Merry Renk

Merry Renk originally intended to become an industrial designer, but came to dislike the thought that her work would be in newspapers “that eventually would line garbage cans.” Primarily self-taught, Renk was instrumental in the studio-jewelry revival in the United States. While a student at Chicago’s Institute of Design, Renk and two fellow students opened the first contemporary arts and crafts gallery in America to show abstract art, and after moving to San Francisco she was one of the first members of the Metal Arts Guild.