Katy Cassell
My work explores the interdependence between humans and the biological and botanical worlds around us. The forms and imagery refer to fungi, fossils, wilted flowers, and insects; the sorts of things found when lifting up a rock. By transforming these “base” forms into jewelry, which is conventionally seen as the beauty-enhancing purview of a youthful neck, my work alludes to the forces of nature, ever constant, that will drain the youth from the wearer. Forms and imagery combine to become physical manifestations of acceptance of mortality. I find beauty in the forms associated with decay, signifying the unending cycle of life and rebirth of which we are all a part.
Katy Bergman Cassell earned an MFA in Metals/Jewelry/Enameling from Kent State University and a BFA in Enameling from the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio. She has worked as an archaeological illustrator in India and as a museum educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cloisters, in New York, both of which continue to influence her art.
She recently was awarded a National Artists Teachers Fellowship to travel to England to work with British enamel artists, explore the Jurassic Coast, and tour the enameling archives at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She teaches workshops nationally, such as at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center in Ohio, has been a three-time South Carolina State Parks Artist-in-Residence, and recently served on the board of the Center for Enamel Art in Oakland, CA.
She recently exhibited her work in Taipei, Taiwan, as part of the Blaze International Enameling Exhibition. She has had eight solo exhibitions, most recently at the Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum in Mesa, AZ in 2017 and at Riverworks Gallery in downtown Greenville, SC in 2018. Her artwork has been recently been published on the web and postcard promotional material for the Society of North American Goldsmith’s Exhibition in Motion, and the Richmond Art Center’s Place as Landscape exhibition. Books and other publications include The Art of Enameling, 500 Enameled Objects, Metalsmith magazine, Cleveland Scene, At Home in the Upstate, and The Greenville News.
While she will always be a Midwestern gal at heart, she's adopted some southern twang after moving to beautiful Greenville, SC to teach metals and enameling at the Fine Arts Center. She lives with her husband, a musician and metal artist, and their two children.