trinket

Think of something small enough to slip into your pocket. A souvenir from a trip. A keepsake from someone you love. A little thing you've held onto for years because, somehow, it makes you feel at home in yourself.

That’s the idea behind trinket, a show of 90-plus tiny artworks, each no bigger than two inches in any direction. The artists range in age from seven to 76. Some show at major galleries. Others are exhibiting for the first time. Everyone’s contributions are attached to the walls with custom prongs, scattered like stars to form a constellation.

The fun is in moving from one to the next. It’s like an I Spy book come to life. The longer you look, the more you discover.

A chicken wishbone. A diamond-cut ruby. A 3D-printed oyster shell modeled after one the artist saved from dinner. A penny with a poem engraved in impossibly tiny letters around its edge, made during lockdown.

Each little thing opens a window into someone else’s world, unlocking a story, a memory, or a moment of recognition. These stories are lovingly recorded at the exhibition’s microsite: https://trinket.art/

As you move from object to object, all these unrelated things begin to feel connected. And you start thinking about the odd little things you've saved over the years. The ones tucked in drawers or sitting on shelves, gathering dust.

Things that wouldn't mean much to anybody else.

But mean the world to you.

Anne-Laure Lemaitre lives and works between New York, Paris, and Nova Scotia. A curator, writer, and producer, she has spent 20-plus years traveling the world to work with artists. trinket includes some she has looked up to from afar, others she has met through residencies and projects in the Philippines, Mexico, New York, and beyond.