Black and gold can represent a wide spectrum of human drama. In the history of gold, we find light and beginnings: symbols of marriage and birth, indications of wealth, power, and optimism. The gold pieces here are intricate and full of life. Black, on the other hand, is often used to symbolize emptiness, weight, and death. The black resin pieces here conjure mourning jewelry from the Victorian era made from the black gemstone jet to commemorate the dead. There is something elemental in both black and gold; in them we recognize essential aspects of our shared experience.

The Black and Gold grouping of contemporary jewelry currently on view features several works by Lisa Gralnick, who graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 1980. Her jewelry designs often incorporate geometric, mechanical, or architectural forms fabricated in black acrylic or gold. Her early work in black acrylic, which alludes to the threat of technology, was inspired by coincidental sightings of a submarine, a black rubber hose, and a broken vinyl record.

In the 1990s she began to explore the relationship between humanity and technology in a more positive light, which I feel is reflected in her gold pieces from 1999 and 2002 . Through her jewelry, she explores the relationship between the wearer and our industrialized culture.