The Smithsonian Craft Show will honor world-renowned sculptors Wendell Castle and Albert Paley by awarding them the show’s first Visionary Award to be presented by Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough at a dinner April 9. The award is part of the Smithsonian Craft Show, which takes place April 10–13 at the National Building Museum.
The Visionary Award celebrates artists who have risen to the pinnacle of sculptural arts and design, who have works in major museums and who have demonstrated distinction, creativity, artistry and vision in their respective mediums.
Father of the modern design art furniture movement, Castle has been a sculptor, designer and educator for more than four decades. His bold and graceful pieces are sculpted from rare and beautiful hardwoods, plastics, veneers and metals. Castle’s iconic “Ghost Clock,” a sculptural masterpiece of American art in the trompe l’oeil tradition, is part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection.
Paley is the first metal sculptor to receive the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects, the AIA’s highest award to a non-architect. Commissioned by both public and private corporations, Paley has completed more than 50 site-specific works, most recently 13 original sculptures installed in the median of New York City’s Park Avenue as part of The Fund for Park Avenue’s Temporary Art Collection. Paley has three plaza sculptures at the National Harbor complex in Fort Washington, Md. Paley’s seminal work, “Portal Gates,” is also part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s collection.
Castle and Paley are represented in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums worldwide.
Michael Monroe, former curator-in-charge at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery, will moderate a conversation with Castle and Paley Thursday, April 14, at 6 p.m. at the National Building Museum auditorium. Advanced reservations are required. For more information about this event and the Craft Show—including hours, ticket prices and directions—visit the event’s website, call (888) 832-9554 or email austrpr@si.edu.
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