There Was Always The Forest: A Solo Exhibit by Crystal Hartman

Opening Reception: Friday, November 15 • 5-9pm

Crystal Hartman (b. April 9, 1983, Durango Colorado, USA) grew up behind a jeweler’s bench at the mouth of a canyon in southwest Colorado. She began carving wax, cutting stones, and forming metal as a young child. After apprenticing with artist Stanton Englehart, she earned her BFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Recipient of a UROP grant for academic research on Femininity in Latin America, she cultivated a reverence for community and conversation. Hartman filmed professional and amateur skateboarding in Spain (2005-7), studied site specific craft in Thailand (2008), and founded/directed Durango Open Studio (2009-11, Durango, CO.) In 2011, the artist received the Merwin Altfeld Memorial Award for Storytelling in the Arts from the National Watercolor Association. Her artwork has exhibited at the Center for Contemporary Arts Barcelona, Spain, the National Palace of Culture, Sofia Bulgaria, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder CO, the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Arvada CO, and the Denver International Airport, Denver CO USA among others. Her work can be found globally in arts and literary publications, as album art through independent labels, and book covers from Oxford University Press, London, and A5 Publishing, Madrid. Her sculptural jewelry designs, carved of sustainably-harvested beeswax and ethically cast in fine metals, have been featured in Art Jewelry Magazine, and exhibited at locations such as the Lilstreet Art Gallery, Chicago IL, Kathleen Sommers, San Antonio TX, and through the Society of North American Goldsmiths. Hartman currently lives and works in Urbana Illinois.

Member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths