M. Kobe & Dongyi Wu: Alternating Remnants

May 3-31, 2024
M. Kobe & Dongyi Wu: Alternating Remnants
Opening reception: Friday, May 3, 5:00-9:00 PM
Gallery hours: Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and Saturday (May 4 & 11), 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Additional gallery hours from 5:00-7:00 PM for a Gallery 1010 opening on Fri May 10.

M. Kobe | Artist Biography
M. Kobe is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They earned an MFA in Painting from Boston
University, a BFA in Painting, and a BA in Art History from Louisiana State University.
Kobe is a storyteller and multi-disciplinary artist working primarily with textiles, found
natural materials, and lucky objects. Drawing upon her experiences growing up in the
American South, her work contends with the religious mythologies of her upbringing,
superstition, notions of home, and cultural inheritance. Kobe is currently an Artist in
Residence at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and was recently a resident at
Azule. They participated in several group exhibitions, including Into the Thicket at
Morgan Lehman Gallery in New York, NY, and Homologous Structures at The University
of Wisconsin Green Bay’s Lawton Gallery. She has an upcoming solo exhibition at
Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA. Kobe was the grand prize recipient of the 2023
Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award, the BU Women’s Council
Scholarship, the Constantin Alajalov Visual Art Scholarship, and the Michael Crespo
Memorial Scholarship.

M. Kobe | Artist Statement
As an artist from the American South, primarily Louisiana and North Carolina, I make
work that is informed by my own natural history and questions what it means to live in
these regions now. Building off the myths of my religious upbringing, folk tales taught in
elementary school, and my love for country music, I navigate these superstitions and
examine what it means to write my own.

My work functions as reminders of finitude, pointing to the urgency of the present, of
living. The art objects I make, tapestries and sculptures, are embedded with found
natural or “lucky” materials and imbued with personal narrative. Serving as desperate
attempts at future prosperity, the forms in my work often resemble calendars, the
cosmos, holes, portals, and tombs. They reference death while suggesting the potential
for something more porous. Through the physical transformation of my materials, they
become more than memento mori and can hold a history that extends beyond my own
lifetime, both before and after.

I am learning what it means to love a place that can be hard to love, to love a landscape
that loves me back. I make my work with gratitude and admiration and as a critical yet
redemptive response to the complicated places I call home.

www.madelainekobe.com | Instagram @madelainekobe

Dongyi Wu | Artist Statement
My works span across contemporary jewelry, body jewelry, fashion art, sculpture, and conceptual installation, and contemporary jewelry is the primary medium of my current artistic research. I treat jewelry as a tool to explore the relationship between human bodies and their surrounding spaces as well as a visual language that is delivered to others without real words.

I liken myself as a storyteller, who narrates stories that seem to be trivial and common but actually express strong and genuine emotions. For me, these stories feel like small but shining treasures forgotten by others. But, I, as a traveling person, as a junkman, as a storyteller, pick them up and transfer them into unique and refreshing wearable arts. I transfer personal experiences and intuitive feelings into images and then collect the information from the forms and colors of the images to transform them into jewelry work.

Moreover, I fascinate playing with a wide range of materials. I categorize materials according to their colors/shapes/texture and spend time exploring the connections between the selected materials and my personal experiences/preferences. In this case, all the materials that appear in my work speak of my personality and feelings. I transform and repurpose these alternative materials into wearable art, and give them special texture, distinct tactile, and new meaning during my creation.

Artist Bio
Dongyi Wu (she, her) was born and raised in China. She is a contemporary jewelry artist, who is currently working as an artist-in-residence at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN, USA. Dongyi received her Master’s Degree in Metal and Jewelry Design from Rochester Institute of Technology in United States, and her Bachelor’s Degree in Jewelry Art Design from Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology in China, and her Dual Degree in Fashion and engineering from the same undergraduate school in China.

Dongyi has her works shown nationally and internationally, such as JOYA 2020 in Barcelona and Schmuck 2018 in Munich, and recently presented her sixth solo exhibition Shadows of the Daylight, Glimmer of the Nighttime at the Clamp Light Studios & Gallery, in San Antonio, TX. Dongyi was one of the winners of Preziosa Young 2020 in Italy, a finalist for the Lydon Emerging Artist Program (LEAP award) in the United States in 2019, and a finalist for the ENJOIA’T 2017 Contemporary Jewellery Award in Spain in 2017. Her works have also been featured in many publications, such as Chinese Contemporary Jewelry Design and New Brooches: 400+ Contemporary Jewellery Designs. Her work is permanently collected by Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School & Academy, in Florence.

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