Four Winds Gallery
Current Exhibition:
Stan Natchez 2009
Past Exhibitions:
Buying Trip 2009
Old Pawn Collection
Denise Wallace
Cody Sanderson
Buying Trip 2008
R.C. Gorman
Bruce King and Na Na Ping
Jovanna Poblano and Daniel Chattin
Buying Trip 2007
Liz Wallace
Stan Natchez - Shoshoni/Paiute Artist
NaNa Ping and Thomas Bucich
Buying Trip 2006
George Catlin
Denise and Samuel Wallace
Image Gallery - Denise and Samuel Wallace
Image Gallery - Dawn Wallace
Charlene Reano
Buying Trip 2005
Robert Deurloo
Edward Sheriff Curtis
Liz Wallace
Buying Trip 2004
Zapotec Weavings of Teotitlan
Clifford Fragua
NaNa Ping
Denise and Samuel Wallace
Four Winds Gallery celebrates its 25th year of trading and welcomes internationally
renowned jewellers Denise and Samuel Wallace and their daughter Dawn for their
premier exhibition in Australia.
Click here to view photographs
of jewellery from the exhibition at the Four Winds Gallery.
A beautiful book about the jewellery of Denise and Samuel Wallace, Arctic
Transformations, is available in the Gallery.
The
jewellery of Denise and Samuel Wallace can be appreciated for its exquisitely
crafted objects of art, as a window into the culture of the Arctic people and
as visual stories with the major motif of transformation. Combining their respective
expertise in metalwork and lapidary, Denise, a Chugach (Eskimo) Aleut, born
in 1957, and her non-native husband, Samuel, born in 1936, create wearable art.
Denise does the design and metalwork while Sam is responsible for the lapidary.
Similar to other Native North American cultures, a sense of universal order
and its iconography link the Eskimo and Aleut cosmos to its regalia and stories.
The physical and spiritual world of the Arctic peoples provide a wealth of literal
and metaphorical images for the Wallaces. The silver, gold and many hues of
the Arctic winter landscape are mirrored in their materials, silver, gold, fossil
ivory and coloured stones. Yup'ik ellenguad (all-seeing) eye motifs adorn both
19th century bag fasteners and a contemporary belt buckle. A pair of painted
wooden amulets becomes etched fossil ivory earrings.
The Arctic people believe the animals, whales, bears, walrus and seals, in fact
all living creatures, contain a yua (its double) - the name comes from Central
Yup'ik Eskimos of Alaska, whose art is the Wallaces' major source of inspiration
- that is capable of taking on different forms.
Transformation defines the Wallaces' jewellery: hinged doors open to reveal
surprises, stories are contained within stories, faces peek from behind masks,
a woman becomes the moon, a man becomes a bear. Furthermore, the pieces themselves
transform: a belt component becomes a pin or pendant and pendants become earrings.
Their breakthrough piece was the Killer Whale Belt, which won two 1st place
awards at the 1984 SWAIA Indian Market. The belt that Denise and Same consider
their single most important - The Crossroads of Continents Belt - took 2500
hours of work. Because the belts are very difficult and demanding the Wallaces
eventually crafted only one every two or three years.
Woman in the Moon Ring and Yup'ik Mask-open
Five Girl Necklace
Old Bering Sea Earrings