NEW YORK—The 12th edition of New York’s Sculpture Objects & Functional Art fair (SOFA) is taking place from April 16 through 19 at the Park Avenue Armory. Clare Beck, of London’s Adrian Sassoon gallery — one of 55 participating dealers — says demand for silver objects has spiked recently, and she is heeding the call with work by two U.K.-based Japanese artists, Junko Mori and Hiroshi Suzuki. Mori’s sculpture Silver Organism; Nigella, 2009, is priced at around $8,000, while Suzuki’s vases A Pair of Aqua-Poesy II, 2008, are selling together for about $88,000. Meanwhile, the New York gallerist Joan B. Mirviss is spotlighting Kyoto-based ceramist Miyashita Zenji, who has made 20 new pieces for the fair priced between $3,000 and $12,000. Robert Aibel, of Philadelphia’s Moderne Gallery, is marking his ninth year at sofa with a strong selection of furniture, including George Nakashima’s Greenrock Console, 1974 — characteristically topped with an untrimmed slab of wood — for $50,000. Aibel sees his participation as especially vital this year: "We need to take the work to where the audience will be rather than wait in our galleries for them to turn up."

"SOFA So Good" originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2009 Table of Contents.