Jeannet Iskandar, Between Fragment and Whole Ellipse I, 2011. courtesy: heller gallery, new york
This past Monday, the curtain came down on the 15th year of Art Palm Beach, which ran from January 20th to the 23rd at the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Fair spokesperson Ashlea Heck estimates this year’s attendance was 28,000, exceeding the previous year’s number by 2,000 despite being a day shorter. Eighty two galleries from the U.S. and abroad showed contemporary art, furniture, photography, and design objects. Exhibitor Corey Hampson, the director of sales for Habatat Galleries based in Royal Oak, Michigan described this year’s Art Palm Beach as having “a lot of energy” and “very contemporary.”
Reached by telephone after the fair, Hampson told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet that he noticed more figurative work being shown by glass dealers this year as well as more pate de verre. When asked about notable sales, Hampson said that Habatat-represented artists Charlie Miner and Steve Linn both made some prospective commissions.
Charlie Miner, Koi Sunset, 2010. courtesy: habatat galleries, royal oak, michigan
In a lecture titled Glass as Art: The First Century, panel participants Mary Shaffer, Mark Peiser, Beth Lipman, and Lino Tagliapietra discussed the progression of the Studio Glass movement from the historic workshops at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962 to the first major contemporary glass exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1980. William Warmus, former curator of modern glass at the Corning Museum of Glass, moderated the round-table discussion, which drew a standing-room-only audience.
One of the fair highlights was glass artist Michael Taylor’s “A Geometry of Meaning” exhibition and personal appearance, sponsored by the Ruth Lawrence Gallery in Rochester, New York. Taylor has been a pioneer in the American Studio Glass Art Movement and one of the students of the movement’s founder Harvey Littleton.
In conjunction with an exhibition at the Norton Museum of Art, Beth Lipman’s “Beth Lipman: A Still Life Installation” was presented by Heller Gallery in New York and will remain on exhibit at the museum through May 27, 2012. The installation is inspired by the museum’s collection of Old Master still life paintings.
According to Katya Heller of Hellery Gallery in New York, artists Beth Lipman, Jeannet Iskandar, and Tobias Mohl all did well at Art Palm Beach—Mohl making a major sale, and Iskandar selling out her show along with some other pieces from the gallery.
—Suzann Caputo
