ALBERT PALEY

Sunday, October 27, 2002
7:30 – 9:00pm

“When I started doing iron, all of a sudden it was a revelation…it became my vehicle for exploration.”

Born in Philadelphia in 1944 and internationally acclaimed as a metalsmith artist, Albert Paley is particularly known for his work with ferrous metals as architectural ornamentation. During his thirty-year career, he has moved from jewelry to decorative arts to architectural adornment to sculpture, and is often identified as one of the artists responsible for breaking the boundaries between sculpture, design, and the crafts.

Albert will show images of his work and discuss the diversity and significance of his prolific creations in metal. Albert first came to prominence as one of the leading craft jewelers in the United States, but it was his twin foundation of jewelry and metalwork that has forged his legendary career as a metal worker, blacksmith, monumental sculptor or simpley “Master of Metal.”

His most famous commission: the portal gates of the Renwick Gallery at The National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. is a testament to masterful design, skill and ability.

ABOUT ALBERT PALEY
Paley received his BFA and MFA degrees from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. Currently, he is a professor and artist-in-residence holding the Charlotte Fredericks Morris Endowed Chair at the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Paley exhibits nationally and internationally; his work can be found in museums around the world in places such as the the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the White House.

Commissioned works are located at Bausch and Lomb’s headquarters in Rochester, and a new courthouse in San Francisco. Paley’s honors include the American Institute of Architects Award of Excellence and honorary Doctorates of Fine Arts from State University of New York at Brockport, St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. In 1997 Paley received the Masters of the Medium award from the Smithsonian Institute.