SOFA SO GOOD: SOFA New York 2012

This past Wednesday, press passes in hand, we attended the opening night reception for the international exhibition of Sculptural Objects and Functional Art at the cavernous Park Avenue Armory in New York. Since this is a people-watching event par excellence, and the artwork is amazing, we decided to split our posting down the middle, to be sure to give you a flavor of the best of both worlds!

THE PEOPLE

As soon as we entered the main hall, we met Marilyn White (whose PR firm handled event publicity) and another guest. Don't you love Marilyn's leopard sheath?

Here's glass artist Kazuko Mitsushima modeling her ring and necklace at Dai-Ichi Arts. The ring has two cleverly cut holes in it to slip the finger through. The knuckle stays inside the bubble.

 























Ruth Snyderman, one of the owners of Snyderman-Works Galleries, shows off the work of Myung Urso. The necklace is hand painted silk stretched over a metal frame and stitched closed.


























German jeweler Hilde Leiss on the right (www.hilde-leiss.de), shown here with Lisa Linhardt, was wearing one of her designs, which are on display at the Lindhardt Design Studio (www.linhardtdesign.com).

Artist Charlotte Thorp wore an oriental robe and a paper fascinator of her own design.

Valerie posed with our pal, artist Nancy Koenigsberg.

Ute Decker, right, below, is not showing at SOFA, but we had to show you the fabulous necklaces she made. That's her sister modeling the other necklace. Ute's work is showing now at Kentshire Gallery.

 





















Jean, Sandy Long, and Valerie.

 























We were thrilled to see Israeli goldsmith Sara Basch again, wearing another one of her ingenious creations.

Here is a closeup of Sara's marvelous necklace, which looks like something out of Lord of the Rings.

Milliner Yuka Hasegawa posed in front of a wonderful monkey statue.

We ran into Suzanne Golden, here showing off her tradmark intricately beaded bracelets.

 























We met Phillip at a show at Staley-Wise Gallery last year. Don't you love his dapper style? We also admired the hair style of his friend, actress Julie Berndt.

 























Julie Dale, owner of Julie Artisans' Gallery, her husband, actor Jim Dale, and Rose Hartman (she of the photograph of Bianca Jagger astride a white horse in Studio 54).

 























Sandy Long and her traveling companion.


























Yoshiko Ebihara, right, owner of Gallery 91, and friend.

 























Valerie stopped to chat with Masako Dempo Yuki, owner of Gallery Gen, one of the exhibitors at SOFA.

Masako greets Noriko Miyamoto (owner of Miyamoto Antiques), who was wearing a wonderfully graphic jacket.

We ran into our friend artist Katherine D. Crone, who has been getting ready for an open studio showing of her work.

Milliner Maryanne, seen lately in the Times Sunday Styles section, posed in one of her Tipsy Topper creations.

Jean stopped to chat with Jonathan and his wife Cindy, who is an art history fellow.

Don't these two look great? The lady on the left designed and made her striking necklace.

Sue and Valerie posed with a positively delightful young woman in red, who asked for a photograph.

THE ART

We missed a lecture by Georg Dobler, maker of these wonderful 3D pieces, unfortunately. Top right is a brooch modeled after a Kandinsky work; below left is a necklace. All are made of steel, but light and flexible.

 
















Dobler also made this papier mache necklace with depictions of heavenly bodies.

 























Arthur Hash, at Sienna Gallery, has a similar turn of mind. This large necklace, made of a kind of polymer, was light as a feather.

 























Wexler Gallery showed the next two modern pieces, the first made of polymer, by Phillipp Aduatz, the second of steel and concrete by Vivian Beer.

 







































Cavin-Morris Gallery had these wonderful sensuous textured baskets.

 

















TAI Gallery features a number of bamboo artists from Japan. This one, by Hajime Nakatomi, takes the technique in an entirely different direction, building a very open structure.

 























Erskine, Hall & Coe had a selection by the late Hans Coper, whose work often has an element of mystery about it.

 













Lacoste Gallery, a who's who of potters / ceramists, had this piece by Jun Kaneko,

 



















and these minimalist tea bowls by Tim Rowan, whose work looks like it was made by a Japanese master.

 




















What we're wearing:
Jean is wearing a black Louis Feraud jacket; black and white polka dot Kedem Sasson skirt; black & white Underground shoes; black patent Lux de Vil bag from Enz; white & black striped Uniqlo turtleneck; vintage black & white striped raffia chandelier earrings from Marmalade; vintage Stetson bowler; black & white Danielle Gori-Montanelli felt pin.

Valerie is wearing one of the thrift shop hats that Jean and Valerie bought and spray painted red, red plastic earrings, tubular knit coat by Chisato Tsumori, sleeveless dress by Joan Vass, shirt by Pleats Please, red plastic ring, shoes by Nicole.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Valerie would just like to take a moment to thank everyone who wrote in to give her the thumbs up on her new hair style. We love hearing from our readers, and all your comments are very much appreciated. You ladies ROCK! (But then, you already knew that, didn't you?!)