Glenda Arentzen
GLENDA ARENTZEN
Glenda Arentzen has been a studio goldsmith since 1964, creating one-of-a-kind works. Her work has been shown all over the world including the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), The Jewelry Museum (Pforzheim, Germany), the Seibu Museum (Tokyo, Japan), and Goldsmiths' Hall (London).
"My work is a response to a variety of moods and persons and ideas. Life is an adventure and body ornament can be one record of it. I am pleased that I have the mental set to design and manufacture and market personal, one-of-a-kind works as appropriate alternatives to the mass market. Perhaps, the introduction of color also is useful in the pursuit of a fresh viewpoint by freeing me from the restrictions of the connotations of familiar metal structures and surfaces. Stones, enamel, colored golds, oriental techniques such as mokume gane, and, especially, mixed metal patterning have appeared in most of my collections over the years. The use of such has extended my vocabulary significantly."
Arentzen graduated from Skidmore in 1962, received her MA from Columbia University in 1964, and in 1964-1965 was a Fulbright Scholar to Copenhagen, Denmark at the Guldsmedehøjskolen. She is represented in the Smithsonian Museum's Archive of American Art, has taught at Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Pratt Institute, and others in New York City.
Press
Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Oral history interview with Glenda Arentzen