Shaping Silver is an exhibition highlighting a small group of exceptional contemporary artists in New York and Long Island working in silver. Created alongside a companion exhibition about colonial American silversmith Elias Pelletreau, these artists draw inspiration not only from silver’s long global history in jewelry and decorative arts, but also the natural world, geometry, and architecture to create works that are both traditional and innovative. Taken together, this collection gives visitors a chance to explore the breadth and fascinating range of possibilities that silver can take.

The seven artists of Shaping Silver are Michele Oka Doner, a renowned artist who has work in many U.S. and European museum collections and is also widely known for public art installations at places such as New York’s Herald Square Subway Station and Miami International Airport; Michael Izrael Galmer, a silversmith whose career includes collaborations with Tiffany, Gorham, and Lenox, as well as creating his own designs that have been exhibited at museums including the Cooper Hewitt, Renwick Gallery, and Newark Museum of Art; Brian Weissman and Erin Shay Daily, the creative co-founders of Brooklyn Metal Works, a cooperative metal art studio; Wendy Yothers, an outstanding silversmith and FIT professor whose work has earned many awards and entered the collections of institutions such as the Corning Museum of Glass and the Smithsonian; Patricia Madeja, an exceptional jewelry-maker based in West Islip, Long Island, and professor at Pratt Institute where she runs the prestigious jewelry design program; and Eric Messin, resident jewelry maker and silversmith based inside the current Pelletreau Silver Shop in Southampton.