Born in 1944 in Philadelphia, Albert Paley earned a BFA and MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. He has taught since 1969 at the Rochester Institute of Technology, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1989; he holds the Charlotte Fredericks Mowris Endowed Chair at RIT’s School for American Crafts. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Rochester, the State University of New York at Brockport, and St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York. The portal gates for the New York Senate chamber and the 130-foot-long entryway sculpture for the St. Louis Zoo are among his finest works, and exemplify the ambition and expansive vision Paley has demonstrated in his execution of more than 60 site-specific commissions. Paley’s work is in the collections of major museums worldwide, and he continues to do commissions - including a recent installation at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, and a forthcoming sculpture at Waterwalk in Wichita, Kansas. Along with many other accolades, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Institute of Architects in 1982 and became an American Craft Council Gold Medalist in 2010. Today, Albert Paley lives and works in Rochester, New York.