Albert Paley Forged Fireplace Tools

ALBERT PALEY (born 1944)
Forged Fireplace Tools, 2006
Forged, formed, and fabricated mild steel
43 x 15 x 12 inches
Signed, dated and numbered at base
Edition of 20

Albert Paley, an active artist for over forty years at his studio in Rochester, New York, is the first metal sculptor to receive the coveted Institute Honors awarded by the American Institute of Architects, the Institutes highest award to a non-architect. “The allure of Paley’s art comes through its intrinsic sense of integration of art and architecture,” as one noted architect stated. Paley, Distinguished Professor, holds an Endowed Chair at the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Commissioned by both public institutions and private corporations, Paley has completed more than fifty site-specific works. Some notable examples are the Portal Gates for the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, Synergy, a ceremonial archway in Philadelphia, the Portal Gates for the New York State Senate Chambers in Albany, Sentinel, a monumental plaza sculpture for Rochester Institute of Technology, as well as a sixty-five foot sculpture for the entry court of Bausch and Lomb’s headquarters in Rochester, New York. Recently completed works include three sculptures for the National Harbor development near Washington DC, a one hundred and thirty foot long archway titled Animals Always for the St. Louis Zoo, a gate for the Cleveland Botanical Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio, a sculptural relief for Wellington Place, Toronto, Canada, Threshold, a sculpture for the Corporate Headquarters of Klein Steel, Rochester, New York, and Transformation, a ceremonial entranceway for Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Pieces by Albert Paley can be found in the permanent collections of many major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Broadly published and an international lecturer, Paley received both his BFA and MFA from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Rochester in 1989, the State University of New York at Brockport in 1996, St. Lawrence University, in Canton, New York in 1997, and the University of Gothenburg, in Sweden in 2012.