|
...BIO Over the years, the continuous creative collaboration of Talya Baharal and Gene Gnida has had a broad and sweeping influence on each other’s work. The artistic and personal relationship flamed their innately intense curiosity and attraction for working with new forms, materials and techniques. In 1988, they decided to channel their creative energies together and as a team founded Baharal-Gnida Designs. The confluence of Baharal’s strong conceptual and design sense and Gnida’s creativity with sculptural forms and extensive technical expertise has impacted their individual as well as collaborative efforts and their work has evolved into gallery caliber pieces. Both artists come to their careers in sculpture and art jewelry through circuitous paths. Born in Israel, Talya Baharal was exposed to art and design at an early age. Her English mother, an artist and interior designer, nurtured Talya’s proclivity for design and recognized her intuitive ability to intermingle ancient and contemporary elements. Ever independent, Talya was on her own at age 16 and living in London, England. Over the next eight years she pursued successful careers, first in advertising and then in broadcast journalism working as a producer, researcher, translator and assignment editor at CBS News in Tel-Aviv and New York City. But her hands and mind were always reaching for a creative outlet. In 1984, she took her first course in jewelry making in NYC and was smitten with the medium and the sculptural possibilities of metal. Several more courses were taken at Parsons School of Design and SUNY New Paltz metal departments, but primarily she is self-taught. In 1986, Talya founded her own jewelry company. By 1987, Saks Fifth Avenue featured her as a designer in their jewelry department and catalog. Other department stores and specialty shops followed. Her work was featured in Elle, Vogue, Bazaar, The New York Times and other publications. Baharal began her collaboration with Gene Gnida in the late 1980’s. Their artistic language melded instantly. By 1989, their work was accepted to the Smithsonian Institution’s annual craft show and the American Craft Council juried shows. In the following years they also exhibited their work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art craft show, American Craft Expo show in Evanston, Ill, and Crafts at the Castle in Boston. Gene Gnida designed a house and saw it built at age 16. He received his bachelor’s degree in History from Concordia University in Montreal, but found himself drawn back to the world of art, sculpting in stone, bronze and wood. Gnida’s work was shown in Canadian galleries, and in 1968, Bell Canada sponsored a solo exhibition of Gnida’s sculptures at its pavilion at the Montreal Expo fairgrounds. Seeking to hone his woodworking craft further, Gnida studies in the early 1970’s with Ian Kirby, the renowned founder of director of the Kirby School of Design, then in Bennington, Vermont. By the mid 70’s, Gnida had settled into a career as a furniture designer and fine woodworker. In 1983, Fine Woodworking Magazine chose his work for publication in its Design Book Series. Throughout the 1990’s Talya and Gene exhibited their work at well-known galleries across the United States. They taught a workshop at the Peter’s Valley Craft Center in New Jersey and will be teaching at Arrowmont in 2005. In 1994 Talya was invited to lecture about her sculptural work at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem, Israel. In 1998 Talya was on the jury committee of the American Craft Council shows. Talya’s sculptural work appeared in Tim McCreight’s 1999 book The Metalsmith’s Book of Boxes and Lockets. Selected pieces of their jewelry collection have appeared in Dona Meilach’s Jewelry Art Today published in 2003. Additional pieces have been featured in American Craft Magazine, Ornament and other publications. In August 2004 Talya and Gene received the Best of Show Award for their jewelry by the American Craft Council at their show in San Francisco. |