Dream Machine is an exhibition that activates tender conversations through the fusion of identity and studio practice. We house work that exposes today's truths, standing together in idea and individuality.
Our fourth annual exhibition, DM2022 is seeking work that explores themes of identity and politics; intimacy and isolation; body and autonomy. Through jewelry, tableware, and objects, artists manifest the intangible—giving voice and form to the liminal spaces of dreams, feelings, and atmosphere. Allowing for hope, anticipation, and anxiety, these works come together to reflect distinct and connected experiences.
Meet the team.
Sylvie Lissa Alusitz
Sylvie is one of the co-founders of Dream Machine and has been curating the exhibition since 2019.
Sylvie Lissa Alusitz is a metalsmith and jeweler based in New York who explores the relationships we have to people and place. The home serves to protect our daydreams, compilations of memory and imagination. Influenced by the basketry and textile communities, she translates processes into metal to create objects that become physical representations of things untouchable. They have the ability to transcend time, mark birth, death and regrowth. Left open, she allows her work to be entered by different people, to move through time and place and inhabit multiple spaces at once.She received her Masters in Fine Arts from State University of New York at New Paltz in Metal in 2019 and a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2015. Sylvie has exhibited nationally and internationally, having been selected for and participating in Autor Contemporary Jewelry Fair in Bucharest, Romania. She has been included in exhibitions at the Greater Denton Arts Council, Denton, TX and the Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester, MA and elsewhere. Sylvie has also received funding from the Tiffany and Co. Foundation and the Women’s Jewelry Association.
Kate Dannenberg
Kate joined the Dream Machine curatorial team in 2021.
Kate Dannenberg is a jeweler and metalsmith living in South Philadelphia. Kate’s work is grounded in a firm belief in the importance of thoughtful craftsmanship, and she is interested in the way humans physically interact with precious and everyday objects. Direct study of the Natural world and formative experiences in wilderness influence the form and texture of her work. While maintaining her personal artistic practice Kate co-founded and runs Night Shift Studio Metals and Jewelry Cooperative. Night Shift grew out of a shared desire for collaboration and constructive feedback among metal artists. Through her work here and as a teaching assistant and curator she strives to uplift the jewelry and craft communities through inclusion, education, and enthusiasm.
Kate is a member of Ethical Metalsmiths and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from Rochester Institute of Technology in 2015. Her work was included in The Metal Museum’s exhibition 40 Under 40: The Next Generation Of American Metal Artists in 2019, among other exhibitions, and she was selected as a finalist for the Halstead Grant in 2023.
Meg Wachs
Meg joined the Dream Machine curatorial Team in 2023.
Meg is a New York City-based artist and curator whose personal and professional practice aims to bridge the gaps between material practices. Her studio practice consists of bringing a slew of materials to her jeweler's bench and trying to make sense of them in a wearable way through the lens of a metalsmith. The current projects in her studio are not focused on any singular result but embrace the experimentation of a marriage of materials. Her love of curating comes from a desire to lift up and bring light to new and exciting work in the field of jewelry.
Among obtaining a BFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2012 and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2018, Meg has worked as a fabricator, participated in residencies, was part of the original NYCJW team from 2018-2020, and has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has an incurable desire for earrings and is constantly on the hunt for new designs to add to her collection of 65+ pairs.