New York, NY… At the National Arts Club, The West Harlem Art Fund will present a panel for the third consecutive year with Master Drawings NY. A site most suitable for its ornate stones, stained glass, and wood carvings. In addition to the jewelry focus, the event will feature a packed panel that will explore the concept of a Master Drawing across time periods, cultures, and continents. The Importance of Jewelry in Portraiture: Symbols, Power and Secrets will take place on Friday, February 6, 2026 at 2 p.m.

Panel Description

The Middle Ages (5th-14th century) coincided with the fall of the Roman Empire and the Golden Age of Islam, a period when paintings were often more symbolic or centered on nature. There was a renewed interest in Greco-Roman knowledge during the Renaissance, accompanied by significant achievements in the arts and sciences. Jewelry also contributed to this wave of creativity and innovation, and Renaissance jewelry is a treasured period for collectors of antique jewelry. All designs were carefully crafted and featured mythological scenes, allegorical figures, and floral arrangements. Painting, sculpture, and metalsmithing were among the skills of artists.

In a panel moderated by Savona Bailey-McClain, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the West Harlem Art Fund, we will learn about notable painters from Western Europe, India, Pakistan and ancient Persia. How did these paintings influenced society? Do they still affects us today?

Free tickets are available on Eventbrite — https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-importance-of-jewelry-in-portraiture-drawings-symbols-power-secrets-tickets-1979691228757

Moderator

Savona Bailey-McClain is a Harlem based curator and arts administrator. She is the Executive Director/Chief Curator of the West Harlem Art Fund, which has organized high-profile public arts exhibits throughout New York City for the past 20 years, including Times Square, DUMBO, Soho, Governors Island and Harlem. Her public art installations encompass sculpture, drawings, performance, sound, and mixed media, and have been covered extensively by the New York Times, Art Daily, Artnet, Hyperallergic, Los Angeles Times and Huffington Post, among many others. She is host/ producer of “State of the Arts NYC,” a video podcast program on several platforms. She is a member of ArtTable, Advisory Board member of NYC’s Dance in Sacred Places, Governors Island Advisory Council and new Board member of NY Artists Equity Association. 

Panelists

Brian Albert is a gem merchant and co-founder of DSF Antique Jewelry. Around 2013, he and his partner, Filip, established a retail presence, transitioning their business from online to a physical shop. Albert is largely responsible for sourcing the antique and vintage jewelry, which includes Georgian, Victorian, and Art Deco pieces, while managing operations with partners Filip and Alexandrina. 

Laura Engel specializes in eighteenth-century British literature with a focus on drama, gender studies, performance theory, material culture, and theater history. She is the author of Women, Performance, and the Material of Memory: The Archival Tourist (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Austen, Actresses, and Accessories (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), Fashioning Celebrity: Eighteenth-Century British Actresses and Strategies for Image Making (Ohio State University Press, 2011) and co-editor of Stage Mothers: Women, Work, and the Theater 1660-1830 (Bucknell University Press, 2015). She recently co-curated an exhibition entitled “Artful Nature: Fashion and Theatricality” at the Lewis Walpole Library at Yale University and is working on a new digital book project, The Art of the Actress in the Eighteenth Century. She is the editor of the book series “Performing Celebrity” for the University of Delaware Press. 

For over 40 years, Sanjay Kapoor has been leading the global sales and acquisition of museum quality works of art from India, Nepal, and Tibet as a fourth-generation Director at Kapoor Galleries Inc. I have a deep passion and knowledge of South Asian and Himalayan antiquities, and I ensure that all the pieces I deal with meet the highest standards of attribution, provenance, and condition. I have also contributed to scholarly publications and cataloging of Indian miniatures and Himalayan statuary, which are my areas of specialization.

I have developed strong and trusted relationships with a diverse range of clients, from private collectors and connoisseurs to museums and institutions worldwide. Some of the prestigious organizations that I have worked with include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Asia Society, the Rubin Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. I am also an active member and leader of several professional associations and committees, such as the Art and Antique Dealers League of America, the International Society of Appraisers, and the Asian Art Council. I am proficient in contemporary marketing platforms, especially those popular in Asia, such as WeChat and Ad campaigns. My goal is to promote the gallery’s commitment to excellence and to share my passion for Asian art with a wider audience.

Ayala Naphtali is a NYC based metalsmith / jewelry maker with a studio in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She began making jewelry as an early teen in NYC.  She studied Gold and Silversmithing at FIT and SUNY NEW PALTZ
where she received her BFA.

Ayala’s work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally in galleries and museums shops and design stores. Her work has been collected privately, and in the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt and Kunsindustriu museum in Norway, The White House ornament collection. Ayala has exhibited in major national juried art shows such as American Craft Exposition in Baltimore, SOFA, Cherry Creek Arts Festival and numerous others annually.  Selected publications include American Craft Magazine, ELLE, The Fashions of The Times, The New York Times, Mademoiselle, Women’s Wear Daily, Glamour, and New Women Magazine, New York Post.  Ayala has been a juror for The American Craft Council Craft Shows.

Kim Nelson is a multiple award-winning designer with 32 years of jewelry industry experience. He currently serves as the Assistant Chair over Jewelry Design within the Fashion Department at The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), a position he has held since 2017.

Originally from Salt Lake City Utah, his jewelry career began with the Jewelry Design Program at The Fashion Institute of Technology, where he studied in the process of transitioning from a successful career in illustration. He began working as a free-lance designer for Andre’ Chervin at Carvin French Jewelers while still a student at FIT and was hired as their in-house designer upon graduation. Kim’s design apprenticeship under Andre’ Chervin lasted for three years and would shape his understanding and approach to jewelry for the rest of his career. 

Kim’s academic career began when he returned to FIT to teach jewelry design and CAD modeling as a part-time adjunct professor in 2000. He accepted a full-time teaching position in 2013 and became head of the Jewelry Design Program in 2017, a capacity he continues to serve in.

Benjamin Zucker is a gem merchant, connoisseur, and expert on the history of gems and jewelry who works in a family-owned business in New York City. He is a graduate of Yale BA degree 1962 and Harvard Law School 1965. Zucker has traveled worldwide in search of precious stones and is sometimes called upon to track the provenance of unusual or rare pieces of jewelry. His nonfiction titles offer practical advice to those who wish to purchase or collect gems, on scales both modest and grand.