ABOUT THE ARTISTS
It is said that the home that Jeff and Susan Wise built in Colorado looks very much like their jewelry. It is handbuilt, beautifully constructed, has quirky spaces and oddly shaped windows and doors. The love of quality materials and techniques in building comes as no surprise. Such concerns are essential to their work.
Jeff Wise began working with metals as a boy, under the tutelage of his grandfather, an emigrated Dutch jeweler. In the sixties, he sold peace signs crafted from copper. Today his work is in the collections of the American Craft Museum and the Smithsonian. He is a master stone-cutter and metalsmith who claims that in spite of having formally studied many aspects of jewelry craftsmanship, he has learned more from all the mistakes he has made over the years. “I know about twenty wrong ways to do something….Experiments gone awry bear fruit down the road in other ways. It is helpful to know the wrong way to do something.”
Susan has been working with Jeff for more than twenty five years, having learned most of her skills from Jeff. She and Jeff work very closely, their work is a collaborative effort in all respects. Her artistic background is in painting and design though she holds a degree in Botany.
ABOUT THE WORK
The work of Jeff and Susan Wise speaks for itself. It is bold, highly colorful and passionate. The craftsmanship is superb. Since they cut their own stones, their work has an aesthetic freedom about it. The uniquely shaped stones combined with their other elements fabricated from high carat gold create an exuberant, playful and joyous effect.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007 "What Lies Beneath" group exhibition curated by Allison Barnett, Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2005 “Likewise” Patina Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2005 “Magnificent Extravagance-Artists & Opulence,” Racine, WI
2003 Museum of Art, Tallahasee, Florida, “Extreme Metal”
2003 “Extreme Metal,” Museum of Art, Tallahassee, FL
2001 Wustum Museum, Racine, WI, “The Ring,”
MUSEUM COLLECTIONS
Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
Smithsonian Institute National Museum of American Art, Renwick Gallery,
Washington, DC
