Palm Beach Modern Auctions’ season-opener sale next weekend promises design enthusiasts and art collectors a feast for the senses. The auction preview is currently open to the public in their exhibition center.
“Whether you’re looking at a sofa, a painting, or a diamond bracelet, nothing compares to seeing the items firsthand,” says auctioneer and co-owner Rico Baca. “These are unique pieces to experience, representing fascinating techniques, important genres, and parts of modern history. We offer online and phone options for the convenience of our clientele, and a walkthrough video on our website, but I always tell people to come by and preview if they can.”
Visitors to the exhibition space are greeted by one of Andy Warhol’s highly collectible “Mao” screenprints in high-intensity red, a wall-spanning Friedel Dzubas in serene blue, an Invader tile mosaic originally installed on a Paris stairway, an Armando Reveron landscape and a 42” Stephen Rolfe Powell blown-glass sculpture. These pieces are just a few from the entryway.
Around the corner, admirers of the unexpected will find a two-foot tall blown-glass “Superfly” by Stanislaw Jan Borowski, the inviting lap of Gaetano Pesce’s “La Mamma” lounge chair and two sterling silver-embellished Edward Bohlin western saddles from the later 1930s-early 1940s. The massive iridescent purple velvet “Boa” sofa along the center wall is another impossible-to-miss piece, especially considering how few pieces of furniture – let alone at this scale – are handmade in 2024. Designers Fernando Campana and Humberto Campana described the process in their literature (edra.com): “Each sofa requires four tubes of thirty meters each, filled and covered by hand. Four people work simultaneously and in synchrony for more than a week. Two full days are dedicated to the final weaving.”
