May 18 - September 1, 2019
Aurora Robson Refuse
Aurora Robson Refuse

The majority of jewelry pieces in the show come from Lee’s personal collection. They include items she has held onto since she started making jewelry up to her most recent body of work, The Primitive Series.

“The pieces I’ve kept over the years are either the beginning of a series – the inspiration piece – or something I just loved and didn’t want to sell,” Lee said. “In one piece, I used so many of my different techniques that I kept it . . . for my children to have. Another is the first serious piece of jewelry I ever made. I was still in college and working in a jewelry store during the summer where I was sometimes given some time to work on whatever I wanted.”

Viewers can check out these and other pieces in her solo exhibition, Holly Lee: A Jeweler’s Journey, which opens at HAM on Sunday, Sept. 22 from 2 to 4 p.m. with a reception that everyone is welcome to attend.

Another item in the show, titled The Dancer, could be called a happy accident, the result of an unintended collaboration with her husband, ceramic artist Cliff Lee, who also has a solo show running concurrently at the Museum.

“I broke one of his bowls,” she says. “I picked up the shard and because the glaze was so pretty I set it on my work bench for a while. I had a piece of jewelry sitting there too that I didn’t like, and I took it apart. All these pieces were sitting on my work bench, and one day I realized that they went really well together.”

Lee rarely sketches out a creation in advance. She’ll spread out various beads and stones from the enormous collection she’s amassed through the years to get a feel for what she thinks will play well together. Then she starts working. While she’ll have an idea where she wants to go with a creation, Lee is attuned to subtle changes during the process, allowing the pieces to take its own form and direction.

One signature motif in Lee’s work are the tiny drilled holes in a number of her hollow pieces. Lee said the holes add texture to her work while allowing light to pass through the object. “I’ve always found that fascinating to have the light passing through space and coming out the other side,” she noted.

Lee began her artistic endeavors as a painter. She studied Chinese brush painting while a student at the Taipei American High School in Taiwan. She returned to her homeland, the United States, and attended Virginia Wesleyan University in Norfolk, where she studied under artist and educator Barclay Sheaks. After a while, she grew disenchanted working in a two-dimensional realm, and sought a three-dimensional outlet for her creativity.

“One day at a tennis tournament at James Madison University, I opened a door and there was a jewelry studio, and I said ‘Wow! That’s exactly what I am looking for.’ “

It was love at first sight.

She transferred to James Madison to study jewelry making, and while there met Cliff. They married in 1978, and they opened a gallery together in Arlington, and later in Georgetown. In the early 1990s, the couple moved to Stevens, Pa. in Lancaster County. The charming landscape proved inspiring for both artists.

Holly Lee was deeply influenced by her bucolic surroundings, and became drawn to the deep and sometimes mysterious colors of stones such as turquoise, moonstone, picture jasper, carnelian and jade, and warm-toned organic materials like golden amber or red copal became her palette.

“What this place did for me and my design work was just amazing,” she said. “It just opened up my creativity.”

Lee’s unique, handcrafted jewelry is in the permanent collections of the Fuller Craft Museum and the Mint Museum, and can be found in many private collections.

This exhibition is sponsored in part by Rago Auctions and the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation.

Image credit: Holly Lee, Sunrise Over the Lake, 2010, 18k, Picture Jasper, Sunstone, Hessonite Beads, Courtesy of the artist.

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In addition to inspiring people with our classes, we spark imaginations with world-class art installed on our terrace and in our galleries. We maintain the beautiful stone mill that deepens your ties with the past and provide a gathering place for your family and friends on the Toshiko Takaezu Terrace. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation so that we may continue educating, challenging, and inspiring community through the arts.

The Hunterdon Art Museum is barrier-free and accessible to people who use wheelchairs. Patrons who are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired may contact the Museum through the New Jersey Relay Service at (TTY) 1 (800) 852-7899. Visit our Accessibility page for complete information.

Programs are made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; Hyde and Watson Foundation; The Large Foundation; and The Holt Foundation, along with other corporations, foundations, and individuals. 

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