The San Francisco Fall Art & Antiques Show Is Not Your Garden-Variety Design Show
Art and antiques were in full bloom as San Francisco hosted its yearly showcase benefit and lecture series
By David Nash
Kendall Wilkinson's booth at the San Francisco Fall Art & Antiques Show opening-night preview gala; the theme was "Flower Power."Photo: Drew Altizer Photography
The 36th annual San Francisco Fall Art & Antiques Show paid homage to another cultural event—the 50th anniversary of San Francisco's iconic Summer of Love—with the theme "Flower Power: Floral Imagery in Art, Antiques & Design." Fifty dealers from around the world offered a range of fine and decorative arts, from antiquity to present day, for sale that included furniture, objets d'art, rugs, paintings, ceramics, jewelry, books, and photography—much of which centered around floral imagery and symbolism.
Benefiting Enterprise for Youth, a nonprofit organization supporting underprivileged students through educational programs, the show's opening night preview gala on October 25 kicked off the four-day exhibition that included a lecture series and book signings with renowned interior designers, authors, photographers, and architects.
The entrance to the show.
Photo: Drew Altizer Photography
The show's Grand Entry Hall featured four designer vignettes by influential designers, each incorporating pieces lent by exhibitors, along with custom-designed wall coverings developed in collaboration with de Gournay. This year's participants included Pamela Babey (BAMO), Jay Jeffers, Kendall Wilkinson, and Edward Lobrano.
Referring to the annual design event as "one of the true grande dames in the world of art and antiques," gala cochair Ken Fulk was delighted with the production's highly detailed execution. "The show's designer vignettes were exuberant displays of the rich history of floral motifs and their historic significance in this rarefied world of art and antiques," he says.
Guests admiring work on display.
Exhibitors included Isaac & Ede and Peter Finer, both from London; Belgium's Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh; Montreal's Milford Antiques; Modernism Inc. from San Francisco; Steinitz Gallery from Paris; Kentucky's Jayne Thompson Antiques; and Chicago-based Finnegan Gallery, among others.
Internationally recognized interior designer Brian Worthington set his sights on an offering by New York–based vendor Carlton Hobbs, LLC. "Carlton had on display an unusual Lacewood circular center table dating from 1820. For me, the piece was a standout because of the deep-reeded frieze and ebonized edge."
Although the majority of the event's highlights were inanimate objects culled from dealer's collections, the most highly prized offerings were the gems gleaned from industry insiders during the show's lecture series.
Photographer, author and AD contributor Miguel Flores-Vianna took his audience on an international tour with an engaging talk about his book, Haute Bohemians: At Home with Important Interior Design Trendsetters. Flores-Vianna brought the book's imagery to life through his perspective on its subjects, including Belgian interior designer Gert Voorjan's colorful Antwerp home, the Tangier retreat of Pierre Bergé's widower Madison Cox, Bridget & Forbes Elwerthy's wisteria-covered Wardinton Manor in Oxfordshire, and editor Marian McElvoy's Hudson River house.
Show Chair Suzanne Tucker moderated a "Mix Masters" design panel that included Los Angeles–based David Phoenix, Atlanta's Beth Webb, and the cofounder of Manhattan's interior-design firm Cullman & Kravis, Ellie Cullman. The animated discussion was centered on the art of combining different styles, finishes and periods—from classicism to modernism—to create spaces proving opposites can attract.
Gil Schafer signing books.
Award-winning architect and author Gil Schafer celebrated the art of living with a lecture inspired by his book, Creating Places to Call Home: How Tradition, Style, and Memory Can Inspire Ways of Living. Included in the lively session were insights into his firm's most interesting projects from around the country and his distinctive, intuitive approach to design.
Guests for the preview gala and show included actress Mariel Hemingway, Hannah Cecil Gurney, Aerin Lauder, Nina Campbell, Denise Hale, Adam Lippes and fashion designer Andrew Gn who served as Honorary Chair, as well as event cochairs Ken Fulk, Alexis and Trevor Traina, Diane B. Wilsey, Allison Speer and Dr. Fred Moll, OJ and Gary Shansby, and Laura King Pfaff.