Diptych: Grey and Black by Tracy Steepy and Lori Talcott

Artist list

Tracy Steepy, Lori Talcott

Since the launching of Platina in 1999 we have been working internationally with artists from all over the world. Sofia Björkman, who runs Platina, has known Tracy Steepy and Lori Talcott for over sixteen years. Tracy and Lori met serendipitously in Stockholm 2008 and have since taught together and cultivating a unique and rigorous graduate program at RISD- Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, USA. Two years ago Sofia was invited as the final guest critic for master’s thesis reviews at RISD. During the visit, shared interests were discussed, the different opinions of work made across in the field and the desire to collaborate again. Therefore we are happy to invite the two artists from USA for their first exhibition in the gallery.

In the exhibition Diptych: Grey and Black, Tracy Steepy and Lori Talcott explore two bodies of work based on the historic reference of the diptych.
(Greek, diptychos: folded in two, from di- + ptychē fold)

The framework of a diptych establishes that two things exist in one place, not as something separated or binary, but as the actual space between. The mediation of this space not only allows for the viewer or the wearer to stand at the "opening" between both sides but also within the piece itself. The format of the diptych prompts not only comparison, but also connection and separation. The experience of the diptych in the form of jewelry, together with the physicality of the materials and the unfolding of the forms, cultivates the personal and allows for a space of intimacy.

It is we who are the middle of the diptych. / Alfred Acres

Tracy Steepy is an artist whose work focuses on the format and subject matter of jewelry. Her material research focuses primarily on the use of resin and its inherit color potential as a signifier of content. She received her BFA from Indiana University and her MFA from SUNY/New Paltz. 2008 she was in Stockholm for an artist in residence at MADE BY Studios. Her work is represented in USA at the Sienna Gallery in Lenox, MA where her series Topographies Never Traveled, was featured in 2016. Tracy Steepy is an Associate Professor and current Head of Department of the Jewelry + Metalsmithing program at Rhode Island School of Design.

Lori Talcott is a jewelry artist whose work and research focuses on jewelry’s role as an agent in rituals that negotiate social, temporal, and spiritual boundaries. Talcott grew up in a family of jewelers and makers. After her undergraduate work in art history (Lund University) and metal design (University of Washington), she worked as an apprentice to a master silversmith in Norway, and later completed her MFA in Visual Arts (Vermont College of Fine Arts). Her work is represented in the USA by Sienna Gallery. She is currently a Guest Lecturer at Rhode Island School of Design.