Today we’d like to introduce you to Genevieve Montante.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Genevieve. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was introduced to metalsmithing during my freshman year at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. I fell in love quickly, and never really looked back.
Metalsmithing for me became an outlet to express myself, where I was much clearer conceptually than I ever was with drawing or painting. Since freshman year I’ve taken every metals class I could and spent my time focusing on enriching my craft and my practice.
Has it been a smooth road?
There was a large portion of time where I felt like I wasn’t good enough to be in the metalsmithing program. I spent sophomore, and part of the junior year as an education major, then as a double major with metals. It was a big decision for me to peruse metals full time. All of that came from immeasurable encouragement and support from faculty and my peers.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the @gem_montante story. Tell us more about the business.
It wasn’t until my junior year at Massart that I realized how I could use my metalwork in a conceptual way. Before that, I saw jewelry as purely decorative. Jewelry can be so much more than that, it can function as a micro-sculpture. Jewelry always relates to the body, directly connected to us as individuals, our expression of ourselves, and our identity.
I began a body of work titled Memory Series last year, where I took brief experiences, and single sentence quotes from my family, friends, and children from my student teaching, and narrated them through adornment. To me, this series came as a response to personal struggle in my own life, and as a way to process how I was experiencing the world. Every piece is an extension of myself, and narrates a moment of my life. while they are very personal to me, I feel like the work can also take on many interpretations.
For example, my pieces “If you find a green stone when we go out to recess then I’ll make you a necklace” (ring) and subsequently, “Necklace for Allie”, both came as a response to a moment with a kindergartener, Allie. Allie wanted me to make her a silver necklace with a green gemstone, I didn’t have the heart to tell her, no, but I I knew if I made her one I would have to make a necklace for every student in the class. I told her if she found one outside, I would make her the necklace then.
Knowing fully that Allie would never find a green stone in the playground, I had tricked her. What did my response to her mean? what does this say about me? I think little moments like these are far more telling. And while we spent a wonderful hour outside looking for green stones together, I knew Allie wasn’t going to end up with a necklace.
“Necklace for Allie” followed the imaginary necklace that could have been for a little girl who did find a green gemstone out on the recess yard.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I definitely see the art community accepting contemporary art jewelry as a valid medium worth exhibiting. Art jewelry is a relatively new sect of contemporary art, and while the craft is ancient, its presence in the art world is just beginning to make itself known.
To me, this is a widely untapped genre of art and there are too many wonderful jewelers to mention who deserve recognition. I notice jewelry becoming more sculptural, conceptual, and playful, and away from pure adornment, which I find really exciting. Jewelry is portable art, it’s amazing, and it’s underappreciated.
Contact Info:
- Email: gmmontante@massart.edu
- Instagram: @gem_montante
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