Shoppers and gawkers checking out the 17th annual SOFA Chicago decorative arts show on Navy Pier this weekend will find a pair of new attractions: the Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art and the inaugural Cowan’s and Clark & Del Vecchio auction of 20th-century ceramics. Featuring 16 dealers from across the country, the Intuit show is being produced this year for the first time by the Art Fair Company, which owns SOFA and hopes for audience crossover between the two. The auction is a merely concurrent event, according to SOFA co-owner Mark Lyman—but it’s controversial, seen by some dealers as a potential threat to their retail business.
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In addition to the Navy Pier event, the Art Fair Company mounts a spring SOFA in New York and a summer SOFA in Santa Fe. It also maintains a side business providing equipment and expertise to other show producers, which is how it hooked up with Intuit.
Since 1997, Intuit—a nonprofit center for intuitive and outsider art that counts former Reader co-owner Robert Roth among its board members—has put on its own annual show, which quickly grew to include dealers from across the country. In 2007 and 2008 it was held at the Merchandise Mart in conjunction with Art Chicago. That worked out pretty well, according to executive director Cleo Wilson. But Intuit wasn’t invited back for 2009: “The Mart said the Art Chicago dealers thought it was unfair competition,” Wilson says, because of its lower prices. Instead, the Mart offered it a more expensive slot concurrent with the fall antiques show. But “our dealers didn’t think it was a good fit,” says Wilson.
Lyman says Cowan, Clark, and Del Vecchio came to him with their plan, and he decided “it was better to work together than not.” He’s put a link to the auction on the SOFA website and included it as a SOFA activity but says “there’s no financial arrangement” and it’ll happen in a separate space. He argues that fairs and auctions have a symbiotic history; important fairs were created in New York because of the auction houses there. “I think we’ll receive more traffic from people seriously interested in ceramic art because the auction is located at Navy Pier,” he says.
Tumino’s question will be under discussion when he and representatives from other absent organizations appear on a panel titled “Is It Outside?” at the Intuit show, Saturday, November 6, at 2 PM.
Opening-night preview: Thu 11/4, 7-9 PM, $50. Then Fri-Sat 11/5-11/6, 11 AM-8 PM, Sun 11/7, noon-6 PM, Navy Pier, Festival Hall, 600 E. Grand, sofaexpo.com, $15 per day, $25 for a three-day pass.
Cowan’s and Clark & Del Vecchio auction Exhibition: Thu 11/4, 5-9 PM, Fri 11/5, 10 AM-5 PM, Sat 11/6, 9 AM-noon. Auction: Sat 11/6, noon. Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand, cowanauctions.com.
