SOFA NEW YORK 2006 LECTURE SERIES

CHICAGO, APRIL 10, 2006.  Complimentary with admission to SOFA NEW YORK 2006 (except where otherwise noted,) are twelve Lecture Series presentations featuring internationally renowned artists, collectors and arts professionals.  The Lecture Series takes place at the exposition from Thursday, June 1 – Saturday, June 3 in the Tiffany Room at the Seventh Regiment Armory.  View Lecture Schedule.

Giampaolo Babetto Spilla (brooch), 1997 18k gold 2 x 2 x 2 Photo: Giustino Chemello Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA

Anne Meszko, Director of Educational Programming for SOFA said, “The New York Lecture Series is especially strong this year in the sector of international art jewelry.  Five of the world’s finest jewelry artists survey their careers and inspirations from the elegant minimalism of Italy’s Giampaolo Babetto (Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA), to the cutting-edge intersection of technology and aesthetics in the works of United Kingdom’s David Watkins (Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, London), to the highly conceptual, surreal objects of Ted Noten (Ornamentum, Hudson, NY) of The Netherlands.”  Noten will invite the audience to “Chew Your Own Brooch” and spit out a self-sculpted artwork to be reviewed by an “all-star” jury, whose designs will be made into wearable artworks by Noten himself. Other acclaimed jewelers speaking in the Lecture Series are Switzerland’s David Bielander and Australia’s Helen Britton (Jewelers Werk Galerie, Washington, DC) based in Munich, Germany.  Read more on Art Jewelry.

Dominick Labino [American, 1910-1987] Veiled Emergence, Executed 1980 Hot-worked glass 6 1/8 x 3 7/8 x 2 ¼” Photo: Spencer Tsai Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, NY

Principal among SOFA NEW YORK Lecture Series presentations is Emergence: Early American Studio Glass and Its Influences, an exploration of the beginnings of the American Studio Glass movement presented by its key pioneers.  Meszko said, “This is a rare opportunity for collectors and the public to hear seminal glass artists reflect on the history and significance of the movement.  We are honored by the participation of Howard Ben Tre and Erwin Eisch (Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York, NY), two of the world’s most accomplished glass sculptors.”  Moderated by Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, with panelists Howard Ben Tre, Erwin Eisch, Michael Glancy, Marvin Lipofsky, Joel Philip Myers, Tom Patti, Richard Meitner and Toots Zynsky. Read more on Emergence.

The Lecture Series also presents two artists renowned for their abstractions of historical art forms, Léopold L. Foulem (Dean Project, New York, NY) and Beth Lipman (Heller Gallery, New York, NY). Foulem’s signature ceramics reference 18^th and 19^th c. European porcelain ware, and Lipman’s three-dimensional glass recreations of 17^th and 18^th c. still-life paintings foreground contemporary issues of post-modern aesthetics, challenging boundaries between the decorative and fine arts.

Ceramist Léopold L. Foulem’s distinguished career extends over more than 30 years, having taught ceramics for 20 years at the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal, and since 1994 at the CÉGEP de Saint-Laurent.  Foulem is also a world authority on Picasso's ceramic work.  Of his work, Foulem said, “My ceramics are about art and ceramics, and ultimately about ceramics as art…I believe that genuine art is about concepts and indisputably neither about medium nor style, nor even about making.”

Beth Lipman Tea Table II, 2005 Glass, glue, gold, wood, paint 54 x 30 Photo: John Michael Kohler Arts Center Heller Gallery, New York, NY

Beth Lipman is quickly earning renown for her formal, clear glass rendering of still-life paintings from centuries past with their rich history of paying homage to the bounty of nature and God, as well as their counterparts, “vanitas paintings”—which emphasized the fleeting quality of material pleasures.  Lipman’s merging of the subject matter of 17^th and 18^th c. painting with glass sculpture is at once highly ironic and richly resonant—as well as beautiful. 

Other key presentations in the Lecture Series include:

•	Marian Bijlenga Sampler Dots (with Red), 2004 Dyed horsehair, fabric 42 x 42” Cervini Haas Gallery/Gallery Materia, Scottsdale, AZ Dutch fiber artist, Marian Bijlenga (Cervini Haas Gallery/Gallery Materia, Scottsdale, AZ), who creates simultaneously dense, complex patterns and transparent, open structures from materials as cotton, Japanese paper, horsehair and monofilament in combination with natural elements such as dried leaves from willow and roses;
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•	Katô Yasukage Ridged large bowl with copper green, brown and dark blue oribe glaze, 2005 Stoneware with copper green oribe glaze in pooling from rich green to dark blue & iron brown 6.75 x 16.75 x 13.25” Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., New York, NY Fourteenth generation Japanese ceramist Katô Yasukage (Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., New York, NY) on his quest to find his own vision within the celebrated tradition of oribe and shino ceramics;
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•	The new home of the Museum of Arts & Design, located on 2 Columbus Circle, and opening in Spring 2008. Three past and present directors of the Museum of Arts & Design—Paul J. Smith, Janet Kardon, and Holly Hotchner in an informal panel discussion moderated by the Museum’s Chief Curator, David R. McFadden. How have their visions shaped the institution, celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year and preparing to move into its new home at Two Columbus Circle? How do they perceive the past and future of our field?
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•	Chrome-plated Iron "American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow," March 16 - June 11 The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture Lily Kane, Director of Education, American Craft Council, presents Streamlined for Intricacy, an examination of the use of new and non-traditional materials in craft, investigating the relationship between technological advancements and contemporary craft practices. Kane’s introductory lecture will be followed by a tour of selected objects on view at SOFA NEW YORK. For further information or to register, call the Bard Graduate Center Public Programs Department at 212-501-3011 or e-mail programs@bgc.bard.edu. Advance registration required. Organized by Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture in conjunction with its exhibition American Streamlined Design: The World of Tomorrow on-view during SOFA NEW YORK.

For a full listing of SOFA NEW YORK 2006 Lecture Series presentations with dates and times, View Lecture Schedule.