Lola Brooks

Lola Brooks is an American artist and educator specializing in jewelry. Brooks' work has been shown nationally and internationally at such prestigious venues as National Ornamental Metal Museum, The Society of Arts and Crafts, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, and Talente and held in the permanent collection of The Museum of Art and Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[1] among others.

Lola Brooks
Born1970
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBFA: SUNY New Paltz

Artwork

Brooks' studio jewelry combines seemingly disparate influences such as Victorian sentimental jewelry, Berlin Iron Jewelry, twentieth century costume jewelry, hip hop "bling" culture, tattoos, American road trip culture, and teeth achingly sweet cultural signifiers of love and femininity like bows and hearts.[2] Through this post-modern amalgam of influences, Brooks creates work that is luxurious, playful, heart achingly tender, while maintaining a rebellious spirit. Ashley Callahan for Ornament Magazine describes:

Brooks' jewelry is luxurious excess. The scale is often large, though always unquestionably wearable. Brooches, necklaces, rings, and bracelets feature multitudes of glittering stones, hordes of antique ivory roses or tarnished steel bows, and mounds of faceted steel balls. She mixes high and low, setting diamonds next to quartz, and upends expected uses of materials, soldering steel with gold. She is devoted to the traditions of metalsmithing and relishes the technical challenges that each new object presents.[3]

Brooks' adherence to the format of jewelry is important in her studio practice.[4][5] She explains her interest in the format of jewelry in an interview for the American Craft Council as "I believe in the power of jewelry's intimate scale and symbiotic reliance on the body, and the fact that its beauty and materiality have always been poisoned by a shameless celebration of wealth, excess, and debaucheries. I love that it becomes inextricably tied into how we cultivate identity."[6]

Along with her high end Art Jewelry, Brooks also maintains a more traditional jewelry line that has received wide representation and recognition.[7][8]

Public collections

Professional experience

Brooks received her Bachelors in Fine Arts from SUNY New Paltz where she studied with Jamie Bennett and Myra Mimlitsch-Gray.[3] Brooks is currently visiting faculty at Cranbrook Academy of Art for 2015-2016 in Metalsmithing.[10] Brooks was previously the Lamar Dodd Professorial Chair at the University of Georgia,[11] and has also taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of the Arts, and SUNY New Paltz, as well as the 92nd St Y in New York City, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, and Penland School of Crafts.[10]

Selected Grants/Recognitions/Residencies
  • 2012-2013 Lamar Dodd Professional Chair, Lamar Dodd School of Art, University of Georgia
  • 2012 RISD Part Time Faculty Association Development Fund Grant, Rhode Island School of Design Part-time Faculty Association
  • 2001 Emerging Artist Award, Sienna Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts
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References
  1. "Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit features faculty, alumni | SUNY New Paltz News". Sites.newpaltz.edu. 2014-05-16. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  2. Mimi Luse (2010-01-15). "Hard Core Romance | American Craft Council". Craftcouncil.org. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  3. "Lola Brooks at Ornament Magazine - Jewelry, Fashion, Beads". Ornamentmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  4. Hilary Butschek (2012-09-18). "Lamar Dodd Distinguished Chair smiths personalities into jewelry | Variety". Redandblack.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  5. Cummins, Susan (2013-02-14). "Tributaries: Lola Brooks". Art Jewelry Forum. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  6. "Brilliance: Lola Brooks | American Craft Council". Craftcouncil.org. 2013-09-08. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  7. Philipkoski, Kristen (2015-01-17). "Wish List: Wedding bands wrapped around your finger". SFGate. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  8. Kelsey Borresen (2014-07-30). "16 Stunning Alternatives To A Diamond Engagement Ring". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  9. "Lola Brooks | | The Metropolitan Museum of Art". Metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
  10. "Jane Lackey and Lola Brooks Named Visiting Faculty at Cranbrook Academy of Art". Cranbrookart.edu. 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2016-02-23.
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