Exhibition provides quirky alternative for Christmas shoppers

The Constantine Gallery at the University will host a jewellery exhibition this month, featuring handmade work from a number of acclaimed jewellery designers.

Material Value will offer a unique marketplace for shoppers in the lead up to Christmas with a chance to purchase exhibition pieces for something a little bit special for friends or family.

Middlesbrough-based Jan Hinchliffe McCutcheon will be joined by fellow UK-based exhibitors Jane Adam, Norman Cherry, Yoko Izawa, Jessica Turrell and Frances Julie Whitelaw; each demonstrating their own individual styles and pieces.

Jan, who works from her studio at Platform Arts in Middlesbrough, is the invited curator to Material Value, which is being presented by Professor Gerda Roper, Dean of Faculty of Arts & Media at Teesside University.

Professor Roper said: 'It’s wonderful to have such an array of talent exhibiting their work here in Middlesbrough. The designers presenting work in Material Value are amongst the elite in their fields and the Teesside public are in for a real treat.'

Jan has meticulously chosen the five other designers, all of whom she has a personal appreciation of all of their respective work. It is no coincidence that although not all are UK-born, all are UK-based.

Jan said: 'All of the designers who I’ve chosen to be a part of this exhibition have been selected firstly because of my close working relationship with each of them, but also the breadth of materials beyond precious metals and different manufacturing techniques displayed in their work. I feel the exhibition will celebrate this variety, and will offer something for men as well as women.

'The pieces sit somewhere in between art form and jewellery. What we’re trying to portray in the exhibition is that jewellery is not just about girls and glamour; it’s more about status, identity, statement and confidence.'

All of the artists are internationally recognised and contribute within the wider jewellery community through dialogue exhibitions and symposia. Their practice and research includes leadership and teaching in higher education; running specialist workshops in museums & galleries; curating UK and international jewellery exhibitions and publishing articles and reviews.

The Material Value exhibition will run from Monday 22 October – Friday 9 November 2012 in the Constantine Gallery in Middlesbrough Tower, Middlesbrough University, just off Borough Road. The exhibition will be closed on weekends.

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