Category Archives: Art Market

The Intuit Outsider Art Fair was brought under the SOFA CHICAGO umbrella for 2010, with dealers grouped together at one end of Festival Hall at Navy Pier.

The GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet caught up with the founder of the Sculptural Objects Functional Art fair, Mark Lyman, on the second day of the SOFA CHICAGO 2010 exhibition. We asked him about the changing mix of dealers at the 16-year-old fair originally devoted exclusively to fine art from craft media. We also wanted to know about the turnout, the response to the addition of  a host of galleries specializing in Outsider Art, the growing number of jewelry and design dealers, and future plans for the most important art fair for work in glass. Continue reading →

Dale Chihuly, Chalk White Seaform Set with Oxblood Lip Wraps, 1999. Blown glass. H 14, W 32, D 26 in. Selling price: $35,000

Bucking the gloomy economic atmosphere, supporters of Pilchuck showed up in force at the organization’s annual benefit auction last weekend, and they were ready to bid on artwork and donate. The 32nd running of the leading glass program’s annual auction netted $1.2 million through ticket sales, sponsorships, “Fund-the-Future” matching donations, and other direct giving. This represents an increase of $200,000 over 2009′s results. The 2010 figure matches exactly the money raised in 2008.  “I couldn’t be happier with the results,” says new Pilchuck executive director Jim Baker in a prepared statement. “The quality of the artwork donated this year is evidence that Pilchuck is evermore appreciated by artists who come through the school. And the large turn-out of supporters and glass art collectors surpassed our expectations, greatly helping us meet our fund-raising goals.” Continue reading →

Elijah Pierce, Couple Dancing, 1972. Painted bas-relief carving. H 8, W 8 in. courtesy: just folk, summerland, california.

When the 17th annual SOFA CHICAGO 2010 kicks off with its opening night party on the evening of November 4th, visitors to Navy Pier in Chicago might notice a new type of gallery mixed in with the high-end dealers of artwork made from craft materials. For 2010, SOFA’s parent company, The Art Fair Company, is joining two art fairs — the SOFA blockbuster and the much smaller Intuit  Show of Folk and Outsider Art — into a single event. SOFA founder and Art Fair Company president Mark Lyman told the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet that he had been approached by the organizers of the Intuit Art Fair because their show was struggling as partners to the Art Chicago fair at Merchandise Mart. The Intuit organizers wanted to see if they could join forces with SOFA: “I agreed and my company, The Art Fair Company, decided that the best solution would be to have it as a new fair on the same floor with SOFA,” says Lyman. Continue reading →

Selling for $8,700, this 40-inch-tall work by Davide Salvadore entitled Temitope brought in the highest bid during the live auction.

Down by $5,000 over last year’s auction results, the Pittsburgh Glass Center’s annual gala fund raising event still brought in a very respectable $110,000 on Friday, October 15th. Held again at the American Eagle Outfitters headquarters, the event was titled “Art on Fire 10 Celebration & Auction” in honor of the glass nonprofit’s 10th anniversary. A crowd of 400 art collectors, artists, and area philanthropists joined event chair and independent curator Sarah Nichols (formerly the curator of decorative arts at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art) for an evening filled with art and martinis. Four artists — Robert Mickelsen, Richard Jolley, Susan Taylor Glasgow and Jon Kuhn — served as honorary chairs, each one representing one of the four techniques of glass available at Pittsburgh Glass Center. Continue reading →

Benjamin Cobb, Visceral Stomach, 2010. Blown glass. H 33, W 14 1/2, D 7 in. Estimate: $4,000.

More than 250 works in glass will be going up for auction on Friday, October 15th, at the Westin Seattle as part of a black-tie fund-raising event that will support the educational and artistic programs at The Pilchuck Glass School for the 32nd year running. In addition to the work up for live and silent bidding, there will be table centerpieces designed by regular Pilchuck instructor Chuck Vannatta, who, alongside a team of 30 volunteer artists, created large glass vessels that reference the flora and fauna that surround Pilchuck’s rustic Northwest coast location. Continue reading →

Harvey Littleton, Mobile Arc, 1986. Hot-worked glass. H 13 3/4, W 12 1/2, D 8 3/4 in. Estimate: $38,000 - $45,000. courtesy: habatat galleries, michigan

Tonight at 8 PM, Habatat Galleries will hold its eighth contemporary glass auction, timed to coincide with the gallery’s 38th annual international invitational exhibition (download a PDF of the exhibition catalog here). This year, the auction will get special attention as it includes 40 historic works to be bid on in-person at a Michigan banquet hall, online, and via telephone. It will include several important works from the personal collection of Frances S. Merritt (1913–2000), who served as director of the Haystack School until 1977. Merritt’s collection includes several works of special significance including pivotal pieces by Harvey Littleton, Richard Marquis, Dan Dailey, Marvin Lipofsky, and Dale Chihuly.  Continue reading →

Raising approximately $10,000 less than in 2009, the organizers of the 9th annual Great Glass Auction to support the Bay Area Glass Institute are calling it a success with $110,000 in total monies generated by the event. About 110 people attended the auction on February 6th, 2010, in San Jose, California, to raise money for this public-access glass center. The amount raised constitutes one-fourth of the entire annual operating budget of BAGI. Continue reading →

Garth Clark at the ACC conference in October, delivering his "Palace and Cottage" lecture on the state of craft. photo: http://www.craftcouncil.org.

With the recent shows in Miami still top of mind, the glass community might turn its attention once again to gallerist Garth Clark, whose remarks at the American Craft Council’s Minneapolis conference last October (just recently made available for listening online) emphasize a very different view of art-from-craft-media than what we recently saw at Art Basel Miami Beach and its satellite shows. Continue reading →

Tammy Garcia's collaborations with Preston Singletary entranced collectors who gathered at the display of Santa Fe's Blue Rain Gallery.

With SOFA CHICAGO 2009 a wrap, it’s time to take a moment to reflect on the meaning of the frenzied three-day art extravaganza. While it’s impossible to fully digest the experience only a day after, there are a few thoughts and observations to share as a starting point.

The most apparent shift is how galleries that have survived the downturn in good enough condition to afford the expensive trip to Chicago clearly understand that business-as-usual doesn’t work any longer. This was a different SOFA in size (68 exhibitors instead of the 100-plus from years past), in assortment (the selection of works on display seemed more carefully considered and offered a wider variety), and in tone (“guardedly optimistic” would best describe the mood of collectors and, by the last day of the expo, the dealers). Continue reading →