January 24 -27, 2013
The Metro Show
The Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea
125 West 18th Street Donna Sharrett Fire and Rain Pavel Zoubok Gallery NEW YORK

In today’s world of art and collecting, the word antiques has come to be regarded as more than just a little . . . antiquated. Now the term Historical Design has arisen to embrace the encyclopedic range of decorative arts from the 16th through 20th centuries. Calling this rich mixture by the term “antiques” is outmoded and outworn, and no one is more aware of that than the participants in this year’s METRO Show, which opens for its five-day run on January 23, 2013, at New York’s Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea.

Says Caroline Kerrigan Lerch, director of the METRO Show: “In all my experience with art fairs over the years, never before have I seen so many dealers steering clear of using the word antiques.”

Among the participants at the METRO Show is Fred Giampietro, proprietor of the Giampietro Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Says Giampietro: “For years I’ve resisted being categorized as an antiques dealer, especially since I have always focused on the buying and selling an item based on its artistic value rather than whether it fit into a category as a so-called antique. So it’s natural that I completely endorse the term Historical Design to describe what I’ll be exhibiting at the METRO Show, where I’ll be dividing the focus between emerging contemporary art mixed with 19th- and 20th-century folk art.”

Another METRO Show dealer who champions the notion of Historical Design over the designation of antiques is Pat Garthoeffner of the Garthoeffner Gallery Antiques in Lititz, Pennsylvania. “When we dealt totally in early-American toys, we couldn’t get into a good show for many years because show promoters felt that toys weren’t consistent with their list of ‘acceptable merchandise’ in other words, ‘antiques.’ And when we dealt in vintage advertising we were only able to do ‘advertising shows’ for the same reason,” recalls Garthoeffner. “Thank goodness that the METRO Show doesn’t cling to the old idea of ‘antiques’ and has recognized that calling the show one of Historical Design doesn’t buttonhole the show into one category.”

Adds Garthoeffner: “There have been many articles written about how to get young people to collect and attend shows. By stressing Historical Design over ‘antiques,’ the METRO Show leads the way in attracting now only the seasoned collector but the collector who is just starting out and gives both of them reason to start, expand and redo a collection. The METRO Show also highlights how multiple categories merge together and are complementary. Limiting those categories to ‘antiques’ is completely passé.”

Says Susan Baerwald, co-owner of Just Folk, Summerland, California: “We are trying to attract younger collectors and the way METRO Show is promoting Historical Design over the old-fashioned term ‘antiques’ is the astute way to go. My partner, Marcy Casey, and I come from the television business, and we know that people like to be entertained. Why use the word antique when there are buyers, especially younger ones, interested in contemporary self-taught and outsider art mixed with traditional quilts, weather vanes and trade signs?”

An example of an offering in Historical Design that Just Folk will have at the METRO Show is an extraordinary group of four African American heads made of concrete, gravel, and cement. Entitled the Roxbury Heads, they were found in Connecticut in the late 19th century and are believed to have been displayed as fence posts to indicate a “safe house” at the time of the Underground Railroad.

Jeff R. Bridgman, owner of Jeff R. Bridgman American Antiques, York County, Pennsylvania, is impressed with the pick-up in the economy from both designers and new collectors. “Mid-range things are selling again in great numbers,” says Bridgman, who is expecting to sell well at the METRO Show, “from masterpiece-level objects to those for beginning collectors, which the METRO Show does such a good job attracting in part, I feel, because it does not dwell on the word ‘antique, which rightly or wrongly, young people and even older people are more scared of than they should be.” One of the highlights Bridgman will feature is an Bridgman will feature an extremely rare 36-star American flag, with a six-color overprint, dated 1876.

Bonnie Grossman, owner and director of The Ames Gallery, Berkeley, California, admits that “in these difficult economic times, winning over new younger buyers has been difficult. The strategy of stressing Historical Design over ‘antiques’ promises to be effective. We have definitely seen a downward shift in age,” she says. Among the eclectic offerings Grossman will feature are a wool-hooked rug, entitled “Fowls,”circa 1900 and a pair of articulated figures with a paddle stick and original carrying case, circa 1920.

The second edition of The METRO Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion opens to the public for its five-day run on January 23, 2013. Fair-goers will have a sweeping array of material from which to choose. The new dealer line-up includes 35 pre-eminent specialists in the field of outsider and self-taught art; outstanding contemporary dealers; and the foremost dealers specializing in ethnographic works, Americana, paintings and prints, furniture, Native American, historical design, textiles, and American folk art.

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Metro Show Welcomes Editions | Artists’ Books
The METRO Show has formed an alliance with Editions | Artists’ Book Fair, which will run concurrently in the Altman Building adjacent to the Metropolitan Pavilion. Founded in 1998 by Susan Inglett of I.C. Editions and Brooke Alexander Editions, the Editions | Artists’ Book Fair has grown in size and stature to become the premier showcase for contemporary publishers and dealers, presenting the latest and greatest in prints, multiples and artists’ books. The Editions | Artists’ Book Fair is well known for its vibrant energy and innovation, thanks to over sixty exhibitors, presenting hundreds of artists representing New York, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, London, Paris and points in between.

About The Art Fair Company
In 2009 Michael Franks, Chief Operating Officer, dmg world media, along with Mark Lyman, former Vice-President, dmg world media’s Art & Antiques Fairs and SOFA Founding Director purchased the internationally renowned Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fairs – SOFA CHICAGO and SOFA NEW YORK – from dmg world media, creating a new jointly owned firm, The Art Fair Company, Inc. (TAFC). In addition to SOFA fairs in New York and Chicago, TAFC produces The METRO Show and the Arts and Antique Dealers League of America Spring Show NYC. The Art Fair Company, Inc. is based in Chicago, IL.

For more info, please visit www.metroshownyc.com.

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