‘Thresholds’ to public art

The first of nine large outdoor sculptures by Albert Paley have been installed in Sonoma Plaza, with more coming this week to Depot Park, the Community Center and the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art.

“Albert Paley: Thresholds” is Sonoma’s largest-ever public art installation, and will include galley elements within the SVMA in a show opening July 1.

Two more Plaza pieces will be installed on Wednesday, June 21 from 5 to 8 a.m. The two shown, “Evanesce x2,” were installed early Tuesday morning at the Plaza’s southeastern corner.

Paley, born in Philadelphia in 1944, is an American modernist metal sculptor. Initially starting out as a jeweler, Paley has become one of the most distinguished and influential metalsmiths in the world, creating more than 60 permanent large-scale works including a gateway at the St. Louis Zoo, portals at the New York state Senate in Albany, and a gate at the National Cathedral in Washington.

“You heat a piece of metal up, you hit it, it forms, it develops a line in space that has continuity,” Paley says of forging his works. “When I’m working on it, I’m experiencing movement. It’s almost like if this were heated up again, it would continue to move.”

Paley is the first metal sculptor to have received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Within each of his works, the show’s catalog explains, three foundational elements stay true: the natural environment, the built environment, and the human presence. The gallery exhibition will feature sculptures, drawings, and maquettes.