Amelia Toelke
“By engaging the languages of adornment and signage my multidisciplinary practice explores jewelry's powerful ability to inform and speaks to the unique relationship between identity, culture, and ornament…To me, this human impulse to adorn is an endlessly fascinating and profound source of inspiration.”
Amelia Toelke has both jewelry and visual art on display at Specific Gravity; a combination of sculpture, gouache painting, and collage, Toelke’s artistic practice challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries. Charms and chains define Toelke’s inventive, and often nostalgic, jewelry collections. In her works on paper, Toelke’s metalsmithing background shines in the form of 24K gold leaf.
Toelke met Erin and Brian, the founders of Brooklyn Metal Works, while they were all students at SUNY New Paltz. She went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has since exhibited globally, from Tbilisi, Georgia, to Lanzhou, China. Currently based in Chatham, NY, Toelke now teaches in the Art department at their alma mater, SUNY, New Paltz, in the Metal and Foundations area.