Maitland Smith Art

To Chicago-based artist Patrick Fitzgerald, his sculptures are a means of traveling through time. Working from found materials, Fitzgerald constructs miniature soap box cars...

C. Jeré ( or Curtis Jere) is a metalwork artist of wall sculptures and household accessories. C. Jeré works are made by Artisan House. Curtis Jer...

Antique Middle Eastern Judaic Birth Amulet Buckle with Kabbalistic Inscription. On woven silver chain. Most likely from Iran, Persia, (possibly from Afghanistan or Bukharian Jews) Ci...

Miniature scooter shadow box sculpture with rope crossing, exploring freedom, risk and the courage to move forward despite uncertainty. Freedom is a unique mixed media shadow box sc...

This striking 20th-century folk art metal sculpture, Lucky Horse, captures the spirit of handmade ingenuity and imaginative design. Forged from sheet metal and shaped with confident,...

A bronze sculpture by Bruno Luna from 1990. A miniature scene of a roulette table populated by Botero-esque rotund figures. Artist: Bruno Luna, Mex...

A miniature weightlifting scene unfolds inside a sky-blue architectural box, where an oversized donut becomes both obstacle and training ground in a poetic reflection on strength, gr...

A playful and spirited metal wall hanging by legendary folk artist Rev. Howard Finster (1916–2001), dated 1992 and numbered 25,000,998. This mixed-media piece features a cartoonish U...

This surrealist miniature diorama depicts a solitary reader suspended above a turbulent blue sea, beneath an oversized light bulb that becomes an enigmatic moon. Created by Italian ...

Two red hearts appear to hold a curved wooden structure in suspension in this surrealist miniature diorama sculpture about balance, intimacy and emotional lightness. Created by Ital...

A LARGE, OLD SILVER CHALLAH KNIFE Chased with biblical passage with commandment to “Remember the Sabbath” 800 Silver handle, Steel blade Dimensions: 12 X 1.5 Stamped Germany. With ha...

Paint and gold paint on wood Circa early to mid 20th century. This is not signed A treasure from a proud congregation. It is a hand-carved wooden sculpture showing the Tablets of the Law flanked by two Lions of Judah. Their paws held the tablets. Their roaring mouths faced outward, protecting the commandments from threats. In a foliage design with gold and silver paint. Circa 1920-1940's. This Neoclassical, Judaic, Art Deco, Egyptian revival, Shul, Aron Kodesh hand carving, wood with gilding, Hebrew lettering ten commandments sign sculpture, was produced probably in New York. There was a show at the Folk Art Museum titled “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel” That featured these antique magnificent pieces. From gilded lions to high-stepping horses, the sacred to the secular, and the Old World to the New, “Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel” traces the journey of Jewish woodcarvers and other artisans from Eastern and Central Europe to America and the unsung role they played in establishing a distinct Jewish culture in communities throughout the United States. The exuberant artworks stand as a testament to a history of survival and transformation and provide a surprising revelation of the link that was forged between the synagogue and the carousel as immigrant Jewish artists transferred symbolic visual elements into this vernacular American idiom. The first major study of this important aspect of the Jewish contribution to American folk art, the exhibition features approximately one hundred artworks and objects, including rare documentary photographs of Eastern European synagogue arks and carved gravestones, sacred carvings, papercuts, and carousel animals. Some of these same Jewish European carvers worked on Coney Island amusement park rides and carousel horses and other carnival and circus carvings.