Sheen of Silver,
Weight of Air:
Contemporary Aluminum

Exhibition Statement

Only a century ago, aluminum was more precious than gold and the most costly metal on earth. Fifty years later it was so commonplace that Americans were eating TV dinners from aluminum trays and throwing them away. A cheaper processing method had brought down the price of aluminum, and by the 1950s it was a popular choice for serving accessories, furniture, housing construction, boats, airplanes, motor homes, and a wide variety of other consumer goods.

Perhaps aluminum’s most visible success, the throwaway beverage can, created a lack of respect for the metal that has limited it to less prestigious uses. Now, however, this “poor man’s silver” is favored once again for its unique properties: it is shiny, light in weight, and easily formed. It is a versatile metal. Objects can be forged from sheets of the metal. Aluminum can be melted, cast into new shapes, and easily recycled. Shapes can be twisted from aluminum wire, cut from thin aluminum sheets, and formed by bending and riveting. Aluminum’s surface can be painted, etched, or anodized in glowing colors.

American artists are adding value to aluminum through their creativity, as can be seen in the examples exhibited here. Sheen of Silver, Weight of Air was organized by the Schneider Museum of Art and curated by Lloyd Herman, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on American crafts. Mr. Herman, an independent exhibition curator living in Seattle, developed the exhibition concept and selected seventy-nine works of aluminum by forty-two artists, craftspeople, and designers from eighteen states across the nation. His selection included a rich spectrum of art and craft objects, from small original art jewelry pieces and functional pieces–including designer chairs–to freestanding abstract and realistic sculptures. This exhibition focused on objects that range from the functional to the conceptual. Sheen of Silver, Weight of Air demonstrated how aluminum is being used to address the complete spectrum of aesthetic and intellectual issues that shape contemporary crafts.

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