Jess Tolbert

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American jeweler Jess Tolbert reconsiders manufactured everyday products to create jewelry that balances the duality between the industrially-made and the handcrafted, as well as our nostalgic versus our imagined relationship with labor and the built environment. Utilizing commonplace objects, such as staples, she transforms mass-produced items that we habitually take for granted into objects of grace and beauty. Her timely investigation focuses on the “merits of reinvention and reclamation as a creative act,” asking us to regard the source along with the human role in the production of things.

Tolbert received a MFA (Magna Cum Laude) in Jewelry and Metal from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Since 2015, she has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Head of the Jewelry + Metals program at University of Texas, El Paso. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including Beijing International Jewelry Exhibition, held at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing, China and Duality of Presence, super + CENTERCOURT, Munich Jewelry Week, Munich, Germany (both 2017). In 2015 she participated in Beijing International Jewelry Exhibition, as well as 9th Cheongju International Craft Competition at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale, Cheongju, South Korea, in which she was awarded a Special Citation. Tolbert was a 2016 recipient of a Project Grant from Crafthaus for Duality of Presence. In 2017 she received the Artist Incubator Program Grant, Museum & Cultural Affairs Department, El Paso, Texas from The Rachelle Thiewes Endowment, University of Texas, El Paso.

Greater Than Series, Long Collar Link Necklace, 2021 1.25” x 40” x .5” , fused steel staples
Woven, brooch, 2021, .75” x 4” x 4” , fused steel staples, steel, 14K gold pin wire
Double Short Rectangle Linked Brooch, 2019, fused steel staples, steel, 14k gold pin wire, 1.5 x 2.5 x 1.875 inches
Double Short Rectangle Linked Brooch, 2019, fused steel staples, steel, 14k gold pin wire, 1.5 x 2.5 x 1.875 inches, back view
Double Wide Rectangle Linked Brooch, Edition of 2, 2019, fused steel staples, steel, 14k gold pin wire, 3.5 x 4.5 x 1.5 inches
Double Wide Rectangle Linked Brooch, Edition of 2, 2019, fused steel staples, steel, 14k gold pin wire, 3.5 x 4.5 x 1.5 inches, back view
Large Rectangle Link Necklace, 2019, fused steel staples, 28 inch length
Large Rectangle Link Necklace, 2019, fused steel staples, 28 inch length, on the body
Large Rectangle Link Necklace, 2019, fused steel staples, 28 inch length, detail on the body
Untitled, Brooch, fused staples, stainless steel pin

Contact

50 Church St. Montclair,
NJ 07042 USA

Happy Thanksgiving! The gallery will be closed Nov. 27th thru Dec.1st. The first week of December we will be open, Monday Dec. 2nd, Thursday Dec. 5th and Friday Dec. 6th from 12-5pm. Please call 973-865-6194.