Gallery Loupe is pleased to present "last" by Caroline Gore, a new series that investigates the chasm between remembering and forgetting and the devise of forming ideas through the acts of mending and alteration. A “last” is an industrial tool—similar in form to an anvil—upon which shoes are constructed. Each size and style requires a specific last, and although the shoe-making process is repetitive, this method marks time and, consequently, a feeling of reoccurring timelessness that is mirrored in the repeated forms and other signifiers inherent in the outcome. This common, time-honored technique inspired "last", the latest manifestation of Gore’s philosophically poignant aesthetic.

Some of Gore’s prior series are contemporary interpretations of Victorian mourning jewelry, for which she often incorporated black materials, such as oxidized silver, jet, leather, black pearls, or hematite. For "last", Gore constructed necklaces using oxidized silver, hematite, silk, leather, nylon, and thread, some of which she combined with sculptural borosilicate glass forms handmade by glass artist Carmichael Jones. These striking glass objects grew out of Gore’s experiments using slip-cast porcelain as a metaphor for the acts of making and mending. Finding glass more in keeping with her aim in this series of jewelry, she developed the forms with Jones, relegating the porcelain objects to autonomous sculptural statements. Deceptively complex, in both idea and realization, the jewels in "last" exercise the intellect while they animate the body.

Gore received a BFA, cum laude, from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA and MFA from East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, where she studied under Robert Ebendorf; she also attended Opere Jewellery School, Ravenstein, The Netherlands. Gore has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including the monumental 2014 installation, mercurial silence, and been included in countless group shows and jewelry publications. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX; Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NB; and Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. A seasoned educator, Gore is currently Associate Professor and Metals Coordinator, University of the Arts, Craft & Material Studies, Philadelphia, PA. In referencing Gore’s mercurial silence, C. James Meyer, Professor Emeritus, School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, wrote: “There are very few artists who can make work that has a sound conceptual basis, a sensitive aesthetic and is appropriately made. Caroline Gore’s work succeeds on all of these levels.”