SOFA Chicago

The annual Sculpture Objects and Functional Art Expo (SOFA) took place in Chicago this past weekend, November 6-8. True to its name, only objects were included, with jewelry, woodturning, hand blown & cast glass, and ceramics dominating the show. I went to help my boyfriend, a sculptor, set up and take down a piece included in a woodturning exhibit.

Self-described as “The world’s foremost fairs of Contemporary Decorative Arts and Design” (www.sofaexpo.com), SOFA is primarily known as a crafts exhibition. The range of artists is diverse, however, and while some artists fit firmly within the craft tradition, others are clearly engaged in the language of sculpture, installation, and the fine art tradition. Conversations about art and craft abounded, which is a long-standing debate that I do not intend to solve in one blog post. I am interested in that intersection, however, and was expecting to see cutting edge designs of functional objects. But it was disappointing to see the number of overly decorative objects that did not really question that boundary, or function comfortably in either language. For example, ornate hand blown glass teapots that neither function as teapots nor fine art objects seem purposeless as anything other than coffee table decoration. The result is that the most successful works were usually the traditional objects that retain their function. This undercut the wonderful tension that could have happened between traditional functional work, traditional sculptural objects, and hybrids of the two. So if this is not the point, I had to wonder what the point really is.

Being a newbie to SOFA, and an outsider to functional art, the general atmosphere was of great interest to me. High-rolling galleries pay tens of thousands of dollars for a small booth space, with more well-established and wealthy galleries taking up several spaces to show off expensive hand blown glass and other objects. In fact, to even have an artwork anywhere in the expo, including the juried & invitational’s, the artist must be represented by a commercial gallery. And while there were some red dots indicating sold works, for the most part it seemed these galleries must be taking a loss, especially considering the far distances they travel and ship the works to get to Chicago. Indeed, it seems that the whole point is more about bragging rights for galleries than showing new works of functional art. Being at SOFA shows that a gallery has the resources to ship several dozen valuable and fragile objects and representatives halfway across the country. As it turns out, I think this is the over-arching message of SOFA – which galleries can best keep up the appearance of success, in order to hopefully perpetuate it.