Black Objects w/ metalsmith David Harper Clemons

Studio Noize: Black Art Podcast

Your boy, JBarber, has been teaching at the Penland School of Craft and now we’re back with new Studio Noize! We found David Harper Clemons in a weaving cabin making broaches, print, sculptures and drawings. David is also the HBCU tour coordinator for Penland. We talk about the HBCU tours and how to get more diversity into artist communities. David talks about his curiosity with materials in making his functional and wearable art, the value of Black narratives in objects and what you need to be a great metalsmith. Listen, subscribe, and share!

Episode 185 topics include:

gettting into metals

HBCU tour at Penland School of Craft

bringing diversity to Penland

metalsmithing vs jewelry

the attention to detail

top 3 skills of a metalsmith

curiosity for materials

Black narratives in objects

importance of surfaces and touch

David was born in El Paso, Texas and spent much of his life in Austin, Texas. Initially he began his undergraduate career attending Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, pursuing a degree program for Biology Art. He attended the program for two years before returning to Austin to complete his BFA at the University of Texas in Austin, with a primary emphasis in painting. He earned his MFA in Metalsmithing in 2007 from San Diego State University. David taught in the art department at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, Arkansas for 10 years. During 8 of those years he was responsible for creating and heading the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Department. In 2018 he relocated to Penland, North Carolina to dedicate his time to be an independent artist and workshop instructor. Much of his work embraces the craft of Metalsmithing and it’s collected history of techniques and objects. The resulting works rendered in metal, mixed media, and hand made artist books are vehicles to communicate ideas surrounding identity, narrative, and forays into material and process-based work. He has exhibited in numerous exhibitions including: Craft in America: Expanding Traditions, Different Tempers: Jewelry & Blacksmithing, RE/ACTIONS, and has work in the permanent collection of the Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, National Ornamental Metal Museum. Yale Contemporary Craft Museum, Ollie Trout Collection at the University of Texas in Austin.

See more: David Harper Clemons’ website + David Harper Clemons’ IG @harperclemons

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