Thomas Gentille and Peter Skubic: The Birthday Boys

Artist list

The Birthday Boys - Gallery Loupe celebrates the work of two jewelry artists - Thomas Gentille and Peter Skubic

They celebrate their birthdays on the same day - August 11 and they share their celebrity status as important contemporary jewelry artists who have done pioneering work - one in the United States and one in Europe. Their work can be found in museum and private collections throughout the world. Gallery Loupe will present a first-ever joint exhibition of the work of Thomas Gentille and Peter Skubic from October 9-30, 2012 with the exhibition aptly titled, The Birthday Boys. The exhibition will include films created by both Gentille and Skubic.

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About the artists:

Peter Skubic
Austrian jeweler Peter Skubic has been a radical force in the world of contemporary jewelry for over 4 decades. With unrelenting enthusiasm he has explored the concept of visibility and invisibility throughout his career. Perhaps the most dramatic illustration of Skubic's preoccupation with this idea was his early "performance," documented on film, in which a piece of stainless steel was embedded subcutaneously in his left forearm for seven years. Once removed, this stainless plate was made visible for a brief time, only to be sealed away again in a specially crafted ring.

Other similar works followed this bold act eventually leading him to his current body of work using high gloss stainless steel plaques which are held in place by steel cables, creating mirror images. As Hartwig Knack, Curator, Kunsthalle Krems said of his work, "They reflect themselves in themselves and recreate themselves again."

Classically trained as a goldsmith and silversmith, Skubic's work is well planned with detailed sketches before he begins. These sketches can be thought of as analogous to a building's blueprint. His sculptural pieces can be worn on the body or stand alone as works of art.

Throughout his celebrated career, Skubic has received numerous prestigious awards and recognition. His 2011 solo exhibition, Radical. Peter Skubic - Jewelry, at the Die Neue Sammlung - International Design Museum, Munich is testament to his place of paramount importance in the world of contemporary jewelry.

Thomas Gentille
Selections from Thomas Gentille's newest body of work will be on display, highlighting his interest in art and architecture as well as the important role materials play in his jewelry. As Ursula Ilse-Neumann, Curator of Jewelry at the Museum of Arts & Design notes, "materials are important to him, deconstructing them to reveal their properties."

Trained as an abstract painter, one can see in his jewelry the relationship to the work of other abstract artists. Gentille translates his background in painting, sculpture and architecture into jewelry using a wide variety of non-traditional materials. These include bronze, plastic, bone, aluminum, pumice, sawdust, paint, wood and eggshell. His unique eggshell technique allows him to create pieces that are bold, abstract and provocative.

Gentille celebrates his use of techniques and materials in an understated way, never letting the materials overwhelm the design. The backs of his pieces, are finished as meticulously as the fronts - an indication of his passion and desire for perfection. With over 50 years of jewelry-making behind him he is indeed one of the most important American studio artists working today.

Thomas Gentille was the first American honored as a Klassiker der Moderne at Schmuck 2006, the annual exhibition of jewelry in Munich and the second American to receive the prestigious Herbert Hoffman Prize. He was also the recipient of the Bavarian State Prize in 2004.