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November 1999, SOFA in Chicago |
| I returned from the SOFA exhibit at Chicago convinced that I had witnessed
a watershed event in the history of the wood field. SOFA (Sculptural Objects
Functional Art) is an annual exhibit at Navy Pier in Chicago where over
a hundred major galleries from all over the world exhibit the work of their
best artists in all media. It attracts many of the most fervent collectors.
Over the past few years, SOFA has been dominated by major glass galleries with a good representation of ceramics but very little wood. The Hand and the Spirit from Scottsdale showed some work by the Moulthrops and del Mano had begun to establish a presence. However, in general, the exhibitors at SOFA largely ignored wood art and consequently few wood collectors attended. All that changed in 1999. The Collectors of Wood Art (CWA) voted to hold its 1999 gathering at the SOFA show in Chicago. There were several purposes; meet in a new and interesting environment, establish a place where collectors could collect and artists could sell, where lovers of wood art could get together for panel discussions, lectures and just plain socializing. Finally, CWA hoped to attract the interest of new collectors and new galleries. All of these objectives were realized in 1999 beyond our most optimistic expectations.  CWA Collectors’ Choice Exhibition at SOFA Chicago, 1999 photo:Alan Lacer Over the next few months Robyn Horn, my wife Jane and I had many discussions with Mark Lyman, the CEO of the SOFA organization to work out the basis for CWA's participation in SOFA ‘99. Mark believed SOFA could benefit from greater participation by the wood collectors. He had attended the San Francisco Forum and had become aware of the tremendous enthusiasm in the field on the part of artists, collectors and galleries. He also knew that in the year 2000 there would be four scheduled major Museum shows i.e. the Mason collection at the Mint in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Wood Turning Center retrospective at Yale, the Bohlen Collection at the Detroit Institute of Art and the Lipton Collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Clearly, CWA could not be just another gallery and sell objects to the public. The SOFA management required CWA's participation to be as scholarly and noncommercial as possible; and that it should not compete with the galleries; and we agreed. As a non-profit organization, CWA was dedicated to education and promoting public appreciation and knowledge of wood art. Moreover, CWA had no experience in the sales process and it could not act as a selling agent in any event. SOFA and CWA reached a mutually acceptable solution to the problem. CWA would take a booth, generously donated by SOFA management, to show the works of leading wood artists and each of the Museums would be represented by two pieces at the booth. Each of the artists would be represented by a gallery that was exhibiting at SOFA and those galleries would sell the work and handle the details of sales, pricing, insurance, shipment, and collecting. The happiest part of the solution was that, rather than have the artists selected by curators or professional jurors, they would be selected by vote of the CWA members. Every member was mailed a blank ballot and asked to fill in the 25 artists who, in his or her opinion were doing the best and most innovative work in the field today. About 40 ballots were returned which included votes for more than 125 artists. No ballot contained the names of more than 18 of the winners and no artist received more than 80% of the vote. The diversity was striking. Most of the older masters were not included (David Ellsworth was an exception) because there was a strong inclination to look for new work and to vote for artists who had been present at the forums and had taken a personal interest in the CWA events. A by-product of the process was that it greatly increased CWA membership because the voting was a lot of fun and everyone wanted to be involved. SOFA gave CWA a large booth in a wonderful location that greeted visitors just as they entered the exhibit hall. It also donated some lights. CWA hired Michael Monroe, the most eminent curator in the field, to set up the booth and mount the show, assisted by a hard working crew consisting of John and Robyn Horn, John Jordan, Mark Gardner, Albert and Tina LeCoff, and myself. It took two and a half days to set up and it was very enjoyable work and very illuminating for those of us who had not previously been involved in the production of an exhibit. It was an outstanding success in every way. It accomplished its major objective of bringing more wood art and collectors to SOFA than ever before. del Mano was there with four booths, representing a majority of the twenty-four artists. Tercera Gallery of San Francisco, Blue Spiral of Asheville, Duane Reed of St. Louis and Chicago, Heller Gallery of New York and Katie Gingrass of Milwaukee were showing and selling works by wood artists. Through these galleries, nine out of twenty-three works in the CWA booth were sold with receipts of over $55,000. Wood was a real presence and many of the other galleries told us that everybody was talking about how wood had finally arrived at SOFA. CWA also produced a very interesting program off the floor. It included lectures by Philip Moulthrop, and Michelle and David Holzapfel on the inspirations and processes of their work; a two hour slide show by the twenty four selected artists; a preview of the four museum shows put on by Bonita Fike of DIA, Mark Leach of the Mint, Glenn Adamson of Yale, and Jo Lauria of LACMA; a book signing at the del Mano booth, by the artists featured in the Leier/Peters/Wallace book "Contemporary Turned Wood"; and finally at the banquet on Saturday night a brilliant lecture by Jonathan Fairbanks, Curator Emeritus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Nobody wanted to see it end and after his lecture, Jonathan toured the room to speak with all the artists. |
| CWA Collectors’ Choice Exhibition at SOFA Chicago, 1999 photo:Alan Lacer |
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| Releasing the Forms Within: The Studio Wood Art Movement by John Brunetti |
| Collectors of Wood Art Private Critique by Barbara Jones |