SOFA

The International Exposition of Sculpture Objects and Functional Art (or SOFA)ran this weekend and ended today. I have gone every year for the last five years and have enjoyed it every time. This year, it was bigger than the last few although there seemed to be fewer incredibly priced pieces. Dale Chihuly, generally has, if not the most expensive pieces, then definitely among the top five. Last year, Habatat Gallery featured a collection of William Morris pieces that were going for $950,000. His work generally has an iconic archeological look to it. This year, the only pieces that I noticed with a price over $100, 000 were Chihuly's Mille Fiore sets. There also seemed to be more Albert Paley this year than in previous years. While his work seems to have stopped changing, he is in a really cool place. No one else can make steel look soft and flowing like he can. There were a lot of candlesticks, a few lamps, a lantern set, a couple of tables, a door handle, and a stair rail. The biggest exhibet spaces were to the galleries with the heavy hitters in the art world; Habatat, Thomas R. Riley Gallery which featured William Morris and David Bennett among others, Hawk Gallery which featured Albert Paley and Flo Perkins among others, and Holsten Gallery which carried Dale Chihuly and Lino Tagliapietra. Corning Museum of Glass also had their usual glass blowing exhibition and there was also a wood turning exhibition by another wood art group. There was a lot more (there were 91 galleries) and while I didn't have the time to study everything that I wanted to closely, I did get to every gallery. Having said that, I think that I have given anyone that looks at this enough links to keep them busy for a while. And this is where I will end this tonight.