Clayton Salley

Iowa City, Iowa

Bio

Clayton Salley is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, contemporary art jeweler, metalsmith, and a current MFA candidate and instructor studying Jewelry and Metal Arts with Professor Kee-ho Yuen at the University of Iowa. Salley previously studied traditional metalsmithing processes and conceptual art jewelry history with Professor Robly Glover and Professor Nancy Slagle at Texas Tech University.

Salley was the Emerging Artist Presenter at the 2024 Texas Metals Symposium, where he also installed an electroforming tank and co-conducted an electroforming workshop with Professor Yuen. His artwork was featured in the international exhibition, “Refined 2023,” juried by Frankie Flood. Salley has received a U.S. Fulbright Open Study/Research award to travel to Taiwan in September 2024 to undertake 10-month training in advanced traditional hollowware metalsmithing processes with Professor Amal Yung-huei Chao at the Tainan National University of the Arts. His project will result in interdisciplinary artworks that bridge ancient and modern metalsmithing crafts.

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Artist Statement

Jewelry predates writing. The continual lineage of jewelry and metalsmithing practices throughout history, plus the innate, intimate connection of jewelry to the human body, suggest jewelry reflects various aspects of the human condition.

In my current art practice, I am bridging modern and traditional metalsmithing craft methods to demonstrate contemporary uses for ancient processes. By navigating between old and new processes, I hope to connect my art practice to past and future lineages of my craft and artform. My work begins in a parametric Computer Aided Design (CAD) software called Grasshopper. Grasshopper can be used to embed arrangements of geometric shapes, such as hexagons, circles, and triangles, along a form. I initially began this practice by trying to force the variables to create a visual goal I had in mind. By realizing that working within software is inherently collaborative with its programming, I now work more harmoniously with technology.