Objects of Affection

Mint Museum Randolph

The exhibition features more than 180 works of jewelry, metalwork, drawings, and archival materials drawn from the Porter • Price Collection designed by Ebendorf, as well as faculty and graduates of the metal design program at East Carolina University.

Ebendorf’s work combines exceptional craftsmanship, acquired through traditional training in gold- and silversmithing, with the inventive use of found objects and other alternative materials such as acrylic and ColorCore.

Objects of Affection follows the evolution of Ebendorf’s designs from Scandinavian modernism of his early work to his first use of found objects, including tintype photographs in the 1960s; juxtapositions of colored acrylic and precious metals in the 1970s; use of found newspaper and other textual elements in the 1980s; his pivotal incorporation of animal parts in the 1990s; and the remixing and further development of many of these approaches in the 21st century.