SOFA New York 2006

In SOFA NEW YORK’s most international presentation ever, fifty-nine of the world’s finest galleries and dealers from ten countries present for sale one-of-a-kind masterworks bridging the decorative and fine arts.  Countries represented include United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Japan and Argentina.  Mark Lyman, Founder and Director of Expressions of Culture, Inc., a dmg world media company and producer of SOFA said, “Now in its 9th year, SOFA NEW YORK continues to grow in the depth and breadth of its gallery presentations, attracting new collectors and visitors.  It has achieved a degree of international participation that is the mark of a mature art exposition.” 




For more information on SOFA NEW YORK 2006, June 1- 4 at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Ave. at 67th St., New York, NY call 800.563.SOFA (7632) or e-mail: info@sofaexpo.com
For editorial support, contact Barbara Smythe-Jones at 800.357.SOFA (7632) or e-mail barbara@sofaexpo.com. For assistance downloading hi-res images of artwork for sale at SOFA NEW YORK in the Press Images/e-press kit section of ww.sofaexpo.com and for press credentials, contact Jen Haybach at 866.870.SOFA (7632) or jen@sofaexpo.com

Dates and price

• Opening Night Gala, a Benefit for the Museum of Arts & Design takes place at the Armory the evening of Wednesday, May 31, 2006. For tickets, call MAD at 212.956.3535, ext. 129 or email Stephanie.Lang@madmuseum.org.

• Public Exposition hours: Thursday and Friday, 11am – 8 pm; Saturday, 11 am – 7 pm; Sunday Noon – 6 pm. General admission: $20 + catalog, Four-day ticket: $35 + catalog.  Catalogs are subject to availability.  Ticket purchase includes one free admission pass to the Museum of Arts & Design.

Activities

The object as subject

Opening Night Benefit for Museum of Arts and Design: Wednesday, May 31

What do porcelain vessels by Japanese artist Tokuda Yasokichi III (Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd., New York, NY) with rich Kutani glazes dating from the 9th c. updated in brilliant new color schemes; modernist Hans Coper’s strong, gestural ceramics (Galerie Besson, London, UK); and Beth Lipman’s (Heller Gallery, New York, NY) formal renderings of 17th and 18th c. still-life paintings in glass have in common? Virtuoso materiality.

The Ninth Annual SOFA NEW YORK 2006, the world’s foremost arts exposition of fine objects, returns June 1- 4 to the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue. In its most international presentation ever, fifty-nine of the world’s finest galleries and dealers from ten countries present for sale one-of-a-kind masterworks bridging the decorative and fine arts. Countries represented include United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Japan and Argentina.

Mark Lyman, Founder and Director of Expressions of Culture, Inc., a dmg world media company and producer of SOFA said, “Many of the fine objects at SOFA defy narrow categorization, sharing sculpture and ideas with fine art, while celebrating the sensual possibilities of materials intrinsic to the decorative. What distinguishes SOFA from other art expositions is that the objects often are the subject—remarkable for their sheer material beauty.”

The Opening Night Gala Preview, 5 – 10 pm, May 31st at the Seventh Regiment Armory, benefits the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York. Lyman continued, “We are very pleased that Opening Night will benefit the Museum of Arts & Design for the 9th straight year, and congratulate MAD on the celebration of its 50th year of leadership in promoting the value of materials and mastery of process in contemporary arts.” (See MAD’s Opening Night Gala Release) SOFA NEW YORK Opening Night also officially kicks off the Fifth Annual Contemporary Decorative Arts Week: Bringing Art to Life, a week-long, city-wide celebration of New York’s vibrant contemporary arts and design scene.


Two Special Exhibits at SOFA NEW YORK 2006 are complimentary with admission:

• The Museum of Arts & Design, New York, presents a golden anniversary special exhibit entitled Jubilee! 50 Years on 53rd Street, featuring masterworks from each decade since the Museum opened in 1956, all from its permanent collection. Featured artists include Lenore Tawney, Peter Voulkos, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Arneson, Dale Chihuly, Cindy Sherman and Frank Gehry;
• Dean Project, New York, NY presents One Part Clay: Ceramic Avant-garde & Mixed Media. Curator Mark Dean said the exhibit will feature the work of eight international artists, “whose mixed media sculptures are connected through both the formal and conceptual use of ceramics. The group exhibit will focus on artists creating art influenced by a combination of sources such as 20th century art movements, craft, historical references, and the use in their work of diverse materials.” Artists include John Byrd and Doug Jeck (Garth Clark Gallery, New York, NY), and Reinaldo Sanguino and Chad Curtis (Dean Project).


Twelve SOFA NEW YORK 2006 Lecture Series presentations, complimentary with admission, take place in the Tiffany Room at the Seventh Regiment Armory from Thursday, June 1 – Saturday, June 3.
Lectures of note include:

• Emergence: Early American Studio Glass and Its Influences A rare exploration of the emergence of the American Studio Glass movement, presented by pioneers of the movement: artists Howard Ben Tre, Erwin Eisch, Michael Glancy, Marvin Lipofsky, Joel Philip Myers, Tom Patti, Richard Meitner and Toots Zynsky, all represented by Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York, NY. Moderated by Tina Oldknow, Curator of Modern Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, NY
• A Fresh Vision of a Centuries-old Tradition Fourteenth generation Japanese ceramist Katô Yasukage (Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., New York, NY) discusses his quest to find his own vision within the celebrated tradition of oribe and shino ceramics;
• Archetypes and Mutations Renowned ceramist Léopold L. Foulem of Montréal, Québec (Dean Project, New York, NY) compares a selection of his works and historical ceramic prototypes, discussing their formal connections;
• Form and Process David Watkins (Clare Beck at Adrian Sassoon, London, UK) discusses more than three decades of aesthetic and technical developments in his internationally acclaimed jewelry. Watkins is professor and head of goldsmithing, silversmithing, metalwork & jewellery at the Royal College of Art in London. Presented by the Society for North American Goldsmiths;
• Anyone CAN Make a Beautiful Brooch Conceptual Dutch artist Ted Noten (Ornamentum, Hudson, NY) gives an overview of ten years of work as "one of the most innovative jewellery designers working in the Netherlands today" (Gert Staal, former deputy director of the Netherlands Design Institute). The audience will be invited to "Chew Your Own Brooch" and spit out a self-sculpted artwork to be reviewed by an all-star jury tasked to choose gold, silver and bronze winners, whose designs will be made into wearable artworks by Noten himself.


SOFA NEW YORK 2006 presents fine objects whose virtuoso materiality is often the subject, where one need not look through or beyond it for concept—resplendent objectness is meaning enough.