Triian Jewelry, and a New Painting

Ask anybody who’s been involved with the Boston arts scene for more than 4 years, and they probably know Brian Burkhardt. I’m guessing that anybody involved in the arts scene in Miami over the last couple of years knows him too. One of Boston’s most talented and outgoing sculptors moved down south in 2007. After a few years in the sun and a few shows at Nina Johnson’s great Gallery Diet in Miami, Brian shifted focus again. When I spoke to him last winter, he had recently married Trisha Brookbank, also a very talented sculptor, had combined their prodigious talents, and were making these really unique pieces of jewelry that looked for all intents and purposes like geology gone haywire. But they are all made by Brian and Trisha out of synthetic and reclaimed material. They called their jewelry work Triian.

I had a chance to check out a few of these pieces in person last time I was in Miami, maybe a year and a half ago, and in the mean time their work has made its way into the Anthropologie catalog and a number of high profile fashion magazine spreads and blog posts. When Brian called me this past winter, he was interested in having some of his friends in the art world create special pieces inspired by Triian. He was hoping to align the brand early on with a certain artistic sensibility, much like Absolut Vodka, or Louis Vuitton. He gave me pretty much carte blanche to do whatever I like, with the results to be shown on their website, www.triian.com, under “Collaborations.” I liked the idea, I like the work they are doing, and I liked the other artists they had collaborated with already, including by coincidence my wife’s old art school roommate, Suzanne Coady of girlyhandwriting.

So, obviously, I painted an astronaut. I liked the idea that Brian and Trisha had created these tiny worlds, and since my work is very much about the exploration of different worlds (or just weird parts of our own world), it seemed natural to have my astronaut explore the crusty bejeweled surface of their sculptures. Check out the painting I made. Then check out some more examples of their work below, or learn more about Brian and Trisha’s jewelry at www.triian.com, or order a piece at their Etsy shop.