Exhibition marks 50 years of hip-hop jewelry

An exhibition marking 50 years of hip-hop jewelry celebrates the dazzling, diamond-encrusted tradition “in all its blinged-out glory,” Artnet wrote. Gold grills, jeweled medallions, and T-Pain’s infamous “Big Ass Chain” are museum artifacts in Ice Cold: An Exhibition of Hip-Hop Jewelry, which traces the genre’s evolution from the streets of the Bronx to the cultural mainstream.

Pieces from artists including Nicki Minaj and the Notorious B.I.G. don’t merely represent conspicuous consumption, but rather the overcoming of societal obstacles to achieve entrepreneurial success, said the curator of the exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History. “Both as a cultural symbol and as an aesthetic, hip-hop jewelry reflects deeper issues about wealth, identity, and the American Dream.”