Dallas Museum of Art’s Constellations Survey Explores Contemporary Jewelry Narratives

More than 350 wearable works drawn from the Dallas Museum of Art’s contemporary jewelry holdings occupy a multi-room installation that opens to the public on November 9, 2025 and runs through May 3, 2026. Some accounts describe the show as “nearly 400” individual works, and the museum says many of the pieces have never been on view before, making this one of the most expansive displays of studio jewelry on a single museum floor.

The exhibition is curated by Sarah Schleuning, the DMA’s Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Design and Decorative Art, and installed in a multi-room design by artist and architect Jarrod Beck. Tamara Wootton Forsyth, the museum’s interim director and Marcus-Rose Family deputy director, summed up the collection’s scope: “The Dallas Museum of Art holds one of the largest and most diverse collections of contemporary jewelry in the world. It reflects our global and ambitious approach to collecting across all areas.” Constellations marks the first time the DMA has formally presented its extensive holdings of contemporary studio jewelry.

The institutional scope behind the exhibition is considerable. The museum’s holdings include some 1,400 contemporary studio jewels acquired over the past 75 years, while the works on view span a wide chronological range described variously as from the 1940s to the present day and as surveying nearly a century of creativity. Member Preview Days are scheduled November 6–8, 2025, and the public opening-day hours on November 9 are listed as 12–5 pm.

Specific works illustrate the exhibition’s material curiosity. Bruno Martinazzi’s Goldfinger Bracelet, dated 1969, is shown in 18k white gold paired with 20k yellow gold, while Irish artist Genevieve Howard’s 2023 neckpiece Gleo translates field recordings of ocean sounds into color and form: Howard processed the ocean sounds through a computer to generate color patterns and transformed the resulting data into an oversized blue-and-green neckpiece made of Japanese linen paper, Fabriano paper, and elastic cord. Ute Decker’s contribution is a Fairtrade Gold commission made for Constellations, with photography credits on press materials to Xavier Young.

Visitors will also encounter pieces that bend everyday materials into wearable statements: golden crowns formed to look like cardboard, necklaces crafted from plastic bags, and whimsical brooches resembling toast, many accompanied by artists’ sketches or archival photographs that show how the pieces are worn and the thinking behind their making. That emphasis on process and gesture underscores the show’s stated focus on links between body, ornament, and personal narrative.

Logistics are concrete: the Dallas Museum of Art is at 1717 North Harwood, Dallas, TX 75201, the exhibition runs through May 3, 2026, and the museum acknowledges support from DMA Members and donors, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture. High-resolution photography credit on exhibition materials goes to Xavier Young, and a longer curator conversation appears in an Art Jewelry Forum interview titled “Deedie Rose & Sarah Schleuning: Creating Constellations of Curiosity.”

Constellations offers a rare institutional survey that foregrounds experimental materials and data-driven process alongside historical studio work, and it gives collectors and first-time viewers alike an extended opportunity to see these holdings in full context through May 3, 2026.