Art is alive & well
“At The Intersection Of Rustic & Contemporary” WRITTEN BY WENDY HOBDAY HAUGH PHOTOS BY WENDY HOBDAY HAUGH AND MARK WOOD
If you’ve never visited The William Coffey Studio & Gallery in Northville, you’re missing out on a chance to see the very best of north country talent, ranging from Coffey’s own contemporary rustic furniture and gallery director Mark Wood’s unique chandeliers and stained glass lamps to sculpture, paintings, basketry, photography, and more, all created by local artists. Bill Coffey with one of his metal sculptures.
Having a gallery of this caliber in a small Adirondack town speaks to owner Bill Coffey’s commitment to the arts and to his fellow artists. In addition to providing an elegant exhibition space, the gallery sometimes serves as a gathering place for community events such as musical programs and author talks. Originally from Queens, NY, Bill Coffey began working at age eleven as “a floorsweeping apprentice” in a Great Neck, Long Island woodworking shop. From the start, Coffey’s interest in woodworking ran deep. He was always watching master cabinetmaker Larry Netti intently, studying how he did things and taking it all in. By his late teens, however—despite his natural interest, aptitude, and ability—Coffey had come to view woodworking “as work, as just a job,” and didn’t want to do it anymore. He attended college, earned a photography degree, and held a variety of positions, including videotape librarian for HBO. “But I always found myself being drawn back to woodworking and furniture making,” Coffey muses. “What I didn’t realize then was that it was a passion, something inside me that would keep calling out to me, something I’d find myself returning to again and again.”
Mark Wood, Gallery Director.
Over time, Coffey worked at several Brooklyn woodworking shops and even owned his own shop in the Brooklyn Naval Yard. He picked up additional skills working with steel and welding
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A Bill Coffey table and Mark Wood sculpture.
and frequently worked as a construction foreman. Then, in the fall of 1999, he headed to Northville for a weekend. “I came up to visit friends,” Coffey explains, “and I wound up buying an abandoned restaurant, the former Tree Restaurant on Route 30.” A year later, an old glove factory in Northville came up for sale. Seeing its potential as a combination workshop/ gallery, Coffey purchased the building in 2000... and the rest, as they say, is history. Today, The William Coffey Studio & Gallery, located at 322 N. Third Street, proudly exhibits Coffey’s own work as well as that of gallery director Mark Wood and another six to eight artists. The venue’s rustic elegance reflects its owner’s lifelong interest in fusing regional Adirondack materials (such as local lumber, root balls, tree burls, twigs, birch bark, repurposed barn wood, rocks, antlers, and vintage hardware and machinery) with contemporary designs. Two large workshops house an impressive array of hand tools, machines, artifacts, and supplies as well as Coffey’s and Wood’s current works-in-progress. Every corner, nook, and cranny holds something eye-catching, arranged in a form perhaps best described as ‘organized chaos.’ Hearing that description, Coffey beams approvingly. “I’m a collector of everything!” he laughs. “Everything has potential.” saratogaTODAYnewspaper.com
