WS Chronicle

Collaborative work by Jasmine Huff and Nannette Davis in Arboreal Gallery

Winston-Salem artists Jasmine Huff, photographer, and Nannette Davis, jewelry designer, have teamed up for a joint exhibition in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts’ Arboreal Gallery, Aug. 15 –Sept. 24. Titled “FORM / TEXTURE / LIGHT / SHADOW,” the show will be open to the public to view on site, Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.   

Visitors will be required to wear face masks or other appropriate face coverings, and observe social distancing guidelines. To facilitate compliance with current maximum capacity guidelines, visitors may be asked to wait temporarily in adjacent areas of the Rhodes Center before entering the gallery.  

Nannette Davis debuted a custom jewelry collection with fashion designer Puja Arora at Winston-Salem Fashion Week 2018, which developed into a collection that was shown at New York Fashion Week 2019. Subsequently, Davis and photographer Jasmine Huff began discussing how photography could be used creatively to enhance the presentation of the jewelry. 

“We quickly discovered that we inspire each other with our individual bodies of work, compelling the other to grow within our unique mediums. Each work echoed off the other. The light and shadow in Jasmine’s photography reflected the texture and form in my jewelry,” said Davis. 

“We came up with a vision that you might call a ‘photographic narrative’ that showcased not only how the jewelry was to be worn, but how each piece transforms its wearer,” said Huff.  “My photography offers a new view of the collection, which elevates both the models and the jewelry they are wearing into works of art, wholly and fully beautiful. Nannette shared that vision and it continues as the foundation of our Jasmine and Nannette collaboration.” 

The exhibition has evolved over the last several months since the onset of the COVID-19 virus. Art Nouveau Winston-Salem, the under-40 affiliate organization of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, originally conceived the exhibition for the Duke Energy Gallery in the Hanesbrands Theatre. When Hanesbrands Theatre was closed due to COVID-19, the exhibition was expanded and moved next door to the Arboreal Gallery in the Milton Rhodes Center for The Arts, with The Arts Council as lead sponsor.  

Art Nouveau member Lindsay Piper Potter-Figueiredo assumed the duties of curator and played a key role, along with Shannon Stokes, patron services and events manager at The Arts Council, who is the exhibition’s coordinating producer. The models for the jewelry in the exhibition are Jerotich Yegon and Emily Ortiz Badalamente. 

Winston-Salem, known as the “City of Arts & Innovation,” and Forsyth County have a robust arts community that enriches the lives of area residents every day and accounts in large part for the recognition they continue to receive as a great place to live, learn, work and play. Forsyth County’s nonprofit arts industry supports more than 5,550 fulltime equivalent jobs, accounts for more than $129 million in resident household income, and generates more than $14.8 million in local and state tax revenues.