The World's Foremost Fairs of
Contemporary Decorative Arts & Design

11^th SOFA NEW YORK FAIR:
MORE MUSEUM CALIBER WORK

SOFA NEW YORK 2007

The 11th annual Sculpture Objects & Functional Art fair, best known as SOFA NEW YORK returns May 29-June 1, 2008 to the Park Avenue Armory, Opening Night Wednesday, May 28. 67 leading international galleries will offer masterworks in ceramics, glass, metal, wood and fiber by major artists like George Nakashima, Peter Voulkos, Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Wendell Castle, Lenore Tawney and Anthony Caro, as well as the new generation of emerging artists bound to appeal to both seasoned and new collectors.  Galleries from eleven countries including Japan, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Denmark, Korea, Argentina, New Zealand, Turkey and the United States, present museum quality work which bridges design, decorative and fine art.

Exhibitors Barry Friedman (left) and Joan Mirviss with her husband at SOFA NEW YORK

"More than two decades ago, I witnessed a host of artists creating work in clay and glass with an unheralded vitality that transcended function," says SOFA founder and director Mark Lyman, Vice President of parent company dmg world media, who won no less than two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships for his own sculptural ceramics.  "Today, their work is in hundreds of museums internationally while continuing to climb the price charts at both Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses." 

In showcasing remarkable artistry from leading artists and designers, museum curators from around the world routinely take in this fair. On view is dazzling contemporary glass art based on centuries old rich Venetian traditions, sculptural Japanese ceramics, superb hollowware by Scandinavian silversmiths, modernist and contemporary furniture, and the most avant-garde European art jewelry. The acclaimed SOFA Lecture Series featuring major museum curators, collectors and artists takes place concurrently. The Designer Champagne Breakfast held prior to the opening of the fair, and an unrivalled, innovative VIP program of exclusive tours to private collectors' homes along with corporate collections and behind the scene curator-led tours of museums enhances this fair.

Following the lead of key art fairs around the world to open their previews first to important collectors, the SOFA NY '08 Opening Night Preview, Wednesday, May 28 at the Armory, has undergone a creative re-visioning! This year's gala from 5:30 to 9:00 pm will offer invitation-only guests first viewing and selection of top quality pieces offered at the fair.  Participating galleries will be sending invitations to their clients. The Museum of Arts & Design, New York will again host a private fundraising dinner in the Armory's Tiffany Room at 8:30 pm.

Superlative galleries participating in the show to date include two late-breaking additions from London, Galerie Besson and Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon; Barry Friedman Ltd., Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., and Heller Gallery all of New York; and Moderne Gallery, Philadelphia.

UNRIVALLED CUTTING-EDGE CONTEMPORARY ART JEWELRY
DEBUTS AT 11TH ANNUAL SCULPTURE OBJECTS & FUNCTIONAL ART FAIR:
SOFA NEW YORK, MAY 29 - JUNE 1, 2008 AT PARK AVENUE ARMORY
OPENING NIGHT PREVIEW, WEDNESDAY, MAY 28

Spotlight on Studio Jewelers Featured
in Major Art Museum Shows Dazzling Craftsmanship
and Fast-Paced Triple Digit Growth
Matching the Contemporary Art Market

SOFA NEW YORK 2007

CHICAGO, March 17, 2008—The 11th annual SOFA NEW YORK, long the world's leading contemporary decorative arts and design fair, opens May 29-June 1, 2008 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. This fair features premier international dealers from 11 countries and over a dozen will represent more than 90 studio jewelers whose work is now exhibited in a fast-growing number of fine art museums nationwide.

Of the 67 SOFA NEW YORK exhibitors, jewelry is represented by the world's leading dealers including: Ornamentum, Hudson, NY.; Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA;, Jewelers’ Werk Galerie, Washington, DC.; Charon Kransen Arts, NY.; Aaron Faber Gallery, NY.; The David Collection, Pound Ridge, NY.; Mobilia Gallery, Cambridge; and Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, London. Represented art jewelers hail from the U.S., England, Holland, Germany and Japan, and key ones will speak in the SOFA Lecture Series, free with admission.

Giampaolo Babetto Brooch, 18k gold Represented by Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA

“With the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and other museums acquiring work by artists represented at SOFA, there's been a sea change of recognition and validation of studio jewelry,” says Mark Lyman, SOFA fair director, who founded the fair in 1994.   Additionally, more and more museums are recruiting contemporary jewelry curators, which further heightens the importance of this field in museum circles, academic communities and the art world at large.  To further confirm the importance of contemporary jewelry on the international scene, London's Victoria & Albert Museum's new jewelry galleries open in May with work reaching back 3,000 years and a staggering one third of their exhibition space is devoted to cutting-edge examples made in the past 20 years.