Metalsmith Griffin to Present Raab Lecture

“Affirming an Applied Arts Practice: Remarks from an Apprentice” is the title of this year’s Rosanne Brody Raab Visiting Artist Lecture, to be given Thursday, Sept. 26, by Gary S. Griffin.

Free and open to the public, the talk will begin at 8 p.m. in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall.

An artist-in-residence and head of the Metalsmithing Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Griffin is a practicing metalsmith who focuses primarily on utilitarian pieces for residences and institutions. His recent work includes doors and hardware, tables, furniture, lighting, fire screens and fire tools, gates, fences, and railings. Commissioned works vary in size from door handles to a full-size fence and entry gate.

The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts grants, Griffin received his B.A. degree from California State University at Long Beach and his M.F.A. degree at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. His metal works have appeared in significant craft exhibitions from “Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical,” and “Craft Today USA” to “Masters of American Metalsmithing.” Griffin’s solo exhibition, “Signs: Sentimental,” was seen at JewelersWerk Galerie, New York Sculpture, Artists and Functional Art Exposition, in 1999. He has exhibited in the U.S., Mexico, South America, Japan, and Europe.

A prominent leader and spokesperson in the field, Griffin writes catalog essays, reviews, and articles. “Remaking Material,” co-written with Erika Ayala Stefanutti, was published in the summer 1994 edition of Metalsmith and received that magazine’s annual writer’s award for the most significant contribution to critical writing in the field.

The Rosanne Brody Raab Lecture was endowed at Skidmore by Raab, a member of the College’s Class of ’55, as a way to showcase artists working in clay, fiber, metal, and wood.

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