Events of the Week: Philadelphia Furniture Show, High Point Market, Miart, The Power of Gold, Versailles, & More
SHOWS
Miart
April 13-15, 2018
Pavilions of Fieramilanocity, Milan, Italy
http://www.miart.it/en
Miart (International Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art in Milan) is where contemporary art, modern art, and limited-edition design are explored along with the relationships between past and present creativity. Miart presents works from the early 20th century to contemporary. With its numerous different sections, its rich program of awards, and its ambitious series of talks open to the public, every spring miart brings an international audience of collectors, curators, museum directors, artists, designers, art lovers and journalists to Milan.
The 23rd edition of miart will once again be the catalyst of the Milan Art Week, a weeklong series of exhibition openings, special events, and performances, involving the major public and private institutions as well as the city's foundations and galleries, no-profit and artist-run spaces, all entities that make Milan one of the international capitals of modern art and contemporary creativity.
Philadelphia Furniture Show
April 14-15, 2018
23rd Street Armory, Philadelphia, PA
www.philadelphiafurnitureshow.com
Desk by Carol Jackson. Courtesy Philadelphia Furniture Show.For the 24th year, artisans will offer original works and furniture at The Philadelphia Furniture Show. The event is expected to draw 2,500 visitors to the Armory during the upcoming weekend. This year, the show is collaborating with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA), an institution that cultivates undiscovered artists. Notes Stefa Normantas, managing partner of the Furniture Show, “Their paintings and sculpture will be a stunning complement to the hand-crafted furniture and furnishings on display at this year’s Show.”
Guests at the Friday night Preview Party will have the first chance to purchase one-of-a-kind furniture pieces and artwork before the show opens to the public on Saturday. In keeping with decades-old custom, the party begins with the ceremonial splitting of a log using a two-person gang saw, and continues with craft beverage sampling, hearty hors d’oeuvres and a full bar.
Dallas Art Fair
April 12-15, 2018
Fashion Industry Gallery, Dallas, TX
In the heart of the downtown arts district, the Dallas Art Fair offers collectors, arts professionals, and the public the opportunity to engage with a rich selection of modern and contemporary artworks presented by leading national and international galleries. Thoughtfully curated exhibitions and innovative programming encourage lively conversations and close looking in a robust and rapidly growing arts community. This year celebrates the fair’s 10th Anniversary with nearly 100 participating galleries and is part of Dallas Art Month.
Right: Courtesy of Ronchini Gallery, London and the Dallas Art Fair.
AD20/21 HOME
& Boston Print Fair
April 12-15, 2018
The Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts
AD20/21 HOME is the culmination of the 5th Annual Boston Design Week (April 4-15) and features furnishings, fine art & prints, custom design and home décor, plus demonstrations, guest speakers, panel discussions, and more. The gala preview on Thursday, April 12, benefits the American Society of Interior Designers New England Chapter Scholarship Fund. The 19th Annual Boston Print Fair takes place in Salon A of the Cyclorama, concurrently with AD20/21 HOME and will feature fine quality print galleries, contemporary print publishers, photography, drawings, and other works on paper. Along with museum-quality works, the Print Fair offers a wide range of affordable original pieces.
Boston Design Week is a 12-day, citywide design festival that seeks to increase public awareness and appreciation of all aspects of design, foster recognition of the vital role design plays in our lives, and attract new audiences to a wide array of design industries and organizations.
High Point Market
April 14-18, 2018
Commerce Avenue, High Point, N.C.
http://www.highpointmarket.org
The annual design event is where manufacturers and buyers meet to collaborate, where designers preview new lines, and where networking happens. This year, the High Point Market Authority (HPMA) inaugurates its new venue, The Point, located on Commerce Ave, between S. Main and Wrenn streets, with a robust lineup of personalities and programming for the spring High Point Market. A ribbon cutting event is scheduled for Friday, Apr. 13, at 12 pm, with a special welcome by comedian and TV show host Jeff Foxworthy, who is launching a licensed line of furnishings at Market. The Point is the first freestanding, High Point Market-branded venue conceived to enhance the buyer experience.
In addition to perusing the showrooms, attendees will hear about new trends, attend receptions and meet-ups, and celebrate design on many levels. This season’s educational series features headliners Trisha Yearwood and Doug Stephens, The Retail Prophet, in two dynamic events. Each will share insights and business-building advice with High Point Market attendees. On tap for The Design Viewpoints Series are four thought-provoking seminars led by design industry experts to help you improve your business, including how to increase your design fees, protect your firm, manage clients while growing your business, and balance life’s daily demands from work and home.
EXHIBITIONS
Three Centuries of Gold Regalia from the Asante Kingdom
April 15-August 12, 2018
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
https://www.dma.org
Spanning three centuries, The Power of Gold: Asante Royal Regalia from Ghana brings together over 250 objects, including crowns, sword ornaments, ceremonial furniture, textiles, pectoral disks, weapons, a state umbrella, musical instruments, and jewelry made of wood, silk, brass, iron, and gold. Organized by the DMA and inspired by the Museum’s collection, The Power of Gold is the first American museum exhibition dedicated to Asante regalia in over 30 years, and explores the unique role and impact of gold on the development of Asante society, economy, and arts.
The Power of Gold explores the aesthetics and cultural significance of Asante royal regalia, much of which is made of or adorned with gold. The exhibition progresses through the following themes: Development of the Asante Kingdom and Importance of the Gold Trade; State Regalia; Ghanaian Royals and African American Honorary Royals in Dalla.
Above: Sword ornament in the form of a lion, Asante peoples, Nsuta, Ghana, Africa, ca. Mid-20th century. Cast gold and felt. Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc. (2010.2.McD).
Visitors to Versailles
April 16-July 29, 2018
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
https://www.metmuseum.org
The palace of Versailles has attracted travelers since it was transformed under the direction of the Sun King, Louis XIV (1638–1715), from a simple hunting lodge into one of the most magnificent public courts of Europe. French and foreign travelers, royalty, dignitaries and ambassadors, artists, musicians, writers and philosophers, scientists, Grand Tourists and day-trippers alike, all flocked to the majestic royal palace surrounded by its extensive formal gardens. Visitors to Versailles (1682–1789) tracks these many travelers from 1682, when Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, up to 1789, when Louis XVI (1754–1793) and the royal family were forced to leave the palace and return to Paris.
The exhibition brings together nearly 190 works from The Met, the Palace of Versailles, and more than 50 lenders worldwide. Through paintings, portraits, furniture, tapestries, carpets, costumes, porcelain, sculpture, weapons, guidebooks, and more, the exhibition illustrates what visitors encountered at court, what kind of welcome and access to the palace they received, and what impressions, gifts, and souvenirs they took home with them.
Above: Augustin-Oudart Justina (d. 1743), Portrait of Louis XV, ca. 1717. Oil on canvas, 33 7/16 x 29 ¾ inches. Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (MV 8562). © RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY, photo by Christophe Fouin.
SYMPOSIUM
Winterthur Furniture Forum
Furniture Traditions of the Early American Countryside
April 12-14, 2018
http://www.winterthur.org/furnitureforum
This year’s furniture forum focuses on Furniture Traditions of the Early American Countryside. The sessions will include lectures, a craft demonstration, and workshops highlighting exciting new research on cabinetmakers in New England, the Shenandoah Valley, and the South, which will inspire greater understanding of, and appreciation for, the many cultural crosscurrents that shaped life throughout 18th- and early 19th-century rural America.
Right: Desk and bookcase, attributed to Nathan Lumbard, Sturbridge, MA, 1798-1802. Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont (1957.885).
FEATURED BOOKS
Rather Elegant Thank Showy: The Classical Furniture of Isaac Vose
By Robert Mussey and Clark Pearce
Published by David R. Godine
312 pp; color illus. Hardcover
http://www.godine.com/book/vose-furniture
Isaac Vose was well known in his day among style-conscious Bostonians, his name synonymous with furniture of the highest quality and advanced design. Throughout the 1820s, 1830s, and as late as 1843, some nineteen years after Vose’s death, auction advertisements explicitly cited his name as the maker of select furniture, with the association connoting quality and calculated to increase its sale price.
This book gathers in one volume the known works of Vose as well as those attributed to him. It is also the exhibition catalog for Entrepreneurship and Classic Design in Boston's South End: The Furniture of Isaac Vose and Thomas Seymour, 1815-1825 at the Massachusetts Historical Society from May 11-September 14, 2018. For a related article about furniture made in Vose's workshop for General Lafayette's visit to Boston in 1824, click here.
Chihuly: Short Cuts Collection
4-Disk DVD Collection; $54.95
Chihuly Short Cuts, 2004, 86 minutes
Chihuly Short Cuts II, 2011, 88 minutes
Chihuly Short Cuts III, 2014, 85 minutes
Chihuly Short Cuts IV, 2017, 75 minutes
https://www.chihuly.com
The Short Cuts series is a DVD collection of short stories that reveal the depth and breadth of Dale Chihuly’s career. The volume includes three previously-released editions of the multi-media artist’s popular Short Cuts documentary series, plus a new disc featuring recent film from exhibitions in Canada, Japan, Atlanta and more. This new disc also features never-before-seen footage of the remaking of Lost Chandelier, a film about the Ruby Chandelier, which was lost at sea en route from France. These films reveal the process behind some of the artist’s most celebrated projects through footage of Chihuly drawing, painting, and designing commissions and exhibitions in prominent botanical gardens and museums.
