THE SCAD MUSEUM OF ART PRESENTS RING REDUX: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection

On view August 26, 2021–January 30, 2022, the exhibition includes a major gift of 50 rings to the SCAD Museum of Art Permanent Collection.

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA — The SCAD Museum of Art proudly presents its latest exhibition, Ring Redux: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, featuring more than 100 avant-garde rings by artists who have reinvented the age-old and enduring jewelry form with a distinctively contemporary sensibility. The exhibition high- lights exceptional acquisitions made across more than five decades by Susan Grant Lewin, one of the most influential collectors of 20th- and 21st- century art jewelry. Reflecting Lewin’s openness to new artistic ideas, the collection reveals the pluralism of contemporary jewelry, resonating with aesthetic developments in art and design, craft and technology.

Ring Redux demonstrates the featured artists’ thought-provoking ideas, mastery of both traditional and unconventional materials, and innovative techniques, evincing the individualism and technical virtuosity of jewelers who have imaginatively created unique objects imbued with great vitality. Lewin’s collection includes works dating from the 1950s to the present by international luminaries including Claire Falkenstein and Arline Fisch (U.S.); Wendy Ramshaw (U.K.); Bruno Martinazzi, Giampaolo Babetto, and Annamaria Zanella (Italy); Friedrich Becker, Karl Fritsch, and Daniel Kruger (Germany); Emmy van Leersum and Ted Noten (the Netherlands); Peter Skubic (Austria); Deganit Schocken (Israel); Tone Vigeland (Norway), and many more. The exhibition also includes work by SCAD chair of jewelry Jay Song (Korea), SCAD professor Adam Grinovich (U.S.), and alumni Xiaotong Guo (China) and Davis Kemp Russell (U.S.).

"Rings are eminently personal adornment, often given or received to commemorate a special occasion. They signify chapters of note in a person’s life journey,"said SCAD President and Founder Paula Wallace. "Susan Grant Lewin’s acclaimed collection— elegantly depicted in Ring Redux from SCAD University Press — invites us to join in on this journey. More than a miniature sculpture or a sparkling gem, rings symbolize infinity. And surely there is no end to the universal appeal of this classic yet modern art form."

Published by SCAD University Press in partnership with Arnoldsche and authored by renowned jewelry curator Ursula Ilse-Neuman, an accompanying exhibition catalog contextualizes each artist’s improvisations on the ring form, capturing the profound creative energy inherent in these intimate sculptural forms in stunning color photographs and offering valuable perspectives on the work by the artists themselves. Contributors include Susan Grant Lewin, Paula S. Wallace, Sarah Davis, Adam Grinovich, and Kari Herrin. The catalog will be released August 26 in conjunction with the exhibition opening and will be available for purchase at shopSCAD and select retailers around the world.

“With Ring Redux and its accompanying catalog, I have the immense honor of sharing my decades-long work to center and celebrate international jewelry visionaries as the true artists they are,” said Lewin. “I am grateful to Ursula Ilse-Neuman, President Wallace, SCAD Museum of Art associate curator Ben Tollefson, the artists included in the exhibition, and the entire SCAD community for the opportunity to share these exemplary works. It is my hope that their presentation in this exhibition, and later in the museum’s permanent collection, will serve to inspire creative thought and production for generations to come.”

Ring Redux is the second exhibition of Lewin’s vast collection hosted by the SCAD Museum of Art and a testament to the longstanding friendship cultivated between Lewin and the university. In October 2018, the museum presented Jewelry of Ideas: The Susan Grant Lewin Collection, an exhibition that showcased more than 140 avant-garde bracelets, necklaces, brooches, and rings from Lewin’s gift to the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Lewin’s affinity for SCAD and Savannah dates back to her time as architecture editor for House Beautiful Magazine and her frequent travels to the Hostess City to chronicle its historic architecture and preservation works. With its premier contemporary art museum, SCAD — home to the largest jewelry design program in the U.S. — offers the perfect venue to showcase Lewin’s collection to the next generation of artists, designers, collectors, and enthusiasts.

On view August 26, 2021–January 30, 2022, in the museum’s André Leon Talley Gallery, Ring Redux is guest curated by Ursula Ilse-Neuman and organized by SCAD Museum of Art associate curator Ben Tollefson.