Precious Metals: Shining Examples from RAM’s Collection

June 19 – October 2, 2016

Matthew William Eskuche
Eat Your Heart Out Versailles, We Got Wal-Marts, 2008
Found wooden table and glass with silver nitrate
40 x 39 x 31 inches
Racine Art Museum, Gift of Dale and Doug Anderson
Photography: Michael Tropea, Chicago, IL

A companion exhibition to Go for Baroque, this exhibition explores our innate fascination with things that glisten and plays with notions of preciousness and material value. Mainly comprised of artworks made of precious metals, the show also features shiny objects made of other materials and other metals. This comparison is meant to draw attention to reasons why artists choose certain media. Drawn entirely from RAM’s holdings, this exhibition offers a framework for looking at works that are visually compelling and thought-provoking.

RAM’s collection includes many examples of jewelry, hollowware, and vessels either made of or adorned with something “lustrous.” In addition, there are artists who use gold or metallic leaf to amplify aspects of two-dimensional images. Drawing directly from RAM’s holdings, Precious Metals features a wide variety of work.

More About the Exhibition

Exhibition Notes (PDF)

Press Room

Artists in the Exhibition

Deborah Aguado, Garry Knox Bennett, Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz, Flora Book, Lola Brooks, Heinz Brummel, Lyndsay Caleo, Chunghi Choo, Philip Cornelius, Giovanni Corvaja, Jim Cotter, Cynthia Cousens, Rick Dillingham, Robert W. Ebendorf, Matt Eskuche, William Fiorini, Arline Fisch, Leopold Foulem, Donald Friedlich, Keiko Fukazawa, John G. Garrett, Lindsay Ketterer Gates, Mary Giles, Michael Glancy, Lisa Gralnick, John J. Grant, Susan Hamlet, Barbara Heinrich, Mary Lee Hu, Tory Hughes, John Iversen, Reika Iwami, Kiyomi Iwata, Michael John Jerry, Hai-Chi Jihn, Glen Kaufman, Nancy Koenigsberg, Rena Koopman, Jee Hye Kwon, Gyöngy Laky, Keith A. Lewis, Tara Locklear, Ken Loeber, Richard Mafong, Barbara Mail, Bruce Metcalf, Richard Milette, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Robert Lee Morris, Eleanor H. Moty, Ted Muehling, Noa Nadir, Gary Noffke, Kevin O’Dwyer, Joan Parcher, Lee Barnes Peck, Beverly Penn, Mary Preston, Svetozar Radakovich, Suzan Rezac, Ed Rossbach, Jacqueline Ryan, Cheryl Rydmark, Uri Samet, Gayle Saunders, Adrian Saxe, Mary Scherr, Helen Shirk, Tess Sholom, Susan Kasson Sloan, Christina Y. Smith, Barbara Sorensen, Ettore Sottsass, Molly Stone, Didi Suydam, Rachelle Thiewes, Linda Threadgill, Mary Tingley, Hervé Van der Straeten, Ed Wiener, Cheryl Williams, David and Roberta Williamson, and Beatrice Wood