by maureen murphy
To get to the SOFA exhibition, one must walk through the gauntlet that is Navy Pier — perhaps the most obnoxious place on Earth. Once inside the giant exhibition hall, the art viewer is overwhelmed by the sheer amount of art for sale. For those brave souls who make it to the back corner of the exhibition, their eyes tend to glaze over and barely register the multitude of bright colors and shiny objects that vie for attention.

Although these weekend-long Navy Pier art conventions are more like art meat markets, they serve as a gauge to what’s currently marketable in the art world. Here works often register into the five, even six-digit price bracket. But nevertheless, there is still the distinction between Art Chicago (held each year in May) and SOFA. Art Chicago is dominated by mostly male artists and traditionally high art mediums such as painting and metal sculpture, whereas SOFA embraces as many female artists as male, and features such “craft” art as jewelry, metalwork, glasswork, and woodwork.

Sure we have Judy Onofrio’s mosaic sculptures, made of broken mirror and broken color tiles, which are among the most gaudy but attract much attention and praise by those passing by. But we also have work that is both formally and conceptually sophisticated.

Take Tracy Krumm’s works fashioned out of crocheted and re-fabricated metal. Both “Wall Tube” and “Long Tapered Vessel” are columnar and hang from either the wall or ceiling. But “Yoke Curtain” and “Shroud, Folded” refer to clothing. The crocheted metal, which would be very uncomfortable and impossible to wear, hang from huge, heavy clothes hangers.

From the same gallery booth, R. Duane Reed Gallery of St. Louis, Missouri, there’s John Garret’s “Registry.” This 72 inch by 72 inch grid of found paper, partially obscured by snowflake-shaped paper cutouts that are layered over it, appears at first glance to be painting. But upon further inspection, one can identify some of the sources for these snowflake-shaped cutouts: a Victoria’s secret advertisement, a paper doily, and gold wrapping paper. This work is a departure from Garret’s sculptural works that are made of various metals, often plaited or netted.

One of the pieces that’s the most hard to miss is Dale Chihuly’s giant “Carnival Boat Installation.” This piece, which can be yours for a mere $350,000, is a forest of the trademark squiggle and balloon-shaped glass that has made Chihuly the foremost name in glassmaking. The colorful pieces of glass spill out over the boat that attempts to contain them.

The wearables of Charon Kranson Arts gallery, of New York City, include Janna Syvanoja’s coil necklaces, which consist of thousands of paper circles, made out of found books. Verena Sieber Fuchs’ wraps, constructed from wire, beads and eerily beautiful Styrofoam, are installed as wall sculptures, transporting them from what is considered to be the low art realm of jewelry to high art.

But not all of the art featured at SOFA is delicate and feminine. Mariette Rousseau-Vermitte and Kate Hunt, both represented by broungotta arts (from Wilton, Connecticut), aren’t afraid to be heavy. Rousseau-Vermitte’s “Papelionidae,” costing $22,000, is a giant woolen book, with vibrant red oranges contrasted with cooler blues and purples. Hung’s “Black Torringon” sells for about $20,000 less than “Papelionidae” but is just as interesting; the work, which appears to be a giant flip book, is constructed of newspaper, twine and steel.

Although it is strange to see such a collection of work when just a few hundred feet away are gawking tourists who clog up the hallways of Navy Pier, the mixed crowd attests to the resourcefulness of such a show. Not only can collectors pick their next investment, but the large number of students that mill around the exhibition can take advantage of having all of this art in one place.