibition La Frontera: Encounters Along the Border seeks to explore this space and what it represents. Jewelry artists from the United States, Latin America, and Europe expose the underlying currents of the border environment within geographic, political, economic, social, cultural, and ideological contexts. The artists transform metal, fiber, wood, and other materials into representations of their experiences, their influences, their dreams, and their nightmares.

About the Curators

Mike Holmes is the owner of Velvet da Vinci gallery in San Francisco, which specializes in art jewelry and craft-based sculpture. Born and raised in California, he received a degree in geography from the University of Alaska and studied jewelry and metalsmithing at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now known as California College of the Arts). Since 1991, Velvet da Vinci has presented more than one hundred exhibitions, including one-person and touring group shows highlighting international developments and political engagement in the field. Works created for the gallery have been acquired by the Museum of Arts and Design; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Holmes has lectured internationally on contemporary jewelry and has served as a guest juror for the American Craft Council and CraftBoston shows, as well as on the Board of Directors of Art Jewelry Forum.

Lorena Lazard is an artist living and working in Mexico City. Inspired by personal experience, introspection, and memory, through her jewelry Lazard attempts to understand her place in the world and the reasons for her existence. Her one-of-a-kind jewelry has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and art fairs internationally and has been featured in numerous publications and anthologies. In addition to making jewelry and curating, she is the founder of Atelier Lazard, a contemporary jewelry school in Mexico City that has functioned as an important incubator of jewelry artists in the country for over twenty years, and has taught at Centro university in Mexico City since 2017. Lazard represents Mexico on the Connects Council of the Society of North American Goldsmiths.