Ulysses Davis and Bruce Metcalf

These aren't usually two artists you would see mentioned together. Ulysses Davis was a Georgia folk artist known for his wood carvings who passed away in 1990, while Bruce Metcalf is a contemporary studio jeweler who has been very influential in his field. But they have at least two things in common: Both are the subject of solo exhibitions this year, and both have been featured in exhibitions and publications organized and produced by the Georgia Museum of Art.

Ulysses Davis is the subject of a major exhibition opening today at the American Folk Art Museum, The Treasure of Ulysses Davis, which features 100 of his wood sculptures. One of his reliefs, pictured below, appeared in the exhibition and publication Amazing Grace: Self-Taught Artists from the Mullis Collection in September of 2007 at GMOA.


Bruce Metcalf, on the other hand, is the subject of an exhibition opening June 27 at the Bellevue Arts Museum, The Miniature Worlds of Bruce Metcalf, and had a ring included in The Ring Shows: Then & Now and Putting the Band Back Together in August of 2008.


Are we bragging? A little bit, but we're always interested in following artists who have had their work in exhibitions at the museum, especially because we learn so much about them in the process of organizing an exhibition, writing wall text, working on a catalogue, publicizing it all and more that it makes us want to keep on learning. It's kind of like learning a new word and then seeing it everywhere.

Edit: The New York Times has added a Davis slideshow.