Art + Artists

Born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, Eliana Arenas moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2009. Since then, she has immersed herself in the art and design community, including as a 2011 artist-in-residence here at McColl Center for Art + Innovation. Arenas’s jewelry and installation work is inspired by human resilience and our ability to adjust to different and often difficult circumstances, often fueled by our need for home and family. Using metal and newspaper—materials that are simultaneously strong and fragile—Arenas creates sculptural jewelry pieces that she hopes will provide the wearer with a sense of place. Arenas earned her BFA in Jewelry/Metalsmithing and Graphic Design at the University of Texas at El Paso and her MFA in Jewelry/Metalsmithing from New Mexico State University. Her work has been widely exhibited including at the American Craft Council Exhibition, Atlanta, Georgia; SOFA, Thirteenth Annual International Exposition of Sculpture, Objects, and Functional Art, Chicago, Illinois; Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina; Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, Oregon; and at the Society of North American Goldsmiths, Boston, Massachusetts, to name a few. Her work has been included in publications such as La Frontera: An Exhibition of Contemporary Jewelry, The Compendium Finale of Contemporary Jewelers, The Art of Jewelry and Paper Jewelry, and several Lark Book publications, including 500 Paper Objects, 500 Pendants and Lockets, 500 Earrings, 500 Necklaces, and 1000 Rings.