Last by Caroline Gore

Artist list

Caroline Gore

Some of Gore’s prior series are contemporary interpretations of Victorian mourning jewelry, for which she often incorporated black materials, such as oxidized silver, jet, leather, black pearls, or hematite. For last, Gore constructed necklaces using oxidized silver, hematite, silk, leather, nylon, and thread, some of which she combined with sculptural borosilicate glass forms handmade by glass artist Carmichael Jones. These striking glass objects grew out of Gore’s experiments using slip-cast porcelain as a metaphor for the acts of making and mending. Finding glass more in keeping with her aim in this series of jewelry, she developed the forms with Jones, relegating the porcelain objects to autonomous sculptural statements. Deceptively complex, in both idea and realization, the jewels in last exercise the intellect while they animate the body.

Gore received a BFA, cum laude, from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and MFA from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, where she studied under Robert Ebendorf; she also attended Opere Jewellery School, Ravenstein, The Netherlands. Gore has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including the monumental 2014 installation, mercurial silence, and been included in countless group shows and jewelry publications. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NB; and Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. A seasoned educator, Gore is currently Associate Professor and Metals Coordinator, University of the Arts, Craft & Material Studies, Philadelphia, PA.

In referencing Gore’s mercurial silence, C. James Meyer, Professor Emeritus, School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, wrote: There are very few artists who can make work that has a sound conceptual basis, a sensitive aesthetic and is appropriately made. Caroline Gore’s work succeeds on all of these levels.