ABOUT THE ARTIST

Phil Poirier was introduced to metalsmithing in high school and since that time has explored and pushed the possibilities of the medium. His work is meticulous. It is distinguished by an exceptional precision of craftsmanship and excellence of design.

He makes his home in Taos, New Mexico and has been a teacher of metalsmithing for many years at the Taos Institue of Art. He has also taught at the Santa Fe School of Metalsmithing and the prestigious Revere Academy in San Francisco. In 1987, he accepted a commission to cut the largest known piece of gem lapis-lazuli. In 1992, Chicago’s Spertus Museum commissioned him to create a goblet to honor the 11 athletes killed at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.

Knowing how to create and adapt the tools of metalsmithing has been important to Phil’s success but his innovative streak runs deep and broad. Skilled with computers and communications equipment, he is a highly valued member of the Taos Search and Rescue Team. He is also a skier, a windsurfer.

ABOUT THE WORK

Phil’s pieces begin with a drawing. His technical mastery of the metal smith’s craft permits the creation of nearly anything he imagines. He works in high karat gold, silver and steel, crafting exquisite jewelry and hollow ware, too. Phil is inspired by the work of the early Etruscans, the Greeks and colonial American craftsmen. Designs influenced by the Celts are also evident in his work.

MUSEUM SHOWS

Durham Western Heritage Museum

2000 Panhandle Plains Museum  “Canyon Rhythms”  group invitational

1999 Harwood Museum, University of New Mexico “Objects , Five Master Craftsmen”

1998 American Craft Museum  “Gold and Silver 1998”

1998 Millicent Rogers Museum  “Testimony to Diversity” 

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

April 1999 Lapidary Journal 

May 1993 Canadian Jeweler 

Winter 1988 Metalsmith