32 LECTURE SERIES PRESENTATIONS
AT SOFA CHICAGO 2005:
ART DIALOGUE FOR ALL

Complimentary with admission to SOFA CHICAGO, the acclaimed Lecture Series features internationally renowned artists, collectors and arts professionals in a face-to-face dialogical forum—increasingly rare in our technologically mediated world. From examining expressions rooted in traditional materials, processes and history, to new art forms that explore unexpected relationships between decorative arts and painting, sculpture, conceptual and installation art, the Lecture Series is a stimulating educational opportunity for all. VIEW LECTURE SERIES SCHEDULE.

Brian Boldon Sensing W-Wide, 2004 Photographic image fused on glazed earthenware panels with laser printer ceramic decals Dubhe Carreno Gallery, Chicago, IL

This year’s Lecture Series addresses such large philosophical questions as how does electronic technology amplify and perpetuate Cartesian dualism’s mind-body separation? Artist and head of the ceramics department at Michigan State University, Brian Boldon (Dubhe Carreno Gallery) discusses his usage of electronic imagery on ceramic form to question the sustainability of the absent body. Boldon said, “Real-time electronic visual ‘experience’ removed from the physical body in the world is extending a third person conception of the body, detached from perception, based on inference and abstraction.”

Mark Thomson Author, Curator

In another thoughtful examination of the effects of technology, Mark Thomson, author of Rare Trades (cataloging the National Museum of Australia’s traveling exhibition by the same name), brings his experience documenting and analyzing Australia's artisan workshops to SOFA CHICAGO. Thomson will explore themes relating to the power of the human hand, tools of trade, identity and creativity, the passing on of knowledge, the transformation of raw materials and the double bind that technology presents in retaining traditional skills and knowledge.

Loeser, Tom Ladderbackcabreddal, 2005 Maple, cherry, paint 87 x 14 x 41" Photo: Bill Lemke Leo Kaplan Modern, New York, NY “Convergence: Crossing the Divide” Special Exhibit at SOFA CHICAGO 2005, presented by the Furniture Society

The Special Exhibit on view at SOFA CHICAGO 2005, Convergence: Crossing the Divide--The Studio Furniture of Tasmania and America is proof positive that traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design can transcend time and space, assimilating influences and integrating new technologies. In conjunction with Convergence, the Lecture Series presents a panel discussion examining how recent studio furniture from Tasmania and America—opposite ends of the world—have retained traditional skills and restrained functionalism inherited from their colonial heritages, while mutually evolving toward more expressive freedom and sculptural narrative. Panelists: Wendy Maruyama, exhibit co-curator and head of woodworking and furniture design, San Diego State University; Tom Loeser (Leo Kaplan Modern) artist, professor and head of furniture program, University of Wisconsin, Madison; John Smith, exhibit co-curator and head of furniture design studio, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania; Patrick Hall (Despard Gallery), designer/maker, Mount Nelson, Tasmania. Presented by the Furniture Society.

Wood Turning in North America Since 1930 2002 Exhibit at Yale University Art Gallery

In a parallel pluralism, since the 1970s many fine art museums have begun collecting contemporary decorative arts in earnest - either as part of their historic decorative arts collections or as a new collection area. This relatively new form of collecting may have been initiated by visionary curators, but increasingly there are acquisition policies in place in many main stream museums. Panelists: Patricia Kane, Curator of Decorative Arts, Yale University Art Gallery; Jack Larsen, President, Longhouse Reserve; moderated by Kevin Wallace, writer and curator. Presented by Collectors of Wood Art

Ellsworth, David Elliptical bowl, 1983 Spalted sugar maple 6 5/8 x 10" Arizona State University Art Museum Collection, gift of Edward Jacobson. Photo courtesy of the SU Art Museum.

Turning Point: The Inspiration of the Edward Jacobson Collection of Turned Wood Bowls presents a strong case example of the increasing presence of contemporary decorative arts in museums. Edward Jacobson assembled the first comprehensive collection of turned-wood by contemporary American artists, which was generously donated to the Arizona State University Art Museum in 1989. Heather S. Lineberry, Senior Curator, Arizona State University Art Museum elaborates on the collection and its inspiration, and subsequent exhibitions and acquisitions of contemporary art in wood at the ASU Art Museum that continue the Jacobson legacy. Presented by Collectors of Wood Art

Wren on Driftwood Attributed to Dexter Dockery, woodcarver Brasstown, NC Articulated Mountain Dolls Attributed to Pauline Page, c. 1950 Pleasant Hill, TN Steatite Smoking Pipe Maker Unknown Western North Carolina

A “not-to-be-missed” lecture for the collector is Studying a Passion: Views on Collecting, examining interpretations of collecting from the fields of psychology, art history and cultural studies. Stacy Tidmore, PhD will offer perceptions from her scholarly research on folklore collecting: “My own disciplinary perspective led me to consider collection as a process of artful communication. Collections, organized assemblages of objects, are understood as texts with legible forms.” Tidmore’s presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with collectors Arthur Mason, Anna Mendel and Dudley Anderson, moderator.

Levenson, Silvia It's Raining Knives Cast glass, artificial grass, nylon line 47.2 x 47.2” The Corning Museum of Glass (2004)

In Contemporary Latin American Art in Glass, Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY profiles Argentinean artist Silvia Levenson (Caterina Tognon Arte Contemporanea), who lives and works near Milan, Italy, and Einar and Jamex de la Torre, who describe themselves as “Mexican-Americans.” Levenson, recipient of the 2004 Rakow Commission, inaugurated in 1986 by the Corning Museum of Glass, uses cast glass and mixed media in the creation of her poetic and incisive sculpture and installations that explore childhood memory and domestic reality. The de la Torre brothers’ works are often linked to Mesoamerican and Mestizo folk culture, but it is their critique of contemporary American consumerism that has attracted recent critical acclaim.

Carrizzi, Phil Verge "Flatware: Function + Fantasy" Special Exhibit at SOFA CHICAGO 2005

In Metalsmith magazine’s 2005 Exhibition in Print (EiP), Flatware: Function + Fantasy (on view at SOFA CHICAGO 2005), the wide-ranging participants are industrial designers, artists, and artisans with specialties in flatware, cutlery, and jewelry design. From conceptual ideas that went beyond traditional form to flatware that was hand-forged and machine-made for use, artists Phil Carrizzi, Fred Fenster and Michel Royston, moderated by co-curator Rosanne Raab discuss the EiP’s exuberant mix of creative process and material culture. Presented by the Society of North American Goldsmiths

Slee, Richard Bananas, 2005 Clay 11.5 x 16 x 16.5" Photo: Philip Sayer Barrett Marsden Gallery, London, UK

Lee, Jennifer Olive, dark haloed trace, amber pot and pale, speckled granite and olivetrace pot, 2004 Hand-built colored stoneware 5 x 4.25” & 8.5 x 6.25” Photo: Alan Tabor Gallery Besson, London, UK

Principal among ceramists speaking in the Lecture Series are UK artists Richard Slee (Barrett Marsden Gallery), and Jennifer Lee (Galerie Besson). Slee’s eclectic visual mixture of traditional ceramics, comics, fine art and the odd found object both celebrate and subvert the domestic, ornamental tradition, instilling everyday objects with complex personal, social and political meaning. Slee, winner of Great Britain’s prestigious Jerwood Applied Arts Prize for “expanding the dialogue between ceramic tradition and visual culture in ways that resonate outward,” elucidates eight distinct phases in his distinguished career.

Jennifer Lee is a master of the vessel form, about whom David Whiting wrote in Ceramics Monthly: “What is striking about the work is its constancy, the way in which she has been able to explore and fathom the constitution of clay and delineation of form through the endless possibilities of the cylinder and the bowl.” Lee will speak about her 25-year career and the influences upon it from her travels in Egypt, India and North America.

Karnes, Karen Trio of Tall Forms, 2004 Woodfired Stoneware 15" H Ferrin Gallery, Lenox, MA

The Lecture Series is honored to premiere a new 55-minute documentary of the life and work of Karen Karnes (Ferrin Gallery), a luminary in the world of contemporary ceramic art. The film, followed by a conversation between Karnes, filmmaker Lucy Phenix and artist Mark Shapiro (Ferrin Gallery), explores the creative process of a potter and an artist who has worked with unbroken focus in the medium of clay for over 60 years. (See Special Exhibits/ Events Release and Special Exhibits/Events Schedule).

Onofrio, Judy Look and You Shall See (detail), 2005 Mixed media 80 x 33” x 33" Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO

Judy Onofrio (Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art), recipient of 2005 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award recognizing a Minnesota artist for artistic excellence as well as significant impact on the state's cultural life over several decades, discusses the ten-year evolution of her art and current traveling museum exhibition, Come One, Come All. Onofrio’s colorful, reflective mixed-media sculptures are bejeweled with common cast-off and found materials like bottle caps, beads, shells, broken mirror pieces, broken china, pop top tabs and marbles. Onofrio explains, "The first part of construction is building the architecture to create a stage, as a set-up to house a narrative. The central figures are created primarily of wood and later are surfaced with detailed embellishments. Men, women, birds, fish and animals assume characters that become engaged in various relationships of seduction, balance, duality, and temptation.”

Mares, Ivan On Edge, 2005 Cast glass 20.5 x 43.75 x 8.75” Heller Gallery, New York, NY

Leading the way of artists working in glass participating in the Lecture Series is Ivan Mares (Heller Gallery) of the Czech Republic, about whom critic Jan B. Hurych wrote, “(In viewing a work of art) you have to know how to look under its surface and peel its secrets off, one layer after another. And deeper you go, the more layers are there. It can be best seen on art objects made of glass: they are transparent and still, or maybe because of that, so mysterious. It looks as they are hiding inside some other space, made invisible by its transparency. Such are also the objects created by Ivan Mares.” Mares documents the creative and physical process involved in the casting of his massive glass sculpture the “Wing,” recently purchased by the Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC.

Walker, Audrey Temptation (the Collectors) The Gallery, Ruthin Craft Centre, Denbighshire, Wales, UK

Rozanne Hawksley and Audrey Walker (Ruthin Craft Centre), neighbors in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, share the vision and techniques they have acquired in their combined experiences of more than a century in the world of fiber art. While Walker is primarily interested in color, light and space relationships, Hawksley is interested in dark imagery and symbolic complexity. Of their long–standing professional and personal acquaintance Walker, former Head of the Embroidery/Textiles Department at Goldsmith College, said, “There are so many startling differences in our work although we both get so much from the conversations we now share...(On) long car journeys on the way to exhibitions, I ‘m often amused that while I’m taking in astonishing color relationships, Roz will be noticing every dead animal at the side of the road!”

Mueller, Louis ULTRAIST Sconce, 2005 Constructed bronze, enamel paint, light bulb 18 x 5 x 6” Photo: Ira Garber Elliott Brown Gallery, Seattle, WA

Metalsmith and former Professor at Rhode Island School of Design, Louis Mueller (Elliott Brown Gallery) speaks about the 25-year evolution of his work with sculptural lighting, renowned for their engaging forms and colors, as well as luminousness. An artist whose works have always been sculptural, often conceptual, blurring boundaries between decorative, fine art and design, Mueller said, “For me integrity, quality of execution, good design (and I think design applies to all things, conceptual art as well) should be done with an intelligent understanding of what it is one is trying to accomplish. It’s a question of how you use materials -- whether you combine the materials with the ideas so that there’s a certain kind of balance.”

Belinker, Melanie Soak, 2005 Gold, sterling, ivory, resin, hair 45 x 34 x 7 mm Sienna Gallery, Lenox, MA

Emerging Talent 2005 spotlights up-and-coming metal artists like jeweler Sergey Jivetin (Ornamentum), the 2nd American ever to be awarded the prestigious Herbert Hofmann Award at 2005 International Handwerksmesse in Munich, Germany, and 2005 Recipient of Art Jewelry Forum Emerging Artist Award, as well as New York Foundation for the Arts Individual Artist¹s Fellowship in Craft. Jivetin, accompanied by Anya Pinchuck (Charon Kransen Arts) and Melanie Belinker (Sienna Gallery), discuss a progressive conceptual ideology of studio practice and their brilliantly obsessive jewelry. Presented by Society of North American Goldsmiths.

Peters, Ruudt Brooches Polyester & silver Photo: Rob Versluys © Ruudt Peters Ornamentum, Hudson, NY

Dutch conceptual artist Ruudt Peters (Ornamentum), Professor of Jewellery and Metals, Konstfack University College of Arts, Craft and Design, Stockholm, Sweden and winner of the prestigious prize awarded by the Françoise van den Bosch Foundation, defines himself as a philosopher and an alchemist. Peters celebrates changeability and his most recent polyester material's shifting character, from liquid to solid, soft to hard, porous to impermeable. He has switched from making small objects (jewelry) to making sculpture for public spaces and then back again, with his choice of materials and colors alternating over the years. In Philosopher’s Stone, Peters asks how does the jewelry maker relate to this world? What are the direct relationships of our daily environment on one’s art and to art jewelry in general?

Other artists speaking in the Lecture Series:

Adams, Hank Gossipbater, 2005 Cast glass, patinated copper 30 x 17 x 17" Photo: Hank Adams Elliot Brown Gallery, Seattle, WA • Hank Adams (Elliott Brown Gallery and Wexler Gallery), artist and creative director at Wheaton Village, discusses his extended family of insidiously charming, sand cast glass heads, the nature of a communal creative sanctuary like Wheaton Village, and the unique interface of the individual artist within a public institution. Wheaton Village is the recipient of Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass’ annual award to a program or institution that has significantly furthered the studio-glass movement;

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Powell, Stephen Rolfe Nudging Manic Scooter, 2005 Blown glass Marx-Saunders Gallery, Ltd., Chicago, IL • Stephen Powell (Marx-Saunders Gallery), renowned for his globular prismatic bursts of color and irrepressible ebullience of hue, traces the evolution of his work, from traditional symmetrical vessel forms to his most recent asymmetrical forms;

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Lundberg, Tom Barbara’s Steps, 2005 Mixed fibers 8.25 x 8.25” Photo: Tom Lundberg Hibberd McGrath Gallery, Breckenridge, CO • Tom Lundberg (Hibbard McGrath Gallery), head of the fibers program at Colorado State University, looks at the language of ornament and its conversation between indoors and outdoors, for, as Lundberg says, like gardens, textiles heighten our awareness of time, place, and detail: “Like threads pulled from intertwining networks, small details reflect the bigger picture... Life unfolds in bits and pieces;”

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Bess, Nancy Moore KUROI ARCH (black arch) Waxed cotton and linen twined over industrial foam, acrylic 9 .5 x 20 x 6" Photo: Tom Grotta browngrotta arts Wilton, CT • Nancy Moore Bess (browngrotta arts), artist and author, Bamboo in Japan, argues daring innovation, complexity of form and weave structure distinguish today’s sculptural basketry. Bess uses raffia, bamboo and waxed linen and borrows various fragments of Japanese culture collected on her numerous visits to create her exquisite small vessels. Presented by National Basketry Organization;

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Smith, Barbara Lee Gathering of Light 21 x 12 x 12" Jane Sauer Thirteen Moons Gallery, Santa Fe, NM • Barbara Lee Smith (Jane Sauer Thirteen Moons, Snyderman/Works Galleries), who has raised machine embroidery to a new artistic level by fusing layer upon layer of synthetic fabric and using the stitch as a drawing tool, looks beneath surface design to reveal the structure of idea, intention, methods, and materials that make today’s textile art compelling. Presented by Surface Design Journal;

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Nahabetian, Dennis Vessel # 73, 2005 Bronze, Copper, Patina, Polychrome 3 1/4" H x 6 1/2" Dia del Mano Gallery, Los Angeles, CA • Dennis Nahabetian (del Mano Gallery) discusses the wide range of techniques used create his intricate wire mesh metal sculptures and jewelry, often architectural in form with strong negative spaces, and marked by a striking contrast of strength and fragility. Presented by the Society of North American Goldsmiths;

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Hunter, Lissa Bad Things Will Happen Fiber 24 x 16 x 3" Jane Sauer Thirteen Moons Gallery, Santa Fe, NM • Textile artists Lissa Hunter (Jane Sauer Thirteen Moons), Judy James (Snyderman/Works), Laura Foster Nicholson (Katie Gingrass Gallery), Lindsay Rais (Jane Sauer Thirteen Moons), Donna Rhae Marder (Mobilia Gallery), Mary Merkel-Hess (browngrotta arts), Leah Danberg (del Mano Gallery), Pamela Becker (Snyderman/Works), Linda Behar (Mobilia Gallery), and Karen Halt (Portals Ltd.) share their career experiences and artworks—ranging from the abstract to the narrational. Presented by Friends of Fiber Art International;

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Hot shop at Philchuck School of Glass. • Pilchuck trustee Fritz Dreisbach looks at the school’s history and the way that art education in glass has blossomed world-wide since Pilchuck’s beginnings in 1971. Presented by Pilchuck School of Glass;

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Perkins, Flo Pinfrontation, 2005 15 x 24 x 10" Hawk Galleries, Columbus, OH • Glass artist Flo Perkins (Hawk Galleries), renowned for her fanciful blown glass botanical forms, discusses the relationship between nature and artifact: “Nature informs us, the man-made world tells on us;”

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Bennett, David Charisma, 2005 Hand blown glass and bronze 28 x 21 x 10" Habatat Galleries, Boca Raton, FL & Great Barrington, MA • David Bennett (Habatat Galleries), on exploring the realm of figurative sculpture with a melding of bronze and glass, an ancient Venetian technique;

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Fenster, Fred Tetrahedron Teapot, 2004 Pewter 11" • 2005 American Craft Council Gold Medalist Fred Fenster, recently retired University of Wisconsin, Madison. Presented by American Craft Council;

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Ebendorf, Bob Bird in the Box, 2005 Mixed media 8.75 x 6.75 x 1.5” Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA • Bob Ebendorf, the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor at East Carolina University’s School of Art.

The SOFA CHICAGO 2005 Lecture Series takes place at the exposition on Friday, October 28 and Saturday, October 29, and is free with the purchase of a general admission ticket. See Lecture Series Schedule for times and locations.