Chicago Sun-Times: Lighting a dark viaduct, Luftwerk mural creates beauty and safety

November 14, 2024

Bursting with color and light, a Back of the Yards railroad viaduct might be one of the brightest in Chicago. A mural titled “Woven Together” adorns the viaduct and walkway at South Ashland Avenue and 49th Street. It’s an artistic collaboration of West Town-based Luftwerk, including lighting artists Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, and South Lawndale muralist Gloria “Gloe” Talamantes. Full article here.

The San Diego Union Tribune: After years of crossing the border every day to get to school, a San Diego artist uses crafting to help others talk about migration

Worry, separation, and anxiety were regular companions for artist Tanya Aguiñiga during her childhood, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every day to get to and from school. Of course, joy, play, and laughter made appearances, but she recalls feeling a lot of fear, too. “(My parents) told me that I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody that I lived in Mexico because I would get kicked out of school for not being in the school district, so I was just constantly really scared that I was going to get kicked out, that we were going to get found out for not living in the U.S.,” she says. “A lot of my childhood, honestly, was thinking about Mexico and living in Mexico as a really stigmatizing experience where I had to kind of keep everyone separate from myself. … I felt too vulnerable to tell anybody the truth, too insecure with my ability to stay, so a lot of it was very guarded and being constantly scared.” Full article here.

ARTnews: Tanya Aguiñiga in 75 Latinx Artists to Know

October 17, 2024

When Tanya Aguiñiga was a young woman growing up in Tijuana, Mexico, she would commute across the US-Mexico border to go to school in San Diego, California. This experience informs her current textile practice and the projects she’s helped launch—particularly AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), which stages “interventions” that use the border wall itself as a mechanism to form connections, much like the game “ring around the rosie.” Using the likes of human hair and beeswax, along with weaving traditions and furniture design studies in her site-specific installations, Aguiñiga considers how porous spaces, borders and such, can elicit tactile feelings of belonging and exclusion. Full article here.

Hyperallergic: When Artists Take the Law Into Their Own Hands

Novelist, playwright, and scholar Yxta Maya Murray has been a law professor for the last three decades and long moonlighted as a respected art critic. An important bridge between the academic and artistic worlds she inhabits, We Make Each Other Beautiful: Art, Activism, and the Law (2024) allows Murray to bring her legal expertise into the critical sphere to elucidate not only the role that artists play in society with syntactical brio but also how the most rigorous critiques of the law often emerge from artistic practice. Murray opens the introduction in Tijuana, Mexico, in August 2021, a sweltering end of summer marked by desperate migrants caught in the crosshairs of a hostile, xenophobic immigration policy a year after the Trump presidency. Local news stations report that an elderly woman was fatally seized by cardiac arrest while waiting in her car for hours to cross the US-Mexico border. It is against this backdrop that Los Angeles-based and Tijuana-raised artist Tanya Aguiñiga deepens her commitment to change policy. Full article here.

NewCity: Art Top 5 Luftwerk at the Poetry Foundation

More Light! Luftwerk x Aram Saroyan
(Poetry Foundation)
Aram Saroyan’s single-word poem “lighght,” inspires a site-specific installation.
Opens October 17
Full list here.

The Art Newspaper: PST Art’s science-meets-art extravaganza in eight superlatives

While many Americans are embroiled in heated debates about political parties symbolised by red and blue, two exhibitions in PST Art are focused on those colours in the form of cochineal and indigo, two early sources of dye and pigmentation. Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal: Tanya Aguiñiga & Porfirio Gutiérrez en Conversación/in Conversation (until 12 January 2025) at UCLA’s Fowler Museum features the California artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez, who specialise in fibre arts and use cochineal in tapestries and other work. The prized red of cochineal derives from a humble insect living on the prickly pear cactus and was cultivated and processed by the Zapotec starting around 500BCE. Later it became an important export of Mexico under Spain. The exhibition looks at that history and how the contemporary artists use cochineal to raise awareness of ancestral knowledge and collective memory. Full article here.

Hyperallergic: Art and Science Intermix in Dozens of Exhibitions Across LA This Fall

September 20, 2024

Indigenous knowledge is another anchor in several exhibitions of the PST Art program, and one that has a deep relevance in Southern California. Sangre de Nopal at the Fowler Museum, a collaboration between textile artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez, traces the origins of cochineal, a red dye developed by Zapotec scientists from an insect that lives on cacti. “Los Angeles is home to the largest Oaxacan community outside of Mexico, and we are also home to the borderless cochineal, which thrives on the opuntia cactus all over the American West,” Aguiñiga told Hyperallergic. Full article here.

NewCity: Luftwerk in “Lost & Found” at Chicago Botanic Garden

Each of the commissioned installations involved some degree of collaboration between the garden’s scientists and volunteers and the artists interpreted the theme in different ways, using a variety of aesthetic strategies to encourage viewers to reconsider their relationship to the prairie ecosystems and plants of the Midwest. Luftwerk’s installation “A Summer Journey” does so through fragments of plant material and a recovery of the spectrum of color that exists in nature, one which we can’t always see. Full review here.

LA Times: The busy person’s guide to PST ‘Art & Science Collide’ exhibitions

The wisdom and beauty of Indigenous Oaxacan culture is on view through the work of contemporary textile artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez, done in collaboration with Gutiérrez’s family in Teotitlán del Valle and Indigenous Mixteca immigrant women farmworkers. The Fowler’s exhibition features large-scale work from both artists alongside historical objects from the museum’s collections. Full guide here.

LA Times: Tanya Aguiñiga Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal best culture L.A. has to offer this week

July 19, 2024

Artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutiérrez weave a compelling web of works reflecting their heritage as part of the indigenous Oaxacan diaspora and their contemporary Southern Californian approach to fiber arts. Aguiñiga, who is showing a self-portrait made of woven cotton rope with terra cotta casts of her hands, says such works allow her to “fully delve into larger issues of identity, place and politics, always at the forefront of life at the borderlands.” Read the full article here.

Thaddeus Wolfe featured in Wallpaper* dream house

A Cadillac’s aerodynamic and slightly futuristic silhouette. The geometric motel signs dotted along American highways. Pastel-hued trailers and colonial homes. But also the Shakers’ approach to essential and functional interiors and deconstructed architecture with a pinch of surrealism. These and more formed the basis for Stefan Beckman’s set for Wallpaper’s dream American house, a backdrop to our celebration of American furniture design. Read the full article here.

Hyperallergic: The Chicanx and Latinx Artists Who Made the Border a Connection Point

Artist and activist Tanya Aguiñiga led “Border Quipo/Quipu Fronterizo” (2016–18), part of the AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides) Project. For her performance, the artist and others roamed between cars and pedestrians on both sides of the San Ysidro border crossing, speaking to commuters trapped in the gridlock, and handing them two strands of thread to tie into a knot. Aguiñiga collected these knotted threads and assembled them into a quipu, an ancient Incan recording device, hanging it on a billboard for all the commuters to see. As people completed the task, she initiated conversations about the border and immigration, and thus the quipu also became a stand-in for oral history. Read the full article here.

Dezeen: Eight independent design studios in Chicago featuring Sung Jang and Ania Jaworska

July 17, 2024

From reinventions to classic wood designs to large community design projects, the Chicago furniture and object designers featured below demonstrate a wide range of material and aesthetic sensibilities in the city on the shore of Lake Michigan. Chicago is the third largest city in the United States, and is well-known for its architectural legacy, being home to the world’s first skyscraper.

“Chicago is an interesting city to be a designer in,” designer and University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) associate professor Sung Jang told Dezeen. “It’s big enough to have variety, but small enough that a lot of us know one another and are able to ‘follow’. I think a lot of Chicago’s designers tend to have some type of link with the industrial past of the Chicago and the midwest area – the heavy manufacturing, important furniture makers, maybe other materials-driven making practices.” Read the full article here.

Galerie: 5 Collectible Design Shows to See in June 2024

June 13, 2024

“A Room Is an Archive of Touch” at Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery | New York

An ethereal exhibition mixing vintage furnishings and contemporary treasures has gone on view at Tribeca’s Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery featuring a slew of beautiful new works by Grace Atkinson, Jennefer Hoffmann, and Natalie Weinberger. Open through July 20, “A Room Is an Archive of Touch” takes inspiration from essayist Lisa Robertson and her poetic view of interior spaces as a repository of memory. Stop by to see Atkinson’s patchwork tapestries, Hoffman’s stoneware creations, and Weinberger’s bewitching glass sconces—all of which perfectly complement the historic works on view, including a surprising collection of wedgwood vessels from the 1850s. Read the full article here.

NPR: The art of weaving

June 12, 2024

As one of the oldest art forms, weaving has a place in many cultures. The skill is not only a practical one but also one of creative expression, tradition and activism, all of which the Sun Valley Museum of Art is exploring in their latest exhibition, “Intertwined: Weaving in the Community.” Tanya Aguiñiga, one of the featured artists in the exhibit, joined Idaho Matters to talk more. Listen here.

NewCity: Plaited Paintings: A Review of “Both Sides Now” by Christy Matson at Volume Gallery

May 17, 2024

Stretched over frames, her works in “Both Sides Now” are made up of watercolor, acrylic or gouache on paper and linen, wool/cotton. The Californian carefully weaves her works by hand with the use of a TC2 (Thread Controller) Jacquard loom that is hooked up to her computer. The digital loom, which has been an integral part of her production process for fifteen years, enables Matson to keep track of her intricate designs and ensures that each textile is crafted with precision and detail. Read the full review here.

WhiteHot: Christy Matson’s Textiles Defy all Categorization at Chicago’s Volume Gallery

May 4, 2024

Never was more of a fuss made over illusionistic perspectival space than in 20th century America. Clement Greenberg and his formalists endorsed it as the fundamental quality of Good Art. Minimalists like Donald Judd and Richard Serra denounced it as false and deceitful. I would’ve liked to see how these two factions tore into each other over Christy Matson’s current show at Volume Gallery, because Matson’s rigorous interrogation of perspectival space knows no parallel throughout art history. Read the full review here.

Galerie: Discover the 8 Artists and Designers who Made the Biggest Splash at Felix LA

March 6, 2024

Sung Jang at Volume Gallery

Exhibiting monochromatic paintings of fragmented map-like forms and functional sculptures that mix found stones with sophisticated, handmade wooden bases, Sung Jang investigates his inherited Korean culture in response to the industry of production and consumption, process of design, fabrication and labor and individual experience related to artifacts. An award-winning Chicago-based designer and artist, he blurs the boundaries between the two ways of working—creating design objects that aim at improving the quality of life and artworks that express a personal vision. His Shape of Land paintings at the fair presented textured, black, mental maps of past places he has visited, while his Given sculptures joined specifically selected rocks with geometrically crafted bases to construct sublime combinations, which can delightfully be used as either a chair, stool, or small table. Read the full article here.

The Art Newspaper: Non-profit art collaborative using craft to promote cross-border relations returns to Los Angeles

March 1, 2024

This is Ambos’s third time at the fair, and this year it is raising funds for its Ambos Ceramics programme, taught at two LGBTQ+ migrant shelters in Tijuana. On display are ceramics made by students—presented on a striking blue “tree of life” sculpture and on sale for prices ranging from $50 to $250—as well as other works created in collaboration with professional ceramicists. Clothing racks, meanwhile, are filled with colourful sweaters and tops, embroidered by residents of 14 other shelters and dyed by the Ambos founder Tanya Aguiñiga in her studio. Read the full article here.

Designer Stephen Burks Dishes On His New PMA Exhibit

February 21, 2024

Which piece in the exhibit do you connect with the most?
If I had to choose one piece that exemplifies the spirit of the studio and my own personal interest in bringing more diverse voices to bear on design, it would be the “Traveler” produced by Roche Bobois. The 40th-anniversary version in wrapped leather cord is a limited edition, but the outdoor collection is available at all Roche Bobois stores.

Why do you think it’s important to collaborate with artisans of various cultures and backgrounds?
Unfortunately, design is still perceived as a Western project. In the rest of the world or the majority world, people have been making things by hand for generations regardless of their level of canonical education. Everyone is capable of dreaming and everyone is capable of creativity, therefore, everyone is capable of design. No one culture has the right to dictate taste. Read the full interview here.

Sight Unseen: Meaghan Roddy’s inspiring textile exhibition at Volume Gallery in Chicago

January 20, 2024

At Chicago’s Volume Gallery, a multi-generational group show curated by former Phillips design expert and craft specialist Meaghan Roddy brings together nine American fiber artists – Tanya Aguiñiga, Lia Cook, Ricki Dwyer, Josh Faught, Terri Friedman, Ferne Jacobs, Michael Rohde, SHENEQUA, and Jana Vander Lee. Placing these textile works in conversation with each other, Apex creates new contexts and connections. Through February 17th. Read the full article here.

NewCity: A Journey For Journey’s Sake: A Review of Luftwerk at Volume Gallery

December 8, 2023

Inquisitive viewers will take a look behind the sculptures. Their wall-facing side has been painted a corrosive shade of orange, which, when placed between the gallery’s blank white walls and blindingly white LEDs, is reflected onto the gallery’s walls as a faint glow. But taking this fateful look is to lose the magic. More likely than not, you’ll long for how new and unknown this phenomenon felt a few seconds ago. It’s all in vanity, the gig is up now. The glow is not a glow but a mere effect of the light. It’s a lie. Yet most viewers will find themselves suspending their disbelief and viewing the forms head-on once more. No question about it: with the painted surface out of sight, they’re once again glowing. Why choose to be fooled by an illusion when you know the source of its trickery? Who knows. Most illusions aren’t this beautiful. Read the full review here.

WHYY: Stephen Burks’ pandemic design thinking at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

November 21, 2023

“Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place” features works from the past 10 years that came out of Burks’ highly collaborative design practice. He often collaborates with craft artisans around the world, particularly weavers in the Philippines and Senegal who inspired Dala, a line of woven outdoor furniture from the Dedon company. Burks’ design ethos is to integrate handcraft into industrial manufacturing. Read the full article here.

TL Mag: Weaving in Contemporary Art and Design

Tanya Aguiñiga

Tanya Aguiñiga is a Los Angeles based artist, designer and craftsperson whose work includes large-scale woven installations for museum and gallery spaces and interior design projects, intricately woven objects and artworks, and furniture that blends modernist design concepts with earthy, feminine or indigenous references. At the core of her practice however, is a consistent connection to community, to her roots, as well as with those around her. Read the full article here.

Town & Country: How a Globetrotting Designer Reinvented a Louisville Victorian

November 7, 2023

In the dining room of a Victorian home in Louisville’s bohemian Highlands neighborhood, Stephen Reily is surrounded by art. A slender man who speaks with graceful authority, he is pointing out the room’s playful baroque, goth wall­paper. Beside him looms a stack of resin boxes designed by the North Carolina native Sam Stewart, 15 in all. Each one backlit by the mid­afternoon sun, they grow smaller in their climb toward the ceiling. Read the full article here.

LA Times: Art collective AMBOS brings its outreach to Made in L.A. with an interactive, outstretched hand sculpture

October 5, 2023

In 2017, L.A.-based artist Natalie M. Godinez, who works with textiles and printmaking, was in the process of refining her artistic practice. She wanted to expand on storytelling through art. Then, after collaborating with several artist workshops with AMBOS, a collective founded by artist Tanya Aguiñiga, Godinez had a breakthrough.

Through the hands-on classes, Godinez was surprised to find herself connecting with her own lineage, as someone who grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border, in Tijuana. She wasn’t alone: In the workshops, fellow artists were eager to share more about how the process of craft had unlocked something for them too. Read the full article here.

Chicago Reader: The sacred and profound in Stephen Burks’s ‘Spirit Houses’

September 20, 2023

Burks, whose first spirit house was commissioned by the High Museum of Art for his solo exhibition “Shelter In Place” earlier this year, draws on West African and Asian traditions to portray the dead as active contributors to our daily lives—a belief central to many non-Western cultures. These traditions, including Buddhism and the Yoruba practice of Ifá, highlight the deep integration of religion in every aspect of life—from the political to the social, cultural, and personal. Through rituals involving offerings and prayers at altars, people can experience a divine presence, a concept known as Asé in the Yoruba tradition, which infuses these human-made objects with spiritual life and power. Read the full review here.

Wallpaper*: Stephen Burks explores spirituality and belonging in Chicago exhibition

September 19, 2023

Last year, industrial designer Stephen Burks debuted his first modern altar, ‘Spirit House’, at the High Museum of Art, for his exhibition ‘Stephen Burks: Shelter In Place’. Now, a year on, he reveals his latest exhibition, ‘Spirit Houses’, at Chicago’s Volume Gallery. Read the full review here.

Smithsonian: Border Stories, A Comic About Tanya Aguiñiga

Tanya Aguiñiga is known for her community-based projects and activism that involve interactions at the border. This comic is part of a series Drawn to Art: Tales of Inspiring Women Artists that illuminates the stories of women artists in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Inspired by graphic novels, these short takes on artists’ lives were each drawn by a student-illustrator from the Ringling College of Art and Design. We invite you to read the comic and share it with your friends and young people in your life. View the entire comic here.

PBS News Hour Brief but Spectacular: Tanya Aguiñiga

July 20, 2023

Tanya Aguiñiga is a Los Angeles-based artist, designer, and activist who grew up as a binational citizen of Mexico and the United States. Much of her work speaks of her divided identity and tells the larger and often invisible stories of the transnational community. She shares her Brief But Spectacular take on using craft to push back on injustice for our arts and culture series, CANVAS. Watch the full video here.

NewCity: Shape Shifting Marvels: A Review of Jack Craig’s “Protist” at Volume Gallery

July 19, 2023

Between animal, plant and fungus, it becomes hard to tell the difference: Jack Craig’s furniture collection seems to have a life of its own. Created primarily out of melted carpet, the work is soft and fuzzy—and it passively invites interaction. Craig, a former electrical engineer who worked on stealth technology for the U.S. Navy before he pivoted into the world of industrial design, is fascinated by altering familiar materials in unexpected ways. His process is about transformation and regeneration. Breathing new life into material that is often discarded or overlooked—in this case, carpet—he first melts it and then proceeds to sculpt it into extravagantly grotesque furniture and fantastical design objects—from chairs and mirrors to coffee tables and vases. Read full review here.

Wallpaper*: Tanya Aguiñiga: the artist weaving new narratives for borderless creativity

June 13, 2023

Tanya Aguiñiga knows a thing or two about living in flux. From the age of four, each morning at 3.30am, she travelled across the US-Mexico border from her home in Tijuana to her school in San Diego. ‘It’s crazy, logistically. But it’s also crazy, psychologically and emotionally,’ she tells me via Zoom from her LA studio, with off-white fibre works dangling from the half-moon wall behind her. ‘At the time, kind of similar to now, there were massive amounts of migrants at the border up against the fence trying to get to the US side. We had to navigate pretty difficult experiences on our way. There was incredible desperation on the faces of adults, and as a child, it’s super difficult to deal with.’ Read the full profile here.

WSJ: Trendspotting at NADA New York 2023

May 20, 2023

Working in an even older medium, Jennefer Hoffmann’s stoneware works, at Volume Gallery, are totems that take on a ritualistic aura. Their tiered structures suggest a utility lost in history while their capstones—an eye, an orange ball, a mass of lumps—further heighten the mystery. Read the full article here.

Chicago Reader: Specters of material Tanya Aguiñiga’s “Swallowing Dirt” unravels the body with fiber and clay.

May 12, 2023

At first glance, Tanya Aguiñiga’s “Swallowing Dirt” seems to gesture to the phantasmagoric. Her spectral rope and terra-cotta sculptures fill Volume Gallery, suspended from the walls and ceiling. The figures ostensibly depict the uncanny body, which produces our premature illusory response. But under closer examination, Aguiñiga’s sculptures are corporeal. She threads together her two material disciplines to create a series of haunting forms that concretize when we approach them. 

“Swallowing Dirt” features eight unconventional portraits—sculptures that reimagine the immaterial “self” as tactile. The two ostensibly incompatible mediums—ceramic and fiber—twine together to create haunting figures. The terra-cotta and off-loom weaving blend together in an homage to Aguiñiga’s Mexican heritage. Emotional Body I spills from the gallery wall, engulfing a series of terra-cotta hands immersed in the rope sculpture. Similarly, the wall-hung Internal Body II holds terra-cotta internal organs within its fiber “belly.” Aguiñiga ventures to explore the esoteric, hanging Metaphysical Body II from the ceiling to create a hauntingly inviting display. Read the full review here.

NewCity: Getting Her Hands Dirty: A Review of Tanya Aguiñiga’s “Swallowing Dirt” at Volume Gallery

The artist has a long history of weaving and working within (and beyond) traditional craft techniques. She adds layers in the form of meaningful materials that nod to her Mexican heritage. Think reddish-brown ceramics, clay and natural fibers. The outcome is a heavily textured work that feels tactile—soft and powerful at once.

Another major influence on Aguiñiga’s artistic and activism practice: her childhood. The Los Angeles-based artist was raised in Tijuana, and had to cross the border daily as a child to attend school in San Diego. This binational experience has proved incredibly formative of her perspective and has heavily impacted her life and career. To this day, this memory still feels fresh. Read the full review here.

Elle Decor: Tanya Aguiñiga at Volume Gallery

In “Swallowing Dirt,” Los Angeles–based artist Tanya Aguiñiga’s fifth show at Volume Gallery, weavings hang in place of the human body and suggest elements of an artist’s specific human experience. With textile sculptures suspended both from the ceiling and hung on the wall, Aguiñiga stretches what can be considered a portrait by incorporating vaguely human elements (like terra-cotta hands and internal organs) into forms that feel sentient and static in equal parts. Most of the work is constructed with cotton rope, some of it dyed with terra-cotta, while fired terra-cotta elements are woven in. Her bodies are also doorways, referencing a childhood spent crossing the border between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego daily, and form a bridge between her artistic concerns and her work as an activist. The show is wonderfully refreshing and impressive in scale. Read the full article here.

Design Miami The Buzz: Tanya Aguiñiga: Swallowing Dirt at Volume Gallery

May 2, 2023

Chicago’s Volume Gallery presents Swallowing Dirt, a solo show by award-winning artist, activist, and craftsperson Tanya Aguiñiga. The LA-based multitalent’s latest works are conceived as unconventional portraits—symbolic abstractions of the human experience incorporating cotton rope weavings and ceramic renditions of body parts—and a continuation of her investigations into identity, place, and craft. Raised in Tijuana Mexico, Aguiñiga crossed the border daily as a child to attend school in San Diego, and her binational experience continues to influence her practice today. By using clay from Mexico and the US, Aguiñiga addresses issues such as colonization, commodification, and ownership of land. Til June 17. Read more here.

Wallpaper*: Jonathan Olivares is working wonders at Knoll, as the brand’s Salone pavilion attests

April 19, 2023

The Knoll Pavilion at Salone del Mobile 2023 divulges how Olivares plans to bring the brand into the modern age. Designed by Kersten Geers and David Van Severen of Office KGDVS, the dynamic aluminium and glass structure showcases Knoll’s new launches alongside artworks by Jonathan Muecke, inspired by some of the Harry Bertoia artworks that were commissioned by Florence Knoll for her first showrooms. Read more here.

Abigail Chang announced Chicago Architectural Club’s Emerging Visions winner

April 7, 2023

On behalf of the Chicago Architectural Club and in partnership with the Design Museum Chicago, we are pleased to announce that for the eight edition of the Chicago Architectural Club’s Emerging Visions Competition, the 2023 selected winner is Abigail Chang.  In keeping with the mission of this program, the Chicago Architectural Club has partnered with the Design Museum Chicago who is sharing their space to provide a public forum for Abigail’s work to be recognized.  Please save the date for Abigail Chang’s exhibition opening and lecture event hosted at the Design Museum Chicago on Tuesday, April 11th at 6pm.  

Artforum: Luftwerk at the Chicago Cultural Center

April 5, 2023

“Color is the most relative medium in art,” according to Josef Albers. Its relativity, along with the subjective nature of visual perception, forms the basis of the immersive light installations that comprise “Exact Dutch Yellow,” the most recent exhibition of Chicago-based collaborative Luftwerk (Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero), who transformed the fourth-floor galleries of this cultural institution into an oasis of complex optical phenomena. Read the full review here.

Design Miami The Buzz: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon at Volume Gallery

March 3, 2023

Today, Chicago’s Volume Gallery launches Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: I DO, an exhibition devoted to the American multidisciplinary artist. Best known for her bold, 1960s wall-painted Supergraphics and widely recognized for her influence on the trajectory of graphic design, this is Solomon’s first solo show with the gallery. Now in her nineties, Solomon has begun focusing on paper, including drawing, collage, and publishing artist books. I DO comprises eighty-five 8.5 x 11 works on paper crafted with Solomon’s quintessential use of wordplay and graphic invention, exploring letter forms, language, feminism, interpersonal relationships, and autobiography. Until April 22

Smithsonian Magazine: Exploring Border Stories with Artist Tanya Aguiñiga

March 1, 2023

Artist Tanya Aguiñiga grew up in the United States/Mexico borderland. She was born in San Diego and lived with her family in Tijuana. Every day, Aguiñiga crossed the border to attend a public school in San Diego. Aguiñiga’s home life and her family shaped her understanding of craft and design. The handmade objects in her home were sturdy and practical, but also colorful and decorative. Even more, they carried intergenerational wisdom. “The objects our ancestors made still have lessons within them,” the artist observed in a 2022 interview. Read the full article here.

Vogue Australia: Kelly Wearstler’s lush and evocative reimagining of a Californian bungalow

February 22, 2023

A home isn’t just bricks and mortar—it’s a place where relationships are built and broken, where life enters and where it leaves, and where love is fostered, whatever that might look like. Leading designer Kelly Wearstler makes it her business to know this, creating spaces that absorb, reflect and celebrate the lives of their inhabitants. No two Wearstler projects read the same. “I don’t really like doing something twice,” she states. Channelling clients’ desires through her sophisticated lens, Wearstler is committed to the art of listening. Take her redesign of a classic 1960s California bungalow in Brentwood—the owners were expecting a baby during the renovation, so moving in meant starting their new life as a family. In Wearstler’s sympathetic style, the four-bed, six-bath house seems to breathe this feeling of new life throughout its 929 square metres‑everything from the earthy colour scheme to the use of soft, textured fabric feels like an expression of hope and of the freshest, most cushy kind of love. The more formal living room is decorated with bespoke furnishings and highlights from the couple’s expansive art collection. Many objects, like a sculptural saffron-toned console by Ross Hansen—noted by Wearstler as one of her favourite pieces in the home—straddle art and design. Read the full article here.

Cultured: This Year’s FOG Design+Art Transcends Generational and Geographic Boundaries

January 19, 2023

FOG Design+Art, San Francisco’s annual international art and design fair, never fails to exhaust me. It’s in the way you might become exhausted after a huge, delicious meal—at once satiated and somehow still hungry for more. Your stomach can’t be as big as your eyes when there is this much to look at. Presented in the 50,000-square-foot Festival Pavilion at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, the ninth edition of FOG hosts over 45 exhibitors from as close as down the block to as far as Milan, and offers a snapshot of the global state of the arts, confirming the Bay Area as a major force within it. At Volume Gallery’s booth from Chicago, weight meets lightness in Ross Hansen’s chandeliers and sconces, formed from hemp fabric cast in resin and suspended with lengths of chain. Read the full article here.

Architectural Digest: Step Inside a Colorful Punta Mita Estate That Pays Homage to Past and Present Mexico

November 4, 2022

As its name implies, Hacienda Los Milagros is a haven of magic and wonder. Perched directly on the azure waters of the Bay of Banderas in Punta Mita, Mexico, the house synthesizes myriad narrative threads and cross-cultural influences, which collide and coalesce to exhilarating effect. The deftly layered decor speaks to Mexico’s ascendant status on the contemporary art-and-design scene; the enduring appeal of the country’s extraordinary craft traditions; the fusion of American and Mexican attitudes toward hospitality; and, perhaps, most of all, the power of place. At the end of the day, it’s also a pretty swell spot to sip a copita of mezcal while gazing out on a pristine stretch of the Pacific Ocean. A Tanya Aguiñiga wall hanging commands the main living room. Read the full story here.

 

ARTnews: Worlds Collide as Galleries Converge for an Art and Design Fair in the Heart of Paris

October 21, 2022

Most have focused their attention this week on Art Basel’s new Paris+ fair, which has more than 150 exhibitors and is taking place near the Eiffel Tower. But a smaller, more tightly curated affair just a half hour’s walk away offers a much different vision of what it looks like when galleries converge.

On the second level, Volume has two distinct spaces that face each other via a courtyard. In one are sparkling chandeliers by New York–based artist Sam Stewart, who worked in collaboration with a couture seamstress to achieve the intricate hand-pleating necessary to pull them off. Hung torso-level, they resemble the tops of jellyfish.

Across from them, also via Volume, are intricately knotted textiles sculptures by Tanya Aguiñiga, who is having her first presentation in Europe through the fair. The L.A.-based artist and activist creates these works, which speak to the experiences of those living in the borderlands of the U.S. and Mexico, in a very specific way: after she has knotted the raw cotton, she packs them with ice and then drops dye atop it. As the ice melts, the dye seeps into the fabric to create these kaleidoscope-like color fields.

“These works act as a space of respite, especially after the last two-plus years of the pandemic,” Volume cofounder Claire Warner said. “They’re celebratory, in a way, and are contending with the history of this space.”

The sculptures seem to weave themselves into the walls, and thus into the history of Paris, as worlds collide. Read the full article here.

Image Courtesy Samuel Spreyz for Novembre Global

Artsy: 5 Latinx Artists Using Abstraction to Address Precolonial Histories

October 11, 2022

Tanya Aguiñiga’s impressive rope and textile-based installations view craft as a form of easily accessible, embodied knowledge. The artist/activist invites members of marginalized groups—women of Mesoamerican heritage in particular—to weave with her “off-loom.” In 2016, she founded the AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides) collaborative, for femme artists to make art documenting their relationship with the border.

Aguiñiga’s own work features distinctive interlocking knots of rope, hair, wool, terracotta clay, and other materials. Altogether, they form exquisite abstractions that resemble grids overlaid with organic plant or fungal life.

Aguiñiga’s practice was informed by her own childhood experience of crossing the border to attend K-12 schools in the United States; growing up, her family lived a few blocks from the border wall in Tijuana, Mexico. The artist draws craft-based practices from the region around her hometown, honoring the land politics and immigration issues that were so central to her youth. Read the full article here.

JEUNE OTTE JO WOMEN: Jennefer Hoffmann

October 8, 2022

IN AN EMAIL INTERVIEW, THE CHICAGO-BASED ARTIST TALKS ART AND FASHION

JEUNE OTTE: TELL US ABOUT WHAT YOU DO.
JENNEFER: i like to think of myself as a helper or connector when possible.

JO: WHAT IS YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIKE?
JENNEFER: facilitating the independence of my two teenagers, remembering to breathe.

JO: TELL US ABOUT YOUR SCULPTURE.
JENNEFER: clay for me is a place to work it out.

JO: WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON RIGHT NOW?
JENNEFER: new ideas around a body of work that contemplates vessels as bags and what they carry.

JO: HOW DO YOU STAY INSPIRED, CURRENT AND INNOVATIVE?
JENNEFER: try not to look at anything current or innovative.

PHOTOS: LAURA LETINSKY
Read the full interview here.

PIN-UP: Sam Stewart on Suburbia, Color and the Shape of Language

September 22, 2022

Suburbia is where I grew up, but I don’t think you realize the meaning of the word until you live in a city. People drive everywhere to get anywhere. Having that kind of experience growing up feels like that cheap Hollywood special effect where someone appears to be driving but the car is stationary, since a projection on a screen provides the illusion of motion. This is even more convincing when you add to it the metronomic repetition of vinyl-clad tract houses and neatly trimmed fescue lawns. But I guess the same could be said about Manhattan anywhere North of 14th Street, and I would further argue that Los Angeles is an amalgamation of suburbs posing as a city. Read the full interview with Sam Stewart here.

Art & Object: Standouts at Armory’s Focus 2022

September 13, 2022

Tanya Aguiñiga at Volume Gallery, Chicago

Tanya Aguiñiga is a Los Angeles-based artist, designer, and craftsperson originally from Tijuana. She sees craft as a performative medium and has collaborated with various border groups in activism and community-based public art. Her work is currently on view in the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery exhibition, This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World. There is a beautiful formal quality to her work, which also plays with double entendres and language, all related to her experience with indigenous communities and speaking to the history of craft. There is also a powerful resistance to the limitations of craft. Please have a look at the artist’s website to see the broad range of themes, places, and spaces Aguiñiga has addressed. Read the full article here.

Cool Hunting: The Armory Show, what to see at this year’s inspiring international fair

Tanya Aguiñiga

Presented by Chicago’s Volume Gallery, LA-based artist, craftsperson and performance artist Tanya Aguiñiga transformed ice-dyed cotton rope and synthetic hair into twisting, knotted wall-hung sculptures. Among the multi-textured works, “Azulito Sonriente” (2022) and “Barragán Tierno” (2022) mesmerize with their use of color and form. Vibrant and meticulously crafted, these artworks are unlike anything else at the show. Read the full article here.

FUSE A Bomb Podcast: Tanya Aguiñiga & Julio Cesár Morales

September 9, 2022

For this episode, we asked artist, mother, and activist Tanya Aguiñiga which artist she would most wish to speak with and she chose visual artist and curator Julio César Morales.

The pair discuss the versatility of the border experience, unlikely influences, and functional art practices.

This episode is in partnership with The Armory Show. Both artists appearing in the episode are part of the curated sections of the fair’s 2022 edition. Tanya Aguiñiga’s work is presented by Volume Gallery in Focus, curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, while Julio César Morales’s piece La Linea is presented by Gallery Wendi Norris in Platform, curated by Tobias Ostrander.

Listen to the episode here.

Cultured: 5 Can’t-Miss Latin American and Latinx Artists at the 2022 Armory

September 8, 2022

This week the Armory Show returns to New York for its 2022 edition in its new, post-pandemic home at the Javits Center. But for the first time in the storied art fair’s history, the event brings together three voices with related curatorial practices, offering a distinct, unified lens to engage transcultural questions in contemporary art. Heavyweight curators Carla Acedevo-Yates of the Museum of Contemporary Chicago, Tobias Ostrander of Tate, London, and Mari Carmen Ramírez from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston each lend a Latin American and Latinx viewpoint to this year’s iteration of the Focus and Platform sections, as well as the fair’s curatorial leadership symposium. Galleries in the Armory’s wider programming have also stepped up and taken the initiative to present artists that compliment this year’s speciality mission. Ahead of this year’s exhibition Cultured highlights five of the most dynamic legacy and emerging Latin American and Latinx artists on display throughout the fair this week.

Tanya Aguiñiga
Volume Gallery, Chicago

Growing up in Tijuana, Tanya Aguiñiga, 44, recalls crossing the Mexican/California border daily to attend school in San Diego, witnessing people sacrificing their lives every day trying to make it to the United States. As a child, she struggled to understand why being born on one side of a line determines a person’s ability to move freely. Along with collaborators in a massive quipu project (an ancient Andes system of record keeping comprised of fibrous strings) along both sides of the divide, Aguiñiga captured the liminal realities on the brink of the two countries by asking U.S./Mexico commuters about their perspectives: thousands of people from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas that each contributed a knot that represents their individual borderland experience. Read the full article here.

Jonathan Muecke and Abigail Chang in The Design Edit

July 21, 2022

Chicago is alive with creativity – we pick three of the top design shows this summer.

Abigail Chang creates works informed by the interaction of material and detail. Her approach takes elements of material culture and the built environment to make conceptual statements that reflect on the current zeitgeist. Her recent ‘Skeuomorphic Screens’ installation explored the aperture-like qualities of screens as undervalued architectural components and her work has been shown at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale, the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. Chang is currently visiting assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, and this is her first show with the renowned Volume Gallery, which often works with architects developing object design.

“Jonathan Muecke’s rigorous practice and mind-bending objects challenge how we understand design as a creative discipline,” says Irene Sunwoo, Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago, “and at the same time encourages experimental display strategies that rethink what a design exhibition can be.” This exhibition surveys the designer’s most experimental pieces. Read the full Chicago Dispatch here.

NewCity: Through the Looking Glass: A Review of Abigail Chang’s Reflections of a Room

July 20, 2022

The minimalist exhibition set-up adds a sense of mystery. The objects serve as invisible portals wherein one rethinks contemporary lives, challenging authenticity, values and the aesthetic and social aspects of material culture. Chang’s reflective surfaces affirm the viewer through their own reflection: When one moves, the reflection changes, pulling them into questions of perspective as they acknowledge the power to shape what we see. Turning the viewing process into a personal experience one cannot help but rethink issues of truth and illusion, beauty and vanity, confidence and skepticism—and ultimately the Self. Read the full review here.

PIN-UP: SAME OBJECT, DIFFERENT MATERIALS: JONATHAN MUECKE ON HIS SCULPTURAL DESIGN OBJECTS

Designer Jonathan Muecke thinks he is in the practice of making the same thing over and over again. It’s not true, of course, but his liminal objects — arcing textile sculptures that have no fixed function, chairs made from braided carbon tubes, a rock with holes — are unified by their oblique simplicity. Wyoming-born Muecke studied architecture at Iowa State University, interned at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel, Switzerland, and studied 3D design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art before establishing his own office in 2010. Most of his abstracted pieces are made entirely from one material, be it aluminum, carbon fiber, or stainless steel, and they’ve inspired a group of hyper-specific devotees. The 39-year-old currently shows with Maniera in Brussels and Volume Gallery in Chicago, not too far from the Art Institute of Chicago, which is currently staging his first major museum show until October 10, 2022. The exhibition consists of a selection of works that Muecke calls “open objects,” which investigate color’s shape, texture’s scale and the possibility of eliminating surfaces entirely. Read the full interview here.

NewCity: Beyond the Ordinary: A Review of American Framing at Wrightwood 659

July 13, 2022

Rising up from the atrium all the way to the third floor of the Wrightwood 659 gallery, “American Framing” fills the space with light-brown soft wood. The structure, previously by the U.S. Pavilion at the seventeenth International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2021), marks the first time this project will be seen in the United States. An exploration of the architecture of wood framing, the installation is a nod to the most common construction system in the States—a 2019 survey found wood is used in more than ninety-percent of new home construction, making it one of the country’s most important contributions to building practice. Read the full review of American Framing featuring Ania Jaworska and Norman Kelley here.

Ninu Nina interview with Abigail Chang

June 29, 2022

Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences please. 

For me, traveling and working in different contexts is an exciting way to exchange ideas. I previously worked at architecture firms across the US and abroad in Tokyo and Basel, and these experiences impacted the way I practice and think. I also look closely at the everyday, at things and places that are familiar to distill ideas.

How are the current trends in technology and innovation affecting your work as a creative?

I am interested in how technology has impacted our daily life. For example, I have been writing about our reliance on screens and how screens are found everywhere in and outside our homes. I did a project for the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism called “Skeuomorphic Screens” that expands on this idea.

Read the full interview here.

Wallpaper: Ross Hansen at Marta Los Angeles

Marta Los Angeles exhibition pays tribute to New Mexico

‘Tino’s White Horses’ by sculptor-designer Ross Hansen at Marta Los Angeles (until 6 August 2022) explore the desert landscapes of Ojo Caliente, New Mexico

With Ross Hansen based between California and New Mexico, his newest pieces are inspired by the equine neighbours dwelling in the remote desert landscape of the latter. The functional pieces, which range from seating, lighting, furniture and vessels, specifically reference the unincorporated Ojo Caliente community, best known for its distinctive geological formations and its mineral hot springs. According to Tewa tradition (a group of Pueblo tribes indigenous to New Mexico), the pools provide access to the underworld and so hover mythically between this world and the next.

Such duality is also present in Hansen’s new pieces, which expressively merge biomorphic and architectonic forms and furniture typologies, with an exquisitely fleeting materiality derived from his use of epoxy resin, faux-leather upholstery and sewn hemp fibreglass. As much evocative of the natural world as a spiritual one, the collection almost resembles an evolved species, cohabiting in a new realm. Read the full piece here.

The Slowdown: With His “Open Objects,” Jonathan Muecke Wants You to Think About Space

June 28, 2022

“What is the texture of scale? Can a surface be eliminated? Can space expand?” Viewers encounter these and other questions, which are printed on a wall, upon encountering the Art Institute of Chicago’s exhibition “Objects in Sculpture” (through Oct. 10), Minnesota-based designer Jonathan Muecke’s first solo presentation in a major museum. For Muecke, a graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art who has worked at the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, objects are vessels through which to explore the connections between spaces, materials, and perception. Through his output—pared-down pieces in evocative forms and tactile mediums—he encourages viewers to think about how objects can shape the ways we interact with our surroundings. Read the full review here.

 

 

 

Three works by Aranda\Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago

June 23, 2022

Volume Gallery is thrilled to announce that three works by Aranda\Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson have been acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago. Horse Hair and Wood 01, 2018, Horse Hair and Wood 02, 2018, and Corrugated Vase, 2018 exemplify the collaborators’ approach to basket construction as a framework for experimentation and expression.

Jonathan Muecke: Objects in Sculpture on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from May 26–Oct 10, 2022

May 25, 2022

Volume Gallery is delighted to share that Jonathan Muecke: Objects in Sculpture will be on view at the Art Institute of Chicago from May 26–Oct 10, 2022.

“Designer Jonathan Muecke (American, born 1983) challenges and redefines relationships between form and functionality, spatial perception and materiality. Objects in Sculpture, the designer’s first solo exhibition at a major museum, presents a selection of his most experimental works from the past decade.

Whether working in steel, textiles, wood, or composites, Muecke maintains a consistent goal: to produce objects that challenge our spatial expectations and habits, prompting us to experience our physical environments—and understand our place within them—anew. His singular design practice explores the limits of an object by eliminating details, distilling it to its essence through precise, spare lines and evocative shapes.

Defying traditional design typologies and expectations of practicality, the resulting objects are curious and enigmatic, but also familiar: a rock with holes; a faceted curvature of carbon fiber felt; a five-sided, open box made of steel; a textile volume with concave surfaces; a continuous, multitiered wooden zig-zag. Interactions with the works hinge on “not knowing what you are looking at,” while also “knowing what you are looking at,” according to Muecke. “You are knowledgeable and ignorant at the same time.”

Art Institute of Chicago, 2022

More about the exhibition here.

ARTnews: Artist Award Roundup: New Prize for Craft Arts

May 20, 2022

The San Francisco–based Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation has established a new Awards in Craft program to recognize “individual craftspeople and artists for their work that honors and expands their roles as stewards of cultural traditions, innovators, and integrators,” according to a release. Administered by United States Artists, the pilot program is meant to address the dearth of funding for crafts art. Each winner will receive a $100,000 unrestricted grant. The inaugural five winners are Antonius-Tín Bui, Christine Lee, Jamie Okuma, Kristina Madsen, and Terrol Dew Johnson. Read the full award roundup here.

Terrol Dew Johnson Recognized with Award in Craft

Volume Gallery is thrilled to share that artist and activist Terrol Dew Johnson is being recognized with an Award in Craft. Dew Johnson is a basket weaver and knowledge-keeper of Tohono O’odham traditions. The Maxwell|Hanrahan Foundation has partnered with United States Artists to establish this major award of unrestricted funds.

“Exploration and insight require time and commitment. The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation Awards in Craft seek to make both possible for devoted craftspeople and artists from around the country who strive to express what we see and experience in our world through engagement with material. The award recognizes practitioners committed to material mastery and exploration with practices encompassing the stewardship of living cultural traditions, unique insight in material study, and the advancement of craft at the intersection of other fields including science. We recognize that arts funding, especially for craftspeople, is lacking in the US, and we encourage others to commit to these fields.

2022 marks the first year for the Awards in Craft, and each year we aim to give five craftspeople $100,000. These are one-time, unrestricted awards intended to amplify the voices and work of each craftsperson and give them time and funding as they grow in their careers and propel their work forward. This year’s award winners were selected by a committee of panelists for their unique and visionary approach to material-based practice, their potential to make significant contributions to their craft in the future, and the potential for this award to provide momentum at a critical juncture in their career.” More about the Award here.

STIR: Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero find joy in playing with the materiality of buildings

May 17, 2022

Chicago-based couple duo, Petra Bachmaier (b. 1974, Munich, Germany) and Sean Gallero (b. 1973, The Bronx, New York), founded their practice Luftwerk in 2007 to create immersive ephemeral installations using interactions of light, colour, sound, video projection, and space design to manipulate, trick, play, and enrich our sensory perception and spatial experience. The artists initiated their collaboration on all sorts of new media-based installations, while still being students, years before forming their professional practice, Luftwerk. The artists’ most representative works include the dual presentation Geometry of Light at the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, and at the German Pavilion in Barcelona, both designed by Mies van der Rohe; Fallingwater: Art in Nature, an animated performance projected over Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater; and Luminous Field at the Millennium Park in the heart of Chicago. In the following conversation over Skype between New York and Chicago, we discussed their idea that light can be sculpted as a material, the difference between light art and lighting design, the artists’ inspirations, and their joy in playing with the materiality of buildings. Read the full interview with the artists here.

Tanya Aguiñiga’s Metabolizing the Border, 2019 has been acquired by Smithsonian American Art Museum and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

May 13, 2022

Tanya Aguiñiga’s Metabolizing the Border, 2019 has been acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. The handcrafted blown glass, leather, and neoprene suit contains border wall remnants and includes glass huaraches. Aguiñiga wore the suit during a performance at the U.S./Mexico border in 2019. The piece will be on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in “This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World” from May 13, 2022 to April 2, 2023.

“This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World” showcases the dynamic landscape of American craft with 171 artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s extensive holdings of modern and contemporary craft, including 135 recently acquired works made by a broadly representative and diverse group of American artists. These objects deepen the history of the studio craft movement while also introducing contemporary artworks that push the boundaries of what is considered to be handmade in the 21st century. The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery as the nation’s premier museum dedicated to American craft. More about the exhibition here.

ARTnews: Ford, Mellon Foundations Name 2022 Winners of Latinx Artist Fellowships, Including Tanya Aguiñiga

Last year, the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation, two of the country’s largest philanthropic funders in the arts, joined forces to establish the Latinx Artist Fellowship, which will support the work of 75 Latinx artists at various stages in their careers over a five-year period.

Now, the foundations have announced the second cohort of artists who will each receive an unrestricted grant to support their careers. Administered by the US Latinx Art Forum, each 15-person cohort is composed of 5 emerging artists, 5 mid-career artists, and 5 established artists.

“As the Latinx Artist Fellowship enters its second year, we at Mellon are energized by the extraordinary sweep of work these fifteen artists envision and create, and the powerful perspectives and stories they bring to the visual arts,” Mellon Foundation president Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement.

Grantees include some of today’s most closely watched artists, like painter Jay Lynn Gomez, the video collective Las Nietas de Nonó, and Tanya Aguiñiga, who won the $250,000 Heinz Award in 2021 and oversaw an initiative known as the BIPOC Exchange at this year’s Frieze Los Angeles. Read the full article here.

NewCity: Perfect Sense: Jonathan Muecke’s Objects in Sculpture Rise Above Furniture and Architectural Design

May 11, 2022

Wonderfully intriguing, Jonathan Muecke’s objects blur the lines between art, design and architecture; what is and what isn’t. Considering scale, form and function only to defy and redefine them, Muecke challenges what normal looks like. “There’s something about them that makes perfect sense and something about them that doesn’t make any sense at all,” he has said about the objects that include an enormous rock with holes, a solid wood block, a carbon tube bench, a dark green textile box and a wooden zigzag shape. In his work, furniture design meets sculpture, natural materials (rock, wood) meet carbon and Kevlar fiber, steel and epoxy resin, and functionality becomes obsolete. But Muecke is right. Somehow it all makes perfect sense. Read the full preview of Jonathan Muecke: Objects in Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago opening May 26 here.

Luftwerk: COLORSCAPES on view at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in Nashville from May 7 – September 4, 2022

May 7, 2022

Volume Gallery is delighted to share that Luftwerk: COLORSCAPES is on view at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens in Nashville, Tennessee May 7 – September 4, 2022.

COLORSCAPES is an immersive, site-specific installation by the Chicago collaborative Luftwerk. Exploring the perception of the physical world through color, the exhibition consists of a series of dynamic outdoor and indoor installations set along a prescribed path, unfolding across Cheekwood’s Bradford Robertson Color Garden, Arboretum Lawn, and Bracken Foundation Children’s Garden before moving up the portico of the Historic Mansion & Museum and into the more intimately scaled special exhibition galleries. More about the exhibition here.

New York Times: At NADA, a Glorious Collision of Paintings and Ceramics

May 6, 2022

Two things can be found everywhere at NADA New York in Lower Manhattan: painting and ceramics. This makes sense, since the younger generation of digital natives (people who grew up with the internet and social media) that NADA generally features tend to favor art that is pointedly nondigital and handcrafted.

Elsewhere, the focus on craft reigns. Jessica Campbell offers carpets that nod to spirits and deities at Western Exhibitions (Booth 3.02). Al Freeman’s simultaneously lovable and ominous soft-sculpture men-without-pants hang at 56 Henry (Booth 4.07); and fronds of bear grass, horsehair and copper are curled into elegant mobile sculptures, made by Aranda/Lasch and Terrol Dew Johnson, at Chicago’s Volume Gallery (Booth 5.02). Read the full fair review here.

Artsy: The 10 Best Booths at EXPO Chicago 2022

April 12, 2022

The two-person display by Volume, a local Chicago space, is far from loud. The words meditative, contemplative, and serene all come to mind when standing amid Jonathan Muecke’s sculptures and Christy Matson’s acrylic-colored, woven geometric textiles.

While Muecke is best known for furniture and architectural design, his works on view here are aesthetic pieces above all else. They float on the edge of contradiction, with heavy materials made to feel light and more frail ones made to feel solid. These tensions never reach too far, though, and his works seem fully comfortable with themselves. The same can be said of Matson’s wall-hung pieces, which are as rooted in modern and contemporary art history—elements of minimalism, color theory—as they are in the lineage of craftwork that undergirds weaving. In her pieces, we see new and old balanced in a reflective harmony. Read Artsy’s picks for the 10 best booths at EXPO Chicago here.

Ocula: EXPO CHICAGO 2022: Exhibitions to See

Françoise Grossen
Volume Gallery, 1709 West Chicago Avenue Second Floor
5 March–23 April 2022
Known for suspended knotted-rope works made with braiding and plaiting techniques learnt in West Africa, Françoise Grossen has been looking for alternatives to fine materials and traditional textiles since the 1960s. See Ocula’s picks for the exhibitions to see during EXPO CHICAGO here.

The Design Edit reviews Anders Herwald Ruhwald This is the Living Vessel: Body at Morán Morán

April 5, 2022

“I don’t subscribe to the idea that there is a special and separate world in which sculpture exists. To me, it’s an extension of everything else that humans produce.”

BY WORKING WITH his preferred medium, ceramics, polymath Anders Herwald Ruhwald can engage with the skills he’s honed since the age of 15. Clay provides Ruhwald with the profound satisfaction of direct creation – seeing something useful or expressive be made from start to finish with one’s own hands. Working with this natural substance serves as a kind of literal and metaphoric grounding, a return to the earth, especially in an age dominated by digital detachment and virtual distraction. “My body intrinsically knows the clay’s properties,” the Chicago-based, Danish-born artist explains. “The material seems to offer endless possibilities that I can’t always predict.” Read the full review here.

TL Mag: Anders Herwald Ruhwald on what drew him to the work of Swedish modernist ceramicist, Carl-Harry Stålhane, and how his current exhibition, “Ruhwald vs. Stålhane”, explores this relationship through clay and glazing.

March 18, 2022

The exhibition, curated by Love Jönsson, is on view at the Rian Design Museum through April 24th.

“To me, ceramics is a language. It is a way of bringing meaning into the world through form and material. It is a methodology.

I have been making ceramics for more than 30 years. I began when I was 15, and since then, the opportunities presented by clay, glaze and firings have been an important aspect of my life. It is my primary language, as an artist and as a person.

Ceramics has taken me to other countries, built a global circle of friends and given me an anchor in life that is not attached to a place but to a material. I feel that I know people through the ceramics they create.

When I first saw one of Carl-Harry Stålhane’s vases from the 1950s in the collection of the Cranbrook Art Museum in the United States, I experienced a deep sense of kinship. I was drawn to it and wanted to understand it better. It made sense. It felt right and well-considered. And the glaze was infinitely beautiful.”

Read the entire piece here.

Anders Ruhwald’s solo exhibition This is the Living Vessel: Body at Morán Morán in Mexico City

March 9, 2022

Morán Morán is pleased to present Anders Herwald Ruhwald’s first solo exhibition in Mexico City and his second with the gallery, titled This is the Living Vessel: Body. Ruhwald’s work is primarily based in ceramics, a medium he engages as both a methodology and a historical framework to process his ideas. His works traverse sculpture and utility indiscriminately, often in a contradictory and paradoxical way. The title of the show is a quote taken from The Black Mountain School poet and potter M.C. Richards’ countercultural classic, Centering, from 1964. In this book, Richards explores the poetry of humanity through the metaphor of centering – a core aspect of making pottery. Likewise, Ruhwald sees the act of making as a way of being, a way to make sense of the world. More about the exhibition here.

Tanya Aguiñiga in LatinXAmerican at the Lubeznik Center for the Arts

America’s Wall by Tanya Aguiñiga is featured in the traveling group exhibition, LatinXAmerican. LatinXAmerican is an intergenerational group exhibition on loan from the DePaul Art Museum (DPAM) Chicago that features Latinx artists from Chicago and beyond. This exhibition reflects a multi-year initiative to increase the visibility of Latinx artists and voices in museums, working towards equity and lasting transformation. More about the exhibition here.

Currents 38: Christy Matson on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum February 25–July 17, 2022

February 23, 2022

Volume Gallery is delighted to share that Christy Matson’s solo exhibition, Currents 38: Christy Matson, will be on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum from February 25 to July 17, 2022.

Currents 38: Christy Matson presents woven works of art that pair new technologies with centuries-old craft knowledge to create distinctive, painterly compositions. On view in the Museum’s Bradley Family Gallery, the exhibition features more than 40 woven objects by the Los Angeles-based artist who has helped reshape the traditional medium of weaving into a contemporary art form.

Though Matson (b. 1979) works with textiles, the artist views herself as a painter. Using a digital jacquard loom and her knowledge of historic weaving techniques, Matson creates woven pictures that are rooted in minimalism, abstraction, and decoration and are intended to hang on the wall. She also utilizes these weaving structures and techniques to explore memory; the gendered history of textile production, long considered a feminized form of labor; and issues around sustainability. Her work honors the traditional medium while reflecting the strong, recent embrace of fiber by contemporary artists. More about the exhibition here.

Design Miami’s The Buzz: Françoise Grossen at Volume Gallery

February 22, 2022

On March 5th, Chicago’s Volume Gallery will open a solo show dedicated to pioneering Swiss-American textile artist Françoise Grossen. Since the 1960s, Grossen has been experimenting with textile techniques and industrial materials to create large-scale installations. Her work can be found in international collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Museum of Arts and Design, Museum Bellerive, Renwick Gallery Smithsonian Institution, and the State Hermitage Museum, among many others. This don’t-miss show runs through April 23rd. View Design Miami’s roundup of design world news here.

ARTnews: At Frieze L.A., BIPOC Exchange is Making Space for Social Justice

After a year-long hiatus, Frieze Los Angeles opened on Thursday, offering the usual mix of international galleries and local spaces alongside less expected programming, such as a dedicated space for social justice. As part of a collaboration with artist Tanya Aguiñiga, ten BIPOC-led art and advocacy organizations from across the city gathered at the fair for a BIPOC Exchange, a program of performance, installation, and education that will span the run of the fair, which closes on Sunday. “Visitors will be expecting a certain kind of art, and instead find us,” Aguiñiga said in an interview.

When Aguiñiga spoke with ARTnews, she was en route to the Wilshire Garden inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the BIPOC Exchange is located. The space comprises booths and an area for performances designated by a stage of flowers—which the artists believes make the space more accessible than a raised platform, she said. Trees transplanted from a nearby nursery are scattered throughout. The flowers she picked up from florists herself, temporarily transforming her car into a movable meadow. Read the full interview here.

The Art Newspaper: At Frieze Los Angeles’s BIPOC Exchange, buy art and give back to local communities

The Los Angeles artist and activist Tanya Aguiñiga has brought together several artist-led projects across different disciplines for a special section at the fair.

Ahead of Frieze this year, the director Christine Messineo approached Tanya Aguiñiga, the Los Angeles artist and activist, about creating a project to coincide with the fair. “I had the idea to search for different Bipoc, artist-led projects across different disciplines,” Aguiñiga says. “I wanted to organise something that was really expansive in the way that we think about art, and the ways that art can address the most pressing issues in our city.”

With the support of Santa Barbara’s Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Aguiñiga created the BIPOC Exchange, a community-centric space in a garden adjacent to Frieze’s venue, the Beverly Hilton Hotel. There, for the duration of the fair, ten organisations are raising money for, and awareness of, various artistic pursuits throughout Los Angeles. For each, art might provide a means of financial support: the People’s Pottery Project, for example, puts the proceeds from selling ceramics toward job training and placements for formerly incarcerated women, trans and non-binary people. Read the full article here.

ARTnews: The 8 Best Booths at Felix LA 2022

February 18, 2022

The Felix LA Art Fair returned to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel this week for its third full-scale edition, after a slimmed-down one last summer that featured mostly hometown galleries. An international selection of 60 galleries was split between ground-floor cabana suites surrounding a David Hockney–painted pool, and hotel rooms on the 11th and 12th floors, harkening back to an earlier generation of hotel fairs before the rise of the current global art fair circuit.

L.A.-based artist Tanya Aguiñiga grew up in Tijuana and San Diego, and much of her practice—in particular her ongoing project AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), which seeks to address issues related to communities along the U.S.-Mexico border—relates to the duality of border life. Her textile sculptures and wall works have their basis in traditional Mexican weaving but are also in dialogue with fiber artists like Sheila Hicks. They also incorporate the border, sometimes quite literally, as with Corazón Fronterizo (Border Heart), 2021, which includes a real fragment of the fence dividing the U.S. and Mexico woven into the piece’s rope and terracotta lattice. Read the article here.

Frieze: Tanya Aguiñiga in the Studio with Christina Catherine Martinez

A highlight for Frieze Los Angeles 2022 is a collaboration with Tanya Aguiñiga to present BIPOC Exchange.

This communal space, located within The Beverly Hilton Hotel, inside the Wilshire Garden, will present 10 Los Angeles-based, artist-led social impact projects including People’s Pottery Project, Tierra Del Sol, AMBOS, Las Fotos Project, Classroom of Compassion, Tequio Youth/MICOP, Contra Tiempo, GYOPO, Los Angeles Poverty Department, and Urban Voices Project.

Watch the artists talk about community empowerment ahead of Aguiñiga’s BIPOC Exchange project at Frieze Los Angeles 2022 here.

KCET: Tanya Aguiñiga’s BIPOC Exchange Highlights the Role of Artists in Social Change

After a two-year hiatus, Frieze Los Angeles is back. Tickets are already sold out, but even if the admission prices are beyond your price range, the art fair has opened another avenue to enjoy a taste of L.A.’s cultural riches: the BIPOC Exchange.

Set up in a garden area inside the Beverly Hilton hotel, the BIPOC Exchange features 10 organizations handpicked by artist Tanya Aguiñiga. Her artistic practice empowering communities especially at the border made her a natural choice for the daunting task of winnowing down L.A.’s multitude of artist-led projects serving our society. Visitors can expect performances, workshops, but also items available for purchase. Profits will go towards the advocacies of the organizations.

KCET asked Aguiñiga about how she made her selection and her views on the role of art in communities. Read the full interview here.

Christy Matson in American Scholar

February 10, 2022

“There are certain techniques that take an entire lifetime to learn,” says Christy Matson, who for the past two decades has been working as a fiber artist. Matson’s practice blends thousand-year-old weaving traditions with 21st-century innovation. She designs her textiles through Photoshop, then weaves them by hand on a Jacquard loom that tracks her progress on a computer. The works, she says, exist between an “analog, physical version of life and this sort of hybrid space of being online.” Read the full portrait of the artist here.

Design Miami’s The Edge: 3 objects that define design right now featuring Sam Stewart’s Lamellae Lamp

February 2, 2022

The dawn of a new year feels like the perfect opportunity to scan the design landscape for standout forms, materials, and approaches. In our new series The Edge, Design Miami/Editors spotlight contemporary objects that define our current moment.

New York designer Sam Stewart similarly specializes in creating witty and well considered objects that lend tons of personality to their surroundings. His new, uncharacteristically demure Lamellae Lamp is an understated beauty and quite the conversation piece. Produced in collaboration with expert New York tailor Victoria Yee Howe, it’s composed of intricately hand-pleated, hand-stitched raw muslin—nearly 18 yard per lamp—layered over a hidden steel structure. So simple, so elegant. The warming glow emanating from its exquisite folds has a welcoming, comforting effect. View The Edge’s selections here.

Design Miami’s The Buzz features Private Quarters III

January 11, 2022

Now Showing: Chicago’s Volume Gallery presents Private Quarters III, the latest in a series of group exhibitions spotlighting the gallery’s creative roster. This iteration features reflections on domestic space, presenting work by Ross Hansen, Jennefer Hoffmann, Christy Matson, Jonathan Muecke, and Thaddeus Wolfe. Highlights include, among others: Hoffmann’s new pillar-shaped ceramics, referencing both the rolling hills and steeples of North Carolina, as well as the wasps and bees in her studio; and striking dark glass work by Wolfe. The latter, cast in a crystalline pattern and topped with windows that reveal chromatic insides, call to mind both otherworldly geological formations and, for us, the relationship between one’s interior and exterior worlds. On view through February 22nd. View Design Miami’s roundup of design world news here.

Newcity Design reviews Sung Jang: Given

December 16, 2021

Found stones and lattice-form sculptures blur the lines between humanity and nature as well as between art and design in Sung Jang’s latest exhibition at Volume Gallery. Deriving from year-long research that brings natural materials into the gallery space, the Chicago-based designer and artist bridges the two disciplines by constructing forms that exist both as sculptures and as functional objects—all at once. “Given,” Jang’s new series of designed objects does exactly that. Read the full review here.

NPR: Tanya Aguiñiga wins award for highlighting life on the border

December 7, 2021

After immigration became a major issue in the 2016 campaign, artist Tanya Aguiñiga started walking among the cars and pedestrians lined up at the U.S.-Mexico border and handing out postcards with the question “What are your thoughts when you cross this border?” in both English and Spanish. Attached to the cards were two strands of fabric to be tied together. The result was Border Quipu – named after the Inca device for organizing information using knotted threads. The artwork, a cascade of thousands of recycled bikini and dress straps of different colors and prints, was one of the works cited by the judges of this year’s Heinz Award in selecting her for the $250,000 cash prize. More about Aguiñiga’s recent work and the Heinz Award here.

 

 

ARTnews: Artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Sanford Biggers Win $250,000 Heinz Awards

November 19, 2021

The Heinz Family Foundation has given out its two annual arts awards this year to Tanya Aguiñiga and Sanford Biggers. They will each receive an unrestricted cash prize.

Aguiñiga, who is based in Los Angeles, is best known for an interdisciplinary practice that blends craft, sculpture, and performance to think about issues related to migration—particularly as it relates to the U.S.-Mexico border at San Diego, where the artist was born—and Tijuana, where the artist grew up. Her 2020 piece Metabolizing the Border consisted of a bodysuit that incorporated pieces of the border wall that she then wore while walking along the wall into the Pacific Ocean. She is currently at work making car-crossing survival kits to help people endure the long waits in the heat that typically accompany attempts to legally cross the border. Read the full article here.

Tanya Aguiñiga named Heinz Award Recipient

November 18, 2021

The Heinz Family Foundation today named visual artist Tanya A. Aguiñiga as a recipient of the prestigious 26th Heinz Awards for the Arts, which annually recognize a small handful of outstanding individuals with a $250,000 unrestricted cash award.

Tanya Aguiñiga’s visual artworks blend contemporary craft, sculpture and performance to address issues of migration, gender and identity. Born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, she draws on her life experience as a binational citizen, who as a child crossed the border daily from Tijuana to San Diego to attend school. Ms. Aguiñiga’s work speaks of the artist’s experience of her divided identity and aspires to tell the larger and often invisible stories of the transnational community.

Often incorporating cotton, wool and other textiles, Ms. Aguiñiga blends traditional Indigenous weaving practices and materials and contemporary design into elaborate and colorful works that hang on walls, form immersive performance installations, incorporate film and more. In 2016, Ms. Aguiñiga created AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), an ongoing series of projects that provides a platform for binational artists. Noted works include AMBOS: Border Quipu/Quipu Fronterizo, which captures reflections gathered from interviews with thousands of individuals crossing the border between the United States and Mexico. Travelers were also asked to tie a knot between pieces of fabric—the knotted fabrics reminiscent of quipu, an Incan method for recording information that included variously colored threads knotted in different ways—as a documentation of their crossing, together creating a large, colorful cascading installation. More about Aguiñiga and the Heinz Award here.

Sight Unseen reviews Jonathan Muecke

November 4, 2021

Jonathan Muecke’s New Works Are a Familiar Enigma

Jonathan Muecke doesn’t seem particularly interested in siting his work on the spectrum between design, art, and architecture, so we won’t do it for him either. But the interesting thing about his new works for Volume Gallery is that they’re described in the exhibition materials as “unknowable” but also “open to ongoing interpretation” — which, in some paradoxical way, makes them more knowable? Read the full review here.

Artnet: ‘Not a Lot of Art Seems Accessible to Working-Class People’: Watch Artist Tanya Aguiñiga Explain How Craft Traditions Root Her Work in Community

October 29, 2021

As part of a collaboration with Art21, hear news-making artists describe their inspirations in their own words.

Tanya Aguiñiga was born and raised in Tijuana, and traveled everyday to San Diego to attend school. Growing up straddling the border and its disparate cultures, the artist was constantly in flux, a binational citizen who literally migrated between two worlds on a daily basis. Becoming an artist wasn’t something that felt attainable, she says in an exclusive video filmed as part of Art21’s Extended Play series. “There’s not a lot of art that seems accessible to working-class people,” Aguiñiga says. “Why does it have to be such a narrow view of what humanity actually is, and what humanity is actually experiencing?” Read the full article here.

Newcity Design reviews Jonathan Muecke

October 22, 2021

Extraordinary Ordinary Objects: A Review of Jonathan Muecke at Volume Gallery

An enormous rock with holes, a solid wood block, a carbon tube bench, a textile box, a flat shape. Jonathan Muecke’s objects sound common or familiar, but don’t let that fool you—they are all quite extraordinary. Forcing the viewer to think outside of the box is Muecke’s biggest triumph. His elegant array of new objects, on view at Volume Gallery, makes for an interesting series where nothing is as it seems. Form, scale and material come together in unexpected combinations that remain open to interpretation. Furniture design meets sculpture, traditional meets hi-tech, and functionality meets the absurd. Read the full review here.

The Design Edit reviews Jonathan Muecke

October 15, 2021

An intellectual venture into function and form, yielding forms that are surprisingly tactile and visceral.

A GRADUATE OF the famed Cranbrook Academy of Art, Minnesota-based polymath Jonathan Muecke has dedicated his illustrious career to bending the boundaries of art, architecture and design. Like many of his contemporaries, Muecke’s cumulative oeuvre occupies an experimental and conceptual realm that questions the parameters of function and form. In his quest, the trained architect challenges cultural and social norms – while also skewing proportion and subverting historical symbols. His – what are ostensibly, sculptures – borrow references from furniture, material culture, everyday objects and architectonic elements. Ultimately, his refined forms exist to define negative and positive space and don’t claim any specific purposes. These liminal objects remain pure as instigations and studies. Represented by Chicago-based Volume Gallery and Brussels-based Maniera, he aligns with both platforms’ distinctive architectural programmes, that is architect-led furniture and object design. This focus often results in a more intellectual approach, one that employs the design medium to make larger statements about culture and society. It allows these practitioners the space and time to test out ideas they might not have within the constructed environment. Muecke takes full advantage of this approach and format. Read the full review here.

AN Interior In Convo: Claire Warner

October 14, 2021

Volume Gallery in Chicago wants nothing more than to cultivate new American design talent

It’s been more than a decade since Volume Gallery arrived on the collectible design scene, and in that time, the small Chicago-based platform has consistently punched above its weight. Chalk it up to pluck and sheer good taste: Volume has cultivated a roster of smart, experimental, critique-oriented talents that distinguishes it from the rest of the pack. Sam Stewart, Thaddeus Wolf, and Anders Herwald Ruhwald were all given a big push by the gallery. And it’s not just designers. Unique for collectible design, Volume invests in architects foraying into the realm of object making, working closely with practices including Norman Kelly and Young & Ayata. This mandate harks back to the discipline’s origins—in addition to buildings, architects once masterminded furniture and interiors—and aligns well with Chicago’s own design tradition. Volume’s reach isn’t limited to the Windy City, however, and the gallery routinely engages emerging practitioners from all over the United States. In many respects, it is more akin, according to cofounder Claire Warner, to an “incubator” for formal risk-taking, as can be seen in its most recent spate of exhibitions. Warner and cofounder Sam Vinz commissioned new collections from Christy Matson, Ania Jaworska, and most recently Jonathan Muecke, encouraging each to hone his or her ideas in order to spark critical discourse. AN Interior market editor Adrian Madlener spoke to Warner about the gallery’s mission and why making a functional chair is beside the point. Read the full interview here.

 

Interior Design on CannonDesign’s Cboe Global Markets in Chicago featuring a new installation by Luftwerk

September 29, 2021

Like their fellow practitioners around the world, floor traders at the Chicago Board Options Exchange have long communicated vital information via shouts and hand signals, the color and detailing on their jackets identifying their role, employer, and other crucial information. Behind the often raucous scene, however, predictive mathe­matical formulas—algorithms—play an increasingly important role in electronic trading. That paradigm shift prompted Cboe Global Markets, owners of the options exchange, the largest in the U.S., to replace its longtime home in Chicago’s financial district with a state-of-the-art headquarters. The company tapped CannonDesign to identify a suitable site for the new digs and design them. “Cboe sought a transformational environment,” begins design principal Mark Hirons, who led the com­mission with Meg Osman, Cannon project principal, “one that reflects its strength, global leadership, and pioneering innovation within the marketplace.” A hallway’s stainless steel wall installation by Luftwerk was inspired by wind patterns on nearby Lake Michigan. Read the full article here.

Design Miami’s The Buzz features Jonathan Muecke’s exhibition

September 28, 2021

Chicago’s Volume Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition of new work by Saint Paul-based designer Jonathan Muecke. Known for elegant forms that are hyper-specific in scale and material, Muecke has expanded his visual vocabulary with this show, creating shapes without clear precedent but instantly intriguing. The show is on view through October 30th. View Design Miami’s roundup of design world news here.

Christy Matson’s Magical Thinking recently acquired by the Milwaukee Art Museum

September 21, 2021

The Milwaukee Art Museum has recently acquired Magical Thinking, 2020 by Christy Matson. Christy Matson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Recent exhibitions include the Cranbrook Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Arts Houston, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Knoxville Museum of Art, the Asheville Museum of Art, and The San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Matson’s work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Art Institute of Chicago and Smithsonian Museum of American Art’s Renwick Gallery as well as numerous corporate and private collections. Matson received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2005 and her BFA from the University of Washington in 2001. In 2012 Matson was tenured and appointed Associate Professor of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Ania Jaworska and Norman Kelley receive Graham Foundation Awards for 17th International Venice Architecture Biennale Project

August 26, 2021

Ania Jaworska and Norman Kelley awarded grants by the Graham Foundation for furniture explorations as part of American Framing: US Pavilion, 17th International Venice Architecture Biennale, by Paul Andersen, AIA, and Paul Preissner, AIA
Grantee: University of Illinois at Chicago—College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts, Chicago
Graham Foundation project description: Wood framing has always been wood framing, and no amount of money can buy you a better 2×4. This fundamental sameness paradoxically underlies the American culture of individuality, unifying all superficial differences. The exhibition presents the subject of wood framing in a collection of works throughout the galleries and grounds of the United States Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. A four-story installation forms a new façade for the historic pavilion; photographic work from Daniel Shea and Chris Strong address the labor and design of softwood construction; scale models by students at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture study the history, common forms, and potential of wood framed construction; and furniture explorations by Ania Jaworska and Norman Kelley encourage connection to the work. More on the 2021 grantees here.

Meet the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial Contributors: Ania Jaworska

July 14, 2021

Newcity gets to know the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial contributors. This segment highlights Ania Jaworska, a Chicago-based architect, designer and educator whose practice explores the connection between art and architecture through bold simple forms, humor and commentary that references conceptual, historical and cultural narratives. She discusses her work reimagining the historic MLK District Garden in the North Lawndale community of Chicago, and the importance of addressing vacant lots and engaging with the communities at-large. Read the full interview here.

Celebrating the Very American Style of Building With Wood The United States Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale pays tribute to wood framing — simple, cheap and revolutionary in its own way.

May 20, 2021

Furniture explorations by Ania Jaworska and Norman Kelley featured in “American Framing” at The United States Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennal covered by The New York Times.

“Since the Venice Architecture Biennale had its inaugural presentation in 1980, technology — particularly computer-assisted design — has transformed the field. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that the event’s latest edition, on view from May 22 to Nov. 21, looks forward to more cutting-edge developments in ‘Future Assembly,’ a special exhibition billed as a look at a world that ‘both includes and exceeds humanity.’ The United States Pavilion, however, takes the opposite approach, looking backward to the rise of a simple, cheap and very analog building tradition. ‘American Framing,’ the pavilion’s show, which was commissioned by the University of Illinois Chicago, focuses on the softwood construction that became typically American in the 19th century. The exhibition emphasizes the democratic, anonymous qualities of the process, whose impact is still felt today: In 2019, 90 percent of homes completed in the United States were wood-framed.

Mr. Preissner and Mr. Andersen also commissioned new furniture pieces constructed in a similar way. Four wooden benches in the show were designed by the Chicago architect Ania Jaworska in collaboration with the students. The firm Norman Kelley created three pieces of seating, all loosely inspired by classic forms like Shaker furniture and Windsor chairs, from common lumber. Two of each design — a rocker, a bench and a chair — will be in the show, and time-lapse videos will show how they were formed from basic wood planks. ‘We have a deep sympathy for history,’ said Carrie Norman, who founded the firm with Thomas Kelley. ‘We’ve always been drawn to a slower and more analog process.'” Read the full article here.

Five works by Anders Ruhwald acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago

April 30, 2021

With the generous support of the New Carlsberg Foundation, the acquisition includes works from the last six years of Ruhwald’s output. The variety of pieces now in the Art Institute are an incredible cross-section that represent Ruhwald’s dedication to color, form, surface, and scale. “Anders Ruhwald works at the intersection of sculpture, design, and craft but always with ceramic as his chosen medium. The Art Institute now adds five pieces to its collection. The five pieces come from three different projects created in recent years. Together, they illustrate different aspects of Ruhwald’s multifaceted ceramic practice. The pieces span from site-specific narrative explorations inspired by urban conditions in the United States to studies of Danish glaze traditions.” – New Carlsberg Foundation
Acquired works:
La Dolce Vita (Adaptable Body – Yellow Purple on used Aalto stool), 2018
Glasur Stykke #41, 2018
Glasur Stykke #42, 2018
Glasur Stykee #29, 2017
Marker #1, 2015

Chicago Architecture Biennial 2021 on community and urban space

April 29, 2021

Ania Jaworska has been announced as a contributor in the 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial. The 2021 Chicago Architecture Biennial has announced its list of contributors – and it’s a rich, diverse and exciting one, tapping into critical ideas, such as urban and social sustainability, vacant spaces, diversity and community. The Chicago Architecture Biennial is gearing up for its fourth edition, and the organizers have just announced the contributors taking part this year, responding to the festival’s overall theme, ‘The Available City’. The list, rich and diverse, is exciting, tapping into innovators pomoting important ideas, such as urban space, social sustainability, diversity and community, instigating deep architectural debate. The festival’s artistic director David Brown has paired these creatives with local community groups in Chicago, and together the teams will explore ‘forms of shared, collective space and inspire new and imaginative uses of vacant spaces in the city’. As a result, events and exhibits will pop up across town, including neighbourhoods such as North Lawndale, Woodlawn, Bronzeville, Pilsen, South Loop, the Loop, and Edgewater. More on the Biennial here.

Luftwerk Open Square at The Mattress Factory

March 12, 2021

Luftwerk’s interest in the relationship between color and light is the driving force behind the creation of Open Square. The installation takes the shape of a square – universal in its simplicity; a pure expression of a spatial idea, complete in itself; a shape that can be turned into triangles or rectangles – as the building block for its layout. Consisting of two interconnected square spaces, each painted in contrasting color patterns and illuminated with color changing light, shift the viewers spatial recognition, giving the illusion of revealing and dissolving spaces. Developed throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2020, the exhibition reflects on the habitat that defines our everyday experience. The duality of light and dark, cold and warm, the cyclical flow of the installation is a contemplation of the physical experiences of interior space and how our perception can shift through color, light and sound. Open Square is Factory installed as part of the Mattress Factory Residency Program 2021. More on this exhibition here.

Tanya Aguiñiga in LatinXAmerican at the DePaul Art Museum

January 7, 2021

LatinXAmerican is an intergenerational group exhibition featuring nearly 40 Latinx artists from Chicago and beyond. The exhibition assesses the presence and absence of Latinx artists in DePaul Art Museum’s collection, and reflects efforts to build in this area as part of a multi-year initiative to increase the visibility of Latinx artists and voices in museums, working towards equity and lasting transformation. Occupying all of the museum’s galleries, LatinXAmerican includes photographs, paintings, works on paper, sculptures, textiles, videos, and installations primarily drawn from DPAM’s collection, including several recent acquisitions, as well as new works from artists living throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Included in the exhibition, America’s Wall (El muro de America) was inspired by the persistent questioning that received during her travels between the US and Mexico regarding the existence of a wall on the countries’ borders. Aguiñiga grew up on both sides of the San Diego/Tijuana border, crossing between Mexico and the United States daily for 14 years. Aguiñiga’s work documents and extracts evidence of the wall’s existence—there are three consecutive walls in the part of Mexico where Aguiñiga grew up —all in front of Trump’s proposed wall prototypes. The particular section of the border fence found in this work is made up of corrugated jet-landing mats recycled from Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War. This wall segment was erected during Operation Gatekeeper in 1994, a strategic reinforcement tactic on the US/Mexico Border, which was responsible for more migrant deaths in its first year than in the entirety of the previous 75 years of Border Patrol history. Aguiñiga and her team from the bi-national project AMBOS (“both” in Spanish, or an acronym for “art made between opposite sides” in English) took rust impressions on cotton from these walls, as evidence of their existence. More on this exhibition here.

Ross Hansen/Super Natural

October 27, 2020

 

Luftwerk Total Space at Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, Switzerland

October 23, 2020

Total Space describes a designed total space experience. The classic distinction between subject and object, between inside and outside, is dissolved. Total Space is also a call for serenity in interesting times. Luftwerk’s Total Space: Landscape is a Composition draws inspiration from the theories of the Italian Renaissance painter and polymath Leon Battista Alberti and applies Alberti’s observations on color and perspective to create an ever-changing, immersive space. Two pigments used in painting that bear the geographical names Naples Yellow and Prussian blue were applied to the high walls of the space in precise geometric patterns. And then the room was flooded with light. With these three components alone, Luftwerk creates a vibrant spatial landscape. Light, color, and form fuse to form a whole that, once illuminated, can be contracted or expanded, going through continuous transformations. Combining the two colors with light generates a harmonious and almost meditative effect that alternately defines or blurs our perception of space. Landscape is a Composition is part of Total Spaces designed by Soft Baroque, Trix & Robert Haussmann, Kueng & Caputo, Suck & Bratwurst. More on this exhibition here.

Christy Matson solo exhibition Never Done at Rebecca Camacho Presents

September 10, 2020

Christy Matson: Never Done
Rebecca Camacho Presents, San Francisco, CA
September 10th – October 23rd, 2020
“Rebecca Camacho Presents is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles based textile artist Christy Matson. Matson employs a hand-operated, computer-programmable Jacquard loom to create intricate weavings to which she applies unconventional fiber techniques such as paint and layered composition. Through the duality of the machine and the hand, Matson reflects on the history of weaving in conjunction with art historical approaches such as geometric abstraction and collage.” Click here for more information.

Tanya Aguiñiga featured on Art21

September 1, 2020

We are thrilled to announce that Tanya Aguiñiga will be featured in an upcoming episode of the highly acclaimed series Art21. Premiering October 2nd at 10PM (check local listing) on PBS. The episode Borderlands will Aguiñiga and will be available for streaming as well. “The landmark tenth season of the Peabody Award-winning Art in the Twenty-First Century television series – the longest-running television series on contemporary art – features twelve artists and one collective are presented across three episodes, charting artmaking in London, Beijing, and regions around the United States-Mexico border.” More on the episode here.

Christy Matson’s Rose Knot Variation recently acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago

July 1, 2020

Rose Knot Variation joins Matson’s I’ve Been Near You, but You’ve Never Noticed Me 2016, which is currently in the Art Institute’s collection. Christy Matson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Recent exhibitions include the Cranbrook Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Arts Houston, The Milwaukee Art Museum, The Knoxville Museum of Art, the Asheville Museum of Art, and The San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design. Matson’s work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Art Institute of Chicago and Smithsonian Museum of American Art’s Renwick Gallery as well as numerous corporate and private collections. Matson received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2005 and her BFA from the University of Washington in 2001. In 2012 Matson was tenured and appointed Associate Professor of Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jennefer Hoffman in A Space Problem at the Elmhurst Art Museum

June 30, 2020

A Space Problem:
Organized by David Salkin
Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL
June 30th – November 15th, 2020
“One half of the historic McCormick House features mid-century furnishings along with works by local artists and architects. Designer David Salkin organized the exhibit as a home with a range of paintings, patterned rugs, ceramics, photo collages, and design objects. Featured artists include: Marshall Brown, Jennefer Hoffmann, Sterling Lawrence, David Salkin, and Geoffrey Todd Smith. This combination of new and vintage works is organized in conjunction with a full wing dedicated to models, historical photographs, and stories about the McCormick House’s uniqueness as a prefab prototype by the famed modernist Mies van der Rohe.” More on the exhibition here.

 

Ania Jaworska’s Unit 6 (Armchair) recently acquired by SFMOMA

June 26, 2020

Ania is an architect and educator. She currently is a visiting assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Architecture. She holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Cracow University of Technology in Poland as well as the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. Her practice focuses on exploring the connection between art and architecture, and her work explores bold simple forms, humor, and commentary as well as conceptual, historical, and cultural references. Jaworska’s work was exhibited in numerous exhibitions, notably, at the 13th Venice Biennale, Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago Architecture Foundation, and Storefront for Art and Architecture. She has had a solo exhibition titled BMO Harris Bank Chicago Works: Ania Jaworska at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and SET at Volume Gallery in Chicago. She designed a bookstore for the Graham Foundation and was a 2017 MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program Finalist.

Anders Herwald Ruhwald: Century Garden at Newfields in Indianapolis

June 25, 2020

The Garden at Newfields will turn tropical this summer with Century Garden, an installation of five colorful vignettes by ceramic artist Anders Herwald Ruhwald. 2020 marks the 100-year anniversary of the gardens surrounding Lilly House, which were designed by Percival Gallagher of the famed Olmsted Brothers firm. Ruhwald’s installation will investigate this history by interrupting the European-style design of the historic landscape with ceramic sculptures and striking tropical and native plant arrangments. For more on Ruhwald’s installation, click here.

Phillips House Calls: Christy Matson

March 20, 2020

In the first installment of our new Design series, we speak with Los Angeles-based textile artist Christy Matson and learn more about her practice.

Integral to textile artist Christy Matson’s work is her process: beginning with quick sketches or watercolor paintings, she uploads her designs to a photo-imaging application that is then programmed into her Jacquard loom. The loom is computer-programmed yet manually-operated, giving her control over the warp and weft as if she were painting with fibers. Her work often draws on the history of Modernism as well as on textiles from all over the world. Because of both her rigorous process and her inventive manipulation of materials, her work has received critical acclaim and belongs to the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art as well as the Art Institute of Chicago. Among the exhibitions in progress opening this fall, Matson will have a solo exhibition of her work at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Fresh from her recent exhibition Christy Matson: Crossings at the Cranbrook Art Museum, which closed March 15, 2020, Matson walked us through her Los Angeles studio and answered a few questions about her practice. Read the full interview here.

Christy Matson: Crossings at the Cranbrook Art Museum

December 14, 2019

Christy Matson: Crossings
Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
December 14th, 2019 – March 15th, 2020
Christy Matson: Crossings features 16 weavings configured into 2 monumentally scaled tapestries that were originally conceived for a special commission for the US Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Matson was struck by the affinities between the country’s textile traditions and the approach to color and composition in the functional textiles of the region more generally and her own work, including the use of both muted natural and saturated synthetic dyes and the collaging of different fabrics in the signature patchworked garments of the region. Additionally, Matson will present a selection of smaller recent works that continue her reflections on historic weave structures in conjunction with her unique approach to pastiche and collage. More on the exhibition here.

Jonathan Muecke’s Stabilizer (STAB), 2013 recently acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago

December 11, 2019

Jonathan Muecke’s Stabilizer (STAB), 2013 was recently acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago. Stabilizer (STAB) joins Muecke’s CS (Coiled Stool), which is currently in the Art Institute’s collection. “Stabilizer (STAB) comes out of Muecke’s concept of “Open Objects”, which often conform to traditional design typologies of chair, table, stool—yet in their precise and spare lines, are meant to indicate a “potential to be other things” in relation to the environment and surrounding objects. The titles of his works often allude to this indeterminacy by using just singular concepts such as: Stabilizer (STAB), Horizontal Shape (HS), or Low Soft Lounge (LSL).” – Zoe Ryan, Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design, the Art Institute of Chicago. More on Muecke’s work in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection here.

As Walls Go Up at Unprecedented Rates, Artists Use Them as Subversive Canvases

November 22, 2019

Hyperallergic on Tanya Aguiñiga’s work in W|alls: Defend, Divide, and the Divine at The Annenberg Space for Photography: “But more than external manifestations of a land divided, border walls often become internalized by those who come into daily contact with them. Born in Tijuana and educated in San Diego, Tanya Aguiñiga has long explored this existential rift through her ongoing, multifaceted AMBOS project, several works of which are represented in Walls. Her performance piece Grapple (2018) viscerally illustrates this fissure. Wearing a white linen shirt, Aguiñiga wrapped her body around the rusting iron pillars of the US–Mexico border wall at the ocean’s edge for the course of a tide cycle. The resultant video along with her shirt, bisected by an iron-oxide stain, speak to this personal cleft that is both a painful incision as well as a potential space for growth and renewal.” Read more about the exhibition here.

Site-Specific Installations Accentuate the Geometric Architecture of Mies Van Der Rohe

November 14, 2019

Geometries of Light by Luftwerk in collaboration with Iker Gil & Oriol Tarragó donned the 2nd part of its trans-national installation at the Farnsworth House in Chicago in October 2019. Eight months after the earlier rendition at the German Pavillion in Barcelona–another of Mies Van Der Rohe’s buildings–the Farnsworth House and surrounding woods were lit with geometric red lasers. Read reviews of Luftwerk’s installation from Colossal, Hypebeast, Dezeen, Archdaily, and Newcity Design.

Jonathan Olivares’ pop-up for Hem is a nod to local skate and surf culture

November 13, 2019

For a limited run of 30 days in fall 2019, Jonathan Olivares collaborated with Stockholm-based furniture design studio Hem to create a pop-up store in San Francisco. Olivares sectioned the space with brightly colored room dividers and had signage hand-painted on the walls and windows as a visual ode to SF’s vibrant graffiti art. Read more from AN Interior here.

Five Other Shows to See During the Chicago Biennial

November 4, 2019

Architect Magazine lists Tigerman Rides Again as the “most poignant among” the offsite architecture & design based exhibitions concurrent with the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Following Tigerman’s show at Volume, Architect Magazine invites readers to visit the MCA, Art Institute, Graham Foundation, and Chicago Architecture Center to see architects address social problems through and within the built environment. Read about “The Final Works of a Chicago Master” and four other notable shows here.

Tanya Aguiñiga in Woven: Connections and Meanings at the National Museum of Mexican Art

October 25, 2019

Woven: Connections and Meanings
National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL
October 25th, 2019 – April 19th, 2020
Woven: Connections and Meanings includes the work of five contemporary Mexican and Mexican American women artists who have undertaken an age-old utilitarian tradition, sacred yet in many occasions undervalued. These artists now weave fresh narratives that address the US-Mexico border, immigration, identity, environment, materiality and resistance. Tanya Aguiñiga, Florencia Guillén, Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Marta Palau and Georgina Valverde are compelling and dynamic voices that connect the practice of textile art with concepts of social justice and activism. More on the exhibition here.

The L.A. architects who design buildings that make you say, ‘Huh?,’ then ‘Wow!’

October 16, 2019

Johnston Marklee’s architectural style evades strict categorization and converses with its location in an unprecedented and imaginative fashion. The LA Times reviews a multitude of the duo’s projects in conversation with Johnston & Lee themselves. Drawing inspiration from the Light & Space movement and self-described “relational” structures have put the firm in high demand from cultural institutions across the nation. Read the LA Times’ article here.

Thaddeus Wolfe, Christy Matson, Tanya Aguiñiga, and Ross Hansen in OBJECTS: REDUX at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

September 28, 2019

OBJECTS: REDUX—How 50 Years Made Craft Contemporary
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, TX
September 28th, 2019 – January 5th, 2020
OBJECTS: REDUX—How 50 Years Made Craft Contemporary commemorates the 50th anniversary of OBJECTS: USA, a seminal exhibition of American craft that debuted at the Smithsonian National Collection of Fine Arts in 1969. OBJECTS: REDUX demonstrates how craft first became contemporary in the 1960s and ‘70s, when studio-craft artists were striving to push boundaries and challenge the traditions of American craft. The show looks critically at how the field has evolved in the last 50 years, moving beyond traditional wares and beautifully crafted functional objects, into a diverse selection of work that confronts the current socio-political environment and favors an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing new technologies and skill sets gleaned from traditional craft practices. The exhibition presents work by a diverse group of craft artists, including Thaddeus Wolfe, Christy Matson, Tanya Aguiñiga, and Ross Hansen. More on the exhibition here.

 

AN rounds up its favorite coast-to-coast fall exhibitions of 2019

September 23, 2019

Among The Architect’s Newspaper’s six favorite 2019 fall exhibitions across the country is Volume’s own Tigerman Rides Again. “The exhibition shows how Tigerman was able to bring in diverse influences from all over the art world and synthesize them into clear, poignant visions both on the street and on the page.” Read more here.

Pezo Von Ellrichshausen brings Chilean design to Cooper Union

September 12, 2019

“Speaking to a large audience in The Cooper Union’s Great Hall, the young Chilean firm presented a body of work ranging from art performance pieces, to an island villa looking toward the Andes, to a cultural center on the cliffs over the Pacific Ocean. The work, in short, is gorgeous, and Mauricio Pezo and Sofia Von Ellrichshausen spoke about it in a way that checked off every box for a formalist architectural project: considering the promenade, the corner, weight, material, color, seriality, etcetera—the stuff of architecture.”

Read The Architect’s Newspaper’s recount of Pezo Von Ellrichshausen’s lecture for the Architectural League of New York here.

Tanya Aguiñiga in Edge Walkers at Duke Hall Gallery, James Madison University

September 10, 2019

Edge Walkers
Duke Hall Gallery, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
September 10th – October 13th, 2019
Edge Walkers holds work from individuals with backgrounds in architecture, graphic design, and industrial design, who are making work that breaks from the traditional modes of practice. Their work follows tangential trajectories that often walk the edge of art and design, introducing elements of concept, culture, and craft. Tanya Aguiñiga and OOIEE will present work alongside Aya Kawabata, Doug Johnston, and Aratani – Fay.

Christy Matson’s “Paragon” in “Material Meaning”

August 7, 2019

Paragon-copyChristy Matson’s weaving, Paragon (2017), is part of “Material Meaning: A Living Legacy of Anni Albers” which honors the late textile artist and printmaker. The exhibition is now open through September 21st at the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles. Read the LA Times review of the exhibition here.

Christy Matson’s Overshot Variation III recently acquired by LACMA

LACMA, through the Decorative Arts and Design Acquisitions Committee, has recently acquired Christy Matson’s Overshot Variation III. Matson’s “richly colored, ethereal works begin as watercolor studies which she translates into the binary code of the digital Jacquard loom. The geometric background pattern of beiges and whites references historic American overshot coverlets, a form which reached its zenith in the 19th century, especially in Appalachia, where Matson first learned about Jacquard weaving. Matson overlays the overshot design with beautiful regions of color that interrupt the highly structured pattern of the overshot, lending the work vitality and uniqueness. It’s like her own signature on top of the overshot pattern.” More on the acquisition here.

 

Mamífero 3 by Tanya Aguiñiga acquired by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York

August 1, 2019

Mamífero 3 by Tanya Aguiñiga has been acquired by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. In Mamífero 3, Los Angeles-based craft artist and activist, Tanya Aguiñiga employs twine, synthetic hair, rope, and various types of fabrics to create a wall-bound draping mass that is intricate and texturally rich. The multihyphenate artist is known for her community-based work and expansive craftwork in disciplines such as ceramic and fiber. Her current work uses craft as a performative medium to generate dialogues about identity, culture, and gender while creating community.

Inside the making of artist Sung Jang’s temporary Anderson Ranch installation

July 18, 2019

For the 23rd annual Anderson Ranch Arts Center Recognition Dinner, Sung Jang took on the construction of a 40-foot-long wall to adorn its stage. Made out of around 15,000 interlocking (& recyclable) pieces, “this modular work” explores “ideas of elegance and extravagance, taking the simple small pieces and making something lavish with it.” Read the Aspen Times’ walkthrough of Jang’s process here.

Anders Ruhwald preserves Detroit building in new site-specific intallation

July 11, 2019

unit-1-3583-dubois-st-anders-ruhwald-detroit_dezeen_hero-1704x959Anders Herwald Ruhwald immersive, site-specific installation Unit 1: 3583 Dubois inside an apartment on Detroit’s east side is now open. 3583 Dubois Street in Detroit, Michigan, no longer exists. While the once dilapidated 7,000 square-foot brick apartment building at this location still stands, the city has reassigned its address as 2170 Mack Avenue. In his installation, Unit 1: 3583 Dubois, Anders Ruhwald repositions the building’s identity, intertwining its past, present, and future. Unit 1: 3583 Dubois, will be open yearly from April to October by appointment only. Tours can be booked on unit1.org for Thursdays, between 7-9 pm and Saturdays, between 12-4pm starting on June 22, 2019. See photos and read more about Unit 1 here and here.

Brendan Fernandes collaborates with Norman Kelley on installation at the Whitney Biennial

July 10, 2019

qa-artist-brendan-fernandes-on-hivaids-why-ballet-dancers-are-masochists-and-the-importance-of-ORIGBrendan Fernandes exhibition, The Master and Form, at the Whitney Biennial was designed in collaboration with the architecture firm Norman Kelley. Five structures including a “minimal arrangement of scaffolding”  is always on view and used by dancers through durational performances. Read more about The Master and Form here.

Take a look inside Luftwerk’s installation in Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House

June 5, 2019

parallel-perspectives-designboom-3Luftwerk’s site-specific installation, Parallel Perspectives, inside Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House located in the Elmhurst Art Museum, is now open to the public until August 25th, 2019. The immersive exhibition uses light and color to highlight and transform the historic structure. See photos of Parallel Perspective here and here.

Luftwerk: Parallel Perspectives at the Elmhurst Art Museum

May 11, 2019

Luftwerk: Parallel Perspectives
Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL
May 11th – August 25th, 2019
Luftwerk: Parallel Perspectives is a site-specific exhibition that uses color and light interventions to activate and interpret the McCormick House, designed by Mies van der Rohe. The installation by Luftwerk—the Chicago-based artistic collaborative of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero—heightens the senses and alters perception while celebrating the use of geometry in the Mid-century prefab prototype. Color is central to the visual transformation of the home’s architectural nuances, and largely inspired by an idea of the original developers Robert Hall McCormick and Herbert S. Greenwald, who offered to tint windows of their proposed prefab housing “almost any shade of the rainbow.” Parallel Perspectives is part of Bauhaus100, the global anniversary celebrations of the legendary German art school. It continues the artists’ year-long exploration of architecture by Mies, which began with the Barcelona Pavilion and will end with the Farnsworth House. More on the exhibition here.

Luftwerk’s Occurence of Light permanently on view in Calgary

May 10, 2019

Luftwerk’s Occurrence of Light is a public art piece in Calgary, Alberta, permanently on view outside of the new Manulife office building designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Inspired by the aurora borealis, the phenomena of colored lights shimmering across the night sky, Occurrence of Light mimics the cosmic event. At once a static sculpture and a dynamic composition, the piece is enlivened with compressed rhythms of fluid imagery. The video imagery — computer manipulated light refractions in water — is connected to live streaming data of the region’s geomagnetic activity, which influences the speed and color palette of the video. The data is provided by the Aurorawatch service and the CARISMA magnetometer network, both of which are operated by the Space Physics group at the University of Alberta. CARISMA is part of the “Geospace Observatory” program funded by the Canadian Space Agency.

 

Tanya Aguiñiga’s Quipu Fronterizo/Border Quipu recently acquired by LACMA

LACMA has acquired Tanya Aguiñiga’s Quipu Fronterizo/Border Quipu from her project with AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides). Quipu Fonterizo was made collaboratively with US/Mexico border commuters on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro Border Crossing by giving out two stands of thread and asking to anonymously tie them into a knot. “The strands represent the US and Mexico’s relationship to one another, our self at either side of the border, and our own mental state at the point of crossing.” – Tanya Aguiñiga. Purchased with funds provided by AHAN: Studio Forum, 2018 Art Here and Now purchase.

Ross Hansen’s Chair recently acquired by SFMOMA

May 9, 2019

Los Angeles-based designer, Ross Hansen, investigates the concepts of the 18th century English artist, William Gilpin’s notion of the picturesque through his own interpretation of these ideals in Chair. Hansen borrows from methods of industrial production; each item is hand-produced through custom-crafted molds and craft methodologies.

 

Tanya Aguiñiga, Norman Kelley, Krueck + Sexton, Jonathan Muecke, and OOIEE at KMAC Museum

April 24, 2019

1_all_works_WRONGCHAIRS_4Works by Tanya Aguiñiga, Norman Kelley, Krueck + Sexton, Jonathan Muecke, and OOIEE are included in In the Hot Seat, an exhibition curated by Joey Yates and on view at the KMAC Museum from April 26 to August 11, 2019. “In The Hot Seat offers insight into how the chair is being continually reimagined in contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition combines artist-made chairs with sculptures, installations, paintings, and mixed media works.” Read more here.

Christy Matson in MATERIAL MEANING: A LIVING LEGACY OF ANNI ALBERS

April 17, 2019

Paragon-copyChristy Matson’s work will be part of Material Meaning: A Living Legacy of Anni Albers, opening on July 13th at the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles. “Material Meaning will feature work by ten contemporary American artists and designers working with textiles who are strongly influenced by Anni Albers – paired with their statements that make that influence explicit, personal and varied.” Read more about the exhibition here.

Christy Matson and Luftwerk at Elmhurst Art Museum

April 4, 2019

LW-portraitTwo new exhibitions opening on May 11th at Elmhurst Art Museum will include the work of Christy Matson and Luftwerk. Matson’s work will be shown along other 45 artists in With a Capital P: Selections by Six Painters, curated by six prominent local painters, Leslie Baum, Magalie Guérin, José Lerma, Nancy Mladenoff, Suellen Rocca, and Kay Rosen. The other exhibition, Luftwerk: Parallel Perspectives, will present a color and light intervention by the Chicago-based artistic collaborative in the museum’s recently restored Mies van der Rohe McCormick House. Read more about it here.

Tanya Aguiñiga included in new exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

March 27, 2019

Haq_Arshia_LACE_Unravelling-1-720x329Tanya Aguiñiga’s work will be on view in Unravelling Collective Forms at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, a group show that brings together artworks that propose forms of collective resistance to oppressive hegemonies. The exhibition opens on Wednesday, April 3 at LACE. Here is more information. Image: Arshia Fatima Haq (photo by Amina Cruz, veil by Hushidar Mortezaie.) 

Norman Kelley preserves “layered history” inside revamped Notre store in Chicago

notre-norman-kelley-interior-chicago-us_dezeen_2364_hero3-1704x959Norman Kelley reconfigures and revamps Notre store in West Loop, Chicago. Their design marries the space’s warehouse-gallery history with the spatial vision for the store. Find images and the story here.

Stanley Tigerman talks preservation and the future of architecture

March 12, 2019

the_titanic-stanley_tigermanChicago architect Stanley Tigerman spoke with the Chicago Reader about the preservation of historic buildings, the future of architecture, and his architectural and artistic legacy. Read the article here.

Luftwerk’s collaboration with Mas Studio’s Iker Gil at Barcelona Pavilion

February 20, 2019

geometry-of-light-luftwerk-iker-gil-barcelona-pavilion-installation_dezeen_2364_heroThe Geometry of Light is Luftwerk’s collaboration with Mas Studio’s Iker Gil at the Barcelona Pavilion. “The installation was intended to animate and highlight the iconic design of the building, completed by Van der Rohe in 1929.” Read more and see photographs here.

Tanya Aguiñiga in the Renwick Invitational 2018

February 9, 2019

6 GinaClyneAMBOS-BorderQuipu-2-0123Tanya Aguiñiga’s work in Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018 continues to mine her experience as an immigrant through her activist work with underinvested communities along the US-Mexico border. Read more about it here and visit the exhibition on view at The Renwick Gallery in Washinton D.C. until May 5, 2019.

 

Review: Anders Ruhwald meets Asger Oluf Jorn

January 22, 2019

Anders-Ruhwald13Anders Ruhwald’s exhibition The Body, The Mind, This Constructed World at Casa Museo Jorn, inspired by the late Situationist artist, Asger Oluf Jorn, is now being exhibited at Officine Saffi. Read more about it here and here.

Snarkitecture’s The Beach at Chicago’s Navy Pier

January 20, 2019

the-beach-by-snarkitecture-image-courtesy-of-snarkitecture-6Snarkitecture’s immersive art installation, The Beach Chicago, is open from January 19, 2019 – February 3, 2019 at Navy Pier. Read about how it all came together.

Norman Kelley are among the winners of the 2018 AN Best of Design Awards

December 7, 2018

GSAPP_ArakawaGins_JamesEwing-4992The Architect’s Newspaper named Norman Kelley’s exhibition design for Arakawa and Madeline Gins: Eternal Gradient at Columbia University, best of 2018.

 

Jennefer Hoffmann in conversation with Ania Jaworska

November 29, 2018

Volume-Website-JH18bAnia Jaworska interviews Jennefer Hoffmann about her ceramic work for the New City’s Designed Object 2018 issue. Read their exchange here.

Review: Christy Matson at Volume Gallery

November 8, 2018

Volume-Website-CM02aVolume Gallery’s exhibition, The Sun and The Moon, gathers new work by the Los Angeles-based artist, Christy Matson. New City reviews the show here.

Volume Gallery will participate in the inaugural edition of Felix LA

October 30, 2018

felix-768x509Volume Gallery is among the galleries invited to participate in the first edition of Felix LA from February 14-17 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Felix LA seeks “to create an intimate fair experience that prioritizes connoisseurship, collaboration, and community.” Check out the announcement and the list of invited galleries here.

Christy Matson and Tanya Aguiñiga featured in new book

September 27, 2018

86_21530712420_Schermafbeelding20180704om15.52.09Weaving – Contemporary Makers on the Loom is a new book surveying contemporary textile designers that have revitalized the medium through evolving techniques and innovating expressions. Fiber artists, Christy Matson and Tanya Aguiñiga, are both included in this book written by Katie Treggiden, published by Ludion. The book is available here.

Review: Tanya Aguiñiga’s solo exhibition at MAD

September 12, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 2.21.22 PMHyperallergic reviews Tanya Aguiñiga’s exhibition, Craft & Care, on view at the Museum of Art and Design through October 2. Read it here.

Tanya Aguiñiga participates in homage to Mickey

August 27, 2018

Tanya+Aguiniga+O6A2IuY9jW-mMickey: The True Original Exhibition celebrates 90 years of Mickey Mouse’s influence on art and pop culture. This immersive experience is inspired by Mickey’s status as a ‘true original’ and his consistent impact on the arts and creativity in all its forms. Guests will have the chance to explore the 16,000 square-foot exhibition featuring both historic and contemporary work from renowned artists, including Tanya Aguiñiga.

Anders Herwald Ruhwald The Hand is the Mind is the Bomb That Blows at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto

July 1, 2018

The Hand is the Mind is the Bomb That Blows, Anders Herwald Ruhwald
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
July 1–November 11, 2018
Curated by Marlee Choo and Melanie Egan
“Anders Herwald Ruhwald is an artist whose work delves into the relationships between objects, space, form, and audience. His primary material is ceramics. In his making process there is an unmistakable expertise and fluency with the material – gained over three decades – and is second nature to Ruhwald. It’s like breathing and evident in his work.” More on the exhibition here.

Coming: National Building Museum’s Snarkitecture Exhibit

June 20, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 4.40.01 PMSnarkitecture’s first comprehensive museum exhibition is going to re-imagine the idea of traditional home and present interactive elements for the visitor to discover. See renderings and “fun house” in construction.

Volunteer for AMBOS at the American-Mexican Border

June 18, 2018

AMBOS-BorderQuipu-Day2-0089(AMBOS) Art Made Between Opposite Sides, the timeless project from Tanya Aguiniga reflects the public perception of the two countries: U.S. and Mexico, and involves the commuters in the large-scale art installation. Read more about the emotionally attached project here. 

Wallpaper Rates Ace top 10 in Chicago

June 8, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 3.03.38 PMVolume Gallery had the opportunity to collaborate on the new Ace Hotel in Chicago, see what Wallpaper has to say about it.

Tanya Aguiniga: Collision of Arts and Politics

May 30, 2018

AMBOS-BorderQuipu-Day2-0009“Visualize the stigmatized society”, as Tanya Aguiniga said. The show at Museum of Arts and Design presents Aguiñiga’s long-term exploration of craft along the U.S-Mexico Border. Read more about it here.

The Knots at the U.S.-Mexico Border

May 14, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 2.24.17 PMTanya Aguiniga explores immigration, identity, and culture in her solo show at the Museum of Art and Design. Read more about how the knots at the border convey the emotion of those commuters here. 

Tanya Aguiniga: Craft & Care at MAD, New York

May 11, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 2.21.22 PMTanya Aguiniga activates the AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides) project and brings her thinking into the community work. Read the article here.

Anders Ruhwald: The Conceptual Sculpture in Milan

May 6, 2018

Anders-Ruhwald.-The-thing-in-your-mind.-Installation-view-at-Officine-Saffi-Milano-2018.-Courtesy-Officine-Saffi-the-artistThe sculptures by Ruhwald, in this show, place themselves at the boundary between art, furniture and common everyday objects. Read more here.

Snarkitecture: Interactive Rooms at National Building Museum.

May 1, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-26 at 1.50.32 PMSnarkitecture is going to fill up the National Building Museum with interactive rooms that bring numerous Snarkitecture designs into an immersive experience. Read more here.

Tanya Aguiñiga at Museum of Arts and Design

April 27, 2018

2016-Aguiniga-Border-Quipu_Quipu-Fronterizo-Market-installation_0

Tanya Aguiñiga’s show, May 8th – October 2nd, is a showcase of works, documentation and ephemera that resulted from her Art Made Between Opposite Sides (AMBOS) project along the Mexican-American border. Read more about the project here.

Ania Jaworska + Norman Kelley: Furnishing Ideas

No-Thing_Install_02

Chicago based Ania Jaworska and duo Norman Kelley are both being featured in a group furniture show at Friedman Benda in Manhattan. The show features a selection of furniture designed to question utility and highlight concept. Read more here.

MOBI/Past Forward at the Art Institute of Chicago

 

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A new show in the modern wing of the Art Institute of Chicago features numerous architects and designers, showing works from and for an increasingly complex world. More about the show can be read here.

Aranda/Lasch: Valentines Heart design competition.

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Aranda/Lasch and Marcelo Coelho win the 2018, Times Square Valentines Heart Design competition with their proposed 12-foot wide , 3D printed Fresnel lens. An awesome feat of art + tech, read more here.

Snarkitecture: Changing Tides for Milan Design Week

April 15, 2018

snarkitecture-caesarstone-installation-milan-design-week_dezeen_2364_col_1-1704x1136

Snarkitecture and quartz surface designer Ceasarstone teamed up to create an instillation within a 19th century ballroom based on the topography of glaciers, icebergs and lakes. See more of the instillation here.

Snarkitecture Releases a New Monograph

April 2, 2018

snarkitecture-alex-mustonen-daniel-arsham-ben-porto-photography-noah-kalinaSnarkitecture abstracts the essence from everyday objects and defines the design tone by using monochromatic environ and reinterpretation of one element. See more projects here.

Snarkitecture: “Fun House” in the National Building Museum

March 22, 2018

Great-hall-beach-Noah-Kalina-1024x0-c-defaultThe National Building Museum is pleased to announce that Snarkitecture will be designing the 2018 Summer Block Party exhibition. The fun house will be full-sized with freestanding house allowing visitors to interact with. Read more here.

Volume Gallery Populates Art Works for Ace Hotel

March 19, 2018

ACE-Chicago-MAINCheck out Ace Hotel in vibrant modernist furnishings and a series of commissions with Volume Gallery.

The Sculptures Of Jennefer Hoffmann

March 10, 2018

Volume-Website-JH23c

Jennefer Hoffmann tells us about her creations and how they are formed. The sculpture explores the daily nuances including human condition, observations, feelings, aspirations, love, sadness, loss, living… Read more about her projects here.

Christy Matson: Rock, Paper, Scissors at Long Beach Museum of Art

February 27, 2018

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Christy Matson’s show at the Long Beach Museum of Art, (February 16- May 13), explores the relationship between the Hand and the Story through textile, ceramic and illustration. Read more about the show here.

Aranda\Lasch: The World’s Largest Fresnel Lens at Time Square

February 17, 2018

times-square-heart-window-installation-aranda-lasch-marcelo-coelho-formlabs-designboom-02 This year’s Time Square Valentine’s Day installation, designed by Aranda\Lasch and Marcelo Coelho, is titled ‘Window to the heart’. Read more here.

Anders Ruhwald at ZONAMACO Design 2018.

February 14, 2018

large_Pietra-Mengoni_Garcia-1Ruhwald is at ZONAMACO Design 2018 with his whimsy biomorphic ceramic vase. Read more here.

‘Window to the heart’ at Time Square, New York.

February 7, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-27 at 11.53.52 AMThe installation – a 12-foot diameter 3D-printed Fresnel lens – is showing for Valentine’s Day at Time Square in New York. Read more here.

Architectural Furniture

February 6, 2018

Screen Shot 2018-06-26 at 2.45.05 PMBy striving for the homogeny both the interior and the exterior, architects are no strangers for furniture design. Read more here.

Norman Kelley: Dancing with Space

January 27, 2018

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Chicago design duo Norman Kelley has teamed up with dancer Brendan Fernandez to create structures for his new ballet performances. See the structures and read more about the project here.

‘No Thing’ on View at Friedman Benda New York

January 25, 2018

no-thing-01_photography-by-daniel-kukla“No Thing” explores the furniture of architects, presenting a number of individuals and groups including Ania Jaworska and Norman Kelley. Read what Wallpaper has to say about it.

Tanya Aguiñiga is awarded the inaugural Johnson Fellowship

January 18, 2018

one_kings_lane_artisanal_tanyaportraitnewAmericans for the Arts announced that Los Angeles-based artist and designer Tanya Aguiñiga is the receiver of the inaugural Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities. The award will support her ongoing creative work in communities over 2018.

Experimental Furniture Showcase at Cranbrook Academy of Art

December 22, 2017

cranbrook-a-new-domestic-landscape-art-museum-uk-promotions_dezeen_2364_col_5-1704x879A New Domestic Landscape showcases work by over 20 designers. Highlights from the show include pieces by Ross Hansen, Ania Jaworska, Jonathan Muecke, and Anders Ruhwald . Read more here.

Ross Hansen: New Material Relationship

December 1, 2017

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Ross Hansen talks about the material with different interpretations of utility. Find out more here.

Volume Collaborates with Ace

October 9, 2017

Screen Shot 2018-06-23 at 3.20.27 PMThe new Ace Hotel is offered with a mix of old and new: mid-western craftsmanship and utilitarian design. Check it out here at Dezeen.

Pezo Von Ellrichshausen and Felice Virini’s new intimate public works.

October 4, 2017

 

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A new project in the British city of Hull has brought Chilean duo, Pezo Von Ellrichshausen and Swedish Felice Virini, together to generate a massive, experiential sculpture in the city square. Constructed of sixteen, two meter wide by six meter tall, steel tubes, the public is invited to enter each tube and inhabit space within a city in a new way. See full article here

Luftwerk: Pushing Climate Change

August 8, 2017

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A new audio/visual project by Chicago based duo, Luftwerk, challenges viewers with the looming reality of climate change. The piece includes an illustration of a 120 mile long crack that runs through the Larsen C ice shelf which covers the front of the 2N Riverside Plaza building, as well as an instillation of sounds from decaying glaciers drifting icebergs. Read more on the project here.

BENAS BURDULIS: Exploring light with IKEA through CNC milling technology

July 9, 2017

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Benas Burdulis works with CNC milling technology to create a subtle wall installation for SPACE10, IKEA’s future-living laboratory. Read about the project here.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR: Jimenez Lai’s favorite things

July 5, 2017

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Jimenez Lai shares 10 of his favorite things with Architectural Digest India, from Bill Murray to CandyCrush. See the slideshow here.

ANIA JAWORSKA: Bossy Furniture

June 6, 2017

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Ania Jaworska talks with Sight Unseen about her recent project at Volume Gallery, why she’s interested in Jonathan Muecke, and what’s next for her.

CHRISTY MATSON: Material as Metaphor

May 28, 2017

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The Craft Art & Folk Museum in LA just put up a group exhibition on the intersection of fiber art and sculpture, including work by Christy Matson. Find out more here.

LUFTWERK: Thoreau in Morse Code

May 16, 2017

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Luftwerk’s “Cloudland” installation will illuminate Mass MoCA’s tower and three steeples in North Adams with blinking lights which will blink out Thoreau’s description of his awakening of the mountain in Morse Code. Read about the project here.

STANLEY TIGERMAN: Retiring after a legendary career

May 11, 2017

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The man, the myth, the legend decides to sit back and relax a little. Read a short overview of his influence on Chicago architecture.

BEC BRITTAIN: The Aries Collection

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Bec Brittain launches a new series of light fixtures, featuring refracting prisms which can be rotated to disperse the light in different ways. Read about it in this article.

ANDERS RUHWALD: Private Experiments in Clay

May 9, 2017

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Treat yourself to a thoughtful piece on Anders Ruhwald’s exhibition at Volume.

TANYA AGUINIGA: Get a glimpse into the artist’s studio

May 1, 2017

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Juicy visuals afford a sneak peek into Tanya’s textural territory.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR: Swarovski Designers of the Future Award

April 6, 2017

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Architect Jimenez Lai, founder of Bureau Spectacular, is named by Swarovski and Design Miami/ as a winner of the 2017 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award. Read more about the award and about Lai’s work here.

ARANDA\LASCH: More Trees

March 2, 2017

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Aranda\Lasch contributed a piece to a group exhibition for the More Trees campaign. Find out more here.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR: Exhibit at SFMOMA

February 2, 2017

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Bureau Spectacular exhibits graphic and three-dimensional work in its first West Coast museum showcase at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Read about it here.

ANDERS RUHWALD: Installation and reconstruction

December 8, 2016

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Anders Ruhwald recreates a Detroit apartment building at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland and fills it with large, looming ceramic forms. See and read here.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR: Laugier’s Primitive Hut reimagined

November 28, 2016

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Bureau Spectacular creates a treehouse inspired by 18th century philosopher Marc-Antoine Laugier’s theory of The Primitive Hut, in which architecture returns to its simple and organic roots. Read more about Bureau Spectacular’s take on the concept here.

MICHAEL C. ANDREWS: Coming Home

November 11, 2016

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A new group exhibition at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts celebrates emerging and established Michigan artists, including Michael C. Andrews. He opens a solo exhibition at Volume in summer 2017.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Light and Absense

October 13, 2016

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Read Jonathan Muecke’s interview with Damn° to see what he’s been working on since his residency at the Juliaan Lampens Villa Van Wassenhove in Belgium.

LUFTWERK: Installation on Milwaukee Avenue bridge

October 10, 2016

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Luftwerk designs an outdoor installation piece on the Michigan Avenue bridge that will change depending on the weather conditions. Read about Luftwerk and the project here.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR: a moveable display

September 28, 2016

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For Frankie, a Los Angeles boutique, Bureau Spectacular creates interlocking display pieces which fit together like a puzzle into bleachers for events or performances. See the display and read more here.

TANYA AGUINIGA: Art Made Between Opposite Sides

August 26, 2016

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Tanya Aguiniga has organized a series of artist interventions and interactive events in Tijuana that investigate borders and border-crossing. Take a look at the project website.

Norman Kelley: Designed for Renewal

May 20, 2016

 

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Chicago design duo, Norman Kelley designed the new Bucktown location for Aesop utilizing recycled and renewed materials. See more of the project here.

Converging Lines

January 13, 2016

Volume-Website-AJ-2247-N-LakewoodVice Creator’s Series has a nice write up on the Converging Lines show with Ania Jaworska, Christy Matson, and Tanya Aguiniga. Check it out here.

LUFTWERK: The Public Artists

December 9, 2015

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Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero of Luftwerk have a conversation with the Chicago Reader about their studio here.

LUFTWERK: colorful installation in Garfield Park Conservatory

September 29, 2015

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Luftwerk’s installation Solarise creates a colorful and light-filled dialogue with its containing space, the Garfield Park Conservatory. See parts of the installation and learn more about it here.

LUFTWERK: Using Light

September 15, 2015

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Luftwerk talks with Chicago Magazine about their take on [temporarily] altering the most famous buildings in the country for a new take on visual experience. Read about it here.

THADDEUS WOLFE: “I Hate the Word ‘Sculptural'”

September 4, 2015

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Enjoy some gorgeous photos of Thaddeus Wolfe’s glass vessels, courtesy of Artsy.

JONATHAN OLIVARES: Make you own version of the Aluminum Bench

June 24, 2015

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Architectural Digest on Jonathan Olivares new work and the app that goes with it.

JONATHAN OLIVARES: Bringing Architectural Manufacturing To The Furniture Industry

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Take a look a Co.Design‘s talk with Jonathan Olivares process for the Aluminum Bench.

JONATHAN OLIVARES: Vitra Workspace

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London architect Pernilla Ohrstedt and Los Angeles designer Jonathan Olivares collaborate on a new office furniture showroom at the Vitra headquarters. 

Check it out on Dezeen!

JONATHAN OLIVARES: Aluminium Bench

June 17, 2015

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Jonathan  Olivares Aluminum bench released in conjunction with Neo Con here at Volume Gallery.

See more at Designo.

JONATHAN OLIVARES: Aluminum Bench app by ShopFloor

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Be the first to try the Beta app for Jonathan Olivares Aluminum Bench.

FELICIA FERRONE: Pavilion

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Felicia Ferrone and Christopher Gentner  join forces at Pavilion.

See more on Interior Design.

 

SNARKITECTURE: COS Installation at Salone del Mobile

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Check out Forbes look at the Snarkitecture COS installation at Milan Design Week.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: New York Times

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A retrospective article on the last seven years of Rich Brilliant Willing.

View Article

SNARKITECTURE: The Architectural Camouflage collection

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Dezeen Magazine explores Snarkitecture’s architectural camouflage collection, featuring marble and subway tile  patterns.

SNARKITECTURE: Help the National Building Museum

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The National Building Museum is partnering up this summer with Snarkitecture to bring the beech to you!

See more on archdaily.

SUNG JANG: 18,000 Modular Pieces

June 16, 2015

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Another great piece on Sung Jang’s Mobi pieces currently in New York at Chamber! 

Check it out on Fast Company

TANYA AGUINIGA: SHEvening

Artists Tanya Aguiñiga and Nancy Baker Cahill Exhibit New Work at “SHEvening”

Check out this interview with Tanya Aguiniga in the latest issue of LA Magazine!

SNARKITECTURE: Installation for COS in Milan DesignBoom

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Check out Designboom’s Post on the COS installation by  Snarkitecture. Great photos and video for those that could not make to Milan.

SUNG JANG: This is Not a Duet

This is not a duet, is a room-scale installation by Sung Jang, composed of a 3D printed module. See more on Dezeen 

SNARKITECTURE: Retrospective

Check out Snarkitecture’s Retrospective by COMPLEX

 

TANYA AGUINIGA: Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pop Up Shop

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Goop Pop Up Shop held in Chicago last month. Elle Decor has a inside look at the shop including work by Tanya Aguiniga.

NORMAN KELLEY: Chicago Architecture Biennial

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Congratulations to Norman Kelley for being chosen to participate in the inaugural Chicago Architectural Biennial.

Check the list:

BEC BRITTAIN: Interview with Dezeen

May 27, 2015

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Bec Brittain talks to Dezeen about her education and experience that has informed the work she produces today. Read it here.

BEC BRITTAIN: Drawing with lines of light

May 7, 2015

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Bec Brittain discusses production design with Metropolis Magazine in this article.

SNARKITECTURE: Hypebeast

April 9, 2015

COS has commissioned an installation by Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustnen of Snarkitecture at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, inspired by the brand’s spring/summer collection. The collection features technical lightness and luminescence, which is reflected in the installation through an immersive translucent cave. The entire structure is constructed by thousands of strips of layered fabrics hanging from the ceiling to the floor. The installation is open between April 14 to 19, located in the art district of Brera. Check out renderings here, and make sure to drop by the stunning installation if you’re in the city.

SNARKITECTURE: Architect magazine

A Sleek Ball Pit is Coming to D.C.
“The Beach” by Snarkitecture opens in July at the National Building Museum. Read about it in the this post by Architect Magazine.

SNARKITECTURE: National Building Museum

Via Citylab:

Here’s the next big museum stunt of 2015: The National Building Museum has commissioned the design firm Snarkitecture to build a beach inside the museum this summer. Read about it here.

VOLUME GALLERY: Chicago Magazine

Chicago Magazine’s series of weekend plans from notable, in-the-know locals—a.k.a. people we like: Neville Bryan Assistant Curator at the Art Institute Karen Kice. Chatter: Architecture Talks Back opens on Saturday, April 11.

Here for full article.

JONATHAN MUECKE: T Magazine

March 30, 2015

“The next generation of American designers is experimenting with form – inspired by everything from organic shapes to the funky geometries of postmodernism.”

Does that synopsis apply to Muecke? Click the link and decide for yourself.

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SNARKITECTURE: COS

Click the link to see Split by Snarkitecture featured on COS’s blog today!

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JONATHAN MUECKE: PIN-UP

March 24, 2015

While the names 31-year-old Minneapolis-based designer Jonathan Muecke gives his work may seem perfectly straightforward, the results are anything but. His Decentralized Light (DL) (2013), for example, takes the shape of a three-foot-tall topless aluminum table frame whose nonagon-shaped perimeter contains tiny recessed LEDs; the inconspicuous-sounding Divider (2011) turns out to be a five-foot-tall baby-blue wedge, more minimalist sculpture than decorative screen; while others, such as the compelling Frame (2011), a tent-like metal structure, or Miami Vertical Shape (2013), a kidney-shaped wall hanging, seem to defy function altogether. “The objects I make have a presence just as much as they do themselves away. They put up a fight,” muses Muecke.

Read more of the article here.

RO/LU: T Magazine

March 18, 2015

RO/LU sneak peak of the March 29th T Magazine Design Issue here.

RO/LU: The Center for Ongoing Research & Projects

RO/LU collaborated with Dante Carlos to create a piece and book that explores meditation, objects and space that will be presented by the The Center for Ongoing Research & Projects MARCH 28TH, 2015 — APRIL 26TH, 2015 in Columbus Ohio. The book, along with an edition of engraved bricks and felt will be available soon. Read more about the project here.

JONATHAN MUECKE/ RO/LU: The Walker Art Center

February 18, 2015

The Walker Art Center/ Minnesota by Design

From the world’s quietest room to the Honeycrisp apple, from the humble sticky note to the Artist-formerly-known-as-Prince glyph, this collection offers a sampling of what makes Minnesota a hotbed of inventive and creative design.

Minnesota by Design is a web-based initiative by the Walker Art Center to document the rich landscape of design across the state. The project seeks to increase public awareness of the human-built world in Minnesota — its landscapes, buildings, products, and graphics, both past and present — and the role that design thinking and practice plays in its realization. Our collection has been seeded with some 100 designs that reflect exemplary instances of practical ingenuity, creative thinking, beautiful form-giving, social and cultural impact, and innovative uses of technology.

Experience the initiative here.

TANYA AGUIÑIGA: Core77

January 31, 2015

Tanya Aquiñiga on Designing Outside Your Own Reality and Using Craft as a Way to Diversify Conversations in Society

Tanya Aquiñiga discusses her multifaceted practice in the latest edition of the Core77 Questionnaire. Read more here.

NORMAN KELLEY: Graham Foundation

January 17, 2015

The Graham Foundation is pleased to present Treatise: Why Write Alone?—an exhibition and publication project that brings together fourteen young design offices to consider the architectural treatise as a site for theoretical inquiry, experimentation, and debate. Organized by Chicago and Los Angeles-based designer Jimenez Lai, the project grows out of a recent Graham Foundation grant to Lai, whose interest in discursive practices and non-conformist approaches to architecture led him to ask his peers working in the realm of conceptual architecture: Why write? And, why write alone? In response to these questions, Treatise presents an exhibition of works by this core group of designers as well as an individual treatise from each office. Together, the exhibition and publications provide a platform to investigate the collective and individual stakes that emerge from this temporary alliance of designers as they explore architecture’s representational limits and possibilities.

Opening January 23, 2015, the exhibition features over 200 works, from drawings and models to multi-media installations, by design offices that utilize diverse—and often unexpected—strategies, forms, and materials. The participants include: Bittertang(New York); Bureau Spectacular (Chicago); CAMES/gibson (Chicago); Design With Company (Chicago); Fake Industries Architectural Agonism (New York); First Office (Los Angeles); is-office (Chicago); Andrew Kovacs (Los Angeles); Alex Maymind (Los Angeles); Norman Kelley (Chicago and New York); Point Supreme(Athens, Greece); Softlab (New York); SPEEDISM (Brussels, Belgium); and Young & Ayata (New York).

For additional information.

NORMAN KELLEY: Mas Context

October 30, 2014

Project by Norman Kelley (Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley)

 

wrong I. a vagabondage of the imagination, of the mind that is not subject to any rule. [1]

 

The Wrong Chairs are an exercise in error. The collection consists of seven chairs that purposefully disrupt the notion of “correctness” by applying a medley of design mistakes to the iconic American Windsor chair. The Windsor chair, with its British roots, has become a symbol of colonial America—a chair that is unadorned and democratic in design. More importantly, however, it is also a forgettable chair. You might vaguely remember your grandmother having one in her kitchen. At first glance, the collection blends into the images we hold of domestic memories we’ve encountered at some point or another, but, at second glance, they’re more unreasonable. In using an object readily recognized and imbedded with nostalgia, the collection utilizes the Windsor chair as the control—a seemingly ordinary object— for the exploration of “wrongness.”

 

Read full article here.

JONATHAN NESCI: Architizer

October 16, 2014

How to Wake a Sleeping Modernist Architecture Giant/ Matt Shaw

Columbus, Indiana is a living architectural museum where you can see one of the largest collections of high- and late-modernist buildings in the country. There are 7 National Historic Landmarks and counting in a town of roughly 45,000 people. So this context — a town landscaped by Dan Kiley and home to over 100 buildings and sites, by architects and designers including both Saarinens, Robert Venturi, Kevin Roche, and John Johansen among others — is ripe for reinterpretation. Read full article here.

JONATHAN NESCI/ RO/LU: Sight Unseen

JONATHAN NESCI IN CONVERSATION WITH MATT OLSON OF RO/LU
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PHOTOS BY JEFF BOND

When it comes to design, it’s easy to forget about Indiana. Easy, but unfair — just ask anyone familiar with the legacy of Columbus natives Irwin and Xenia Miller, whose Eero Saarinen house is one of many architectural landmarks the pair commissioned in and around their hometown. Or ask the editors of Sight Unseen, who included not one but two Indiana-based talents in our American Design Hot List last week. One of them, Jonathan Nesci, debuted a project over the weekend that underscored both arguments: Invited by curator Christopher West to create a site-specific installation on the grounds of Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church — also a Miller commission — Nesci conceived the stunning project 100 Variations, consisting of 100 unique, mirror-polished tables aligned in a grid in the church’s courtyard. He developed the tables using the Golden Ratio, an ongoing preoccupation in his work that similarly informed Saarinen’s. We snagged the first photos of the installation, which was on view for only three days, then invited Matt Olson of the Minneapolis studio RO/LU to discuss the project — and its oft-overlooked setting — with Nesci. Read their conversation here.

LEON RANSMEIER: Sight Unseen

The Sight Unseen Hot List continue on today with another Volume Gallery collaborator – Leon Ransmeier. Follow the link here to read his thoughts on American Design.

JONATHAN MUECKE/ JONATHAN NESCI: Sight Unseen

The Sight Unseen Hot List today includes both Jonathan Muecke and Jonathan Nesci. Muecke quoting George Brecht:

Determine the limits of an object or event.
Determine the limits more precisely.
Repeat, until further precision is impossible.
GEORGE BRECHT, EXERCISE (1963)

See full list here.

VOLUME GALLERY: Sight Unseen

The American Design Hotlist from Sight Unseen features a large portion of designers that we have worked with. Congratulations everyone!!

Click here for the full list.

FUTURE TROPES: Domus

Domus on Future Tropes
Aguiniga, Muecke, Olivares, Ransmeier, ROLU, and Ruhwald take part in an exhibition at Volume Gallerywas founded on a utopian correspondence initiated by Bruno Taut. Read full article here.

BUREAU SPECTACULAR: Jimenez Lai at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale

October 15, 2014

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Jimenez Lai’s “Township of Domestic Parts” at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale investigates the basic components of residential typologies, isolating various purposes of the home into separate architectural structures. Read more here.

 

JONATHAN MUECKE: Artinfo

October 6, 2014

Design Miami/ has announced participants for this year’s Miami edition of the collectible furniture fair, which will run from December 3 through December 7 as part of Miami Art Week.

As in previous years, Design Miami/ has awarded a commission for the entrance pavilion to an emerging designer. This year’s entrance will be done by Jonathan Muecke. Explaining the choice of designer, Design Miami/ creative director Alexandra Cunningham Cameron said, “For our tenth anniversary, we wanted to pay homage to the type of young designer that Design Miami/ wishes to champion – one who experiments with materials, form and scale; who is as much a theorist as a maker; and who challenges us to consider how we relate to the world built around us.”

Read the full article here.

JOJO CHUANG: Modern Luxury Manhattan

Fresh Prints: Interior Designer Kelly Behun curates a selection of striking colors and patterns for Modern Luxury Manhattan, including Jojo Chuang’s Graphic Utopia Folding Screen:

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JONATHAN MUECKE/ JONATHAN OLIVARES: Small Museum for the American Metaphor

September 19, 2014

From September 27 to November 23, 2014, the Gallery at REDCAT will present Small Museum for the American Metaphor, an exhibition curated by Belgian architect Kersten Geers in collaboration with the Gallery at REDCAT Director Ruth Estevez.

Small Museum for the American Metaphor is an exhibition which brings together European perspectives on the American West, and more specifically, the particularities embedded in the idealized fictions surrounding it. The visual argument here is that there is a certain architectonic “idea” that dwells on the celebration of Endlessness as mythicized in the American West. The metaphor is the base for an architecture that blurs the distinction between building and object, collapsing the different scales. It is an architecture that celebrates the fiction of the “wide open” and seeks to re-evaluate/reinterpret the world as a gigantic interior. In that context, a successful intervention is able to define hierarchies, carve out places, and make shared points of reference. The exhibition, much in the tradition of showcasing objects in a defined space, such as a cabinet, “collects”artworks, architectural models, drawings and other elements that consciously fade the distinction between object and representation.

The exhibition includes works from artists and designers such as John Baldessari, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys, Stefano Graziani, Rita McBride, Valérie Mannaerts, Jonathan Muecke, Jonathan Olivares, Manfred Pernice, Bas Princen, Ed Ruscha, Ettore Sottsass, Michaël Van den Abeele, Richard Venlet, Pieter Vermeersch, Peter Wächtler and Christopher Williams, as well as models of past and present architectures of the “big box”.

Read full press release here.

 

VOLUME GALLERY/ FUTURE TROPES: Art F City

Recommended Shows: Beyond Chicago EXPO
by ROBIN DLUZEN on SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

“Future Tropes”
September 5 – November 7, 2014
Volume Gallery
845 West Washington Blvd, 3rd Floor
What’s on view:A group show of furniture by artist/designers Tanya Aguiñiga, Jonathan Muecke, Jonathan Olivares, Leon Ransmeier, RO/LU, and Anders Ruhwald.

Between 1919 and 1920, German architect Bruno Taut exchanged letters with fellow German expressionist architects about how to shape the architecture of the future. That correspondence is now the inspiration for “Future Tropes,” a show which has assigned six artists to create work that is both timeless and futuristic, resulting in some works that are typical, and some that are truly original. Tables, rugs, cabinets and group seating are all reexamined; many of the pieces, like Leon Ransmeier’s stainless steel, sculptural “gymnasium,” Action Object, or Jonathan Muecke’s multi-purpose, space-saving Blue Cabinet are minimal and sleek and in this way match our idea of a “futuristic” aesthetic might look like. Tanya Aguiñiga’s contributions stand out in their warmth and internalized approach; in Tierra, a series of tubes filled with soil from various locations of personal importance are woven loosely into a rug that is both elegant and luxurious in appearance, as well as modest and base in its materials. Inspired by Aguiñiga’s experiences with her infant child, Support is a soft, floor-bound dining room table made of movable denim building-blocks, filled with rice and beans. Changeable, practical (and somewhat edible), the piece is both universally functional and intensely personal.

Find full list here.

LUFTWERK: FLOW/Im Fluss

September 11, 2014

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Luftwerk showcases a nightly light and water installation at Chicago’s Couch Place alley with video compositions which will be projected onto “screens” of water. Read more about it in this article from Archinect.

FUTURE TROPES: Sight Unseen

September 10, 2014

09.09.14 — BY MONICA KHEMSUROV
“Timeless” is probably the most overused — and abused — word in design in recent years, typically employed by designers in the context of sustainability in order to imply that a piece has such a classic look or function that its expected longevity can somehow justify its existence in a sea of wastefulness and overproduction. Future Tropes, a new group show that opened this past weekend at Chicago’s Volume Gallery, approaches the concept of timelessness from a very different angle, however: “The work should be slightly ahead of the world, slightly un-contemporary, setting the stage for future codes yet operating in a place that precedes our ability to apply language to those codes.” (—Jan Verwoert, as adjusted by RO/LU.) In other words, objects that are equally linked to our prehistoric past and our distant, utopian future. Volume curators Sam Vinz and Claire Warner proposed that brief to Leon Ransmeier, ROLU, Jonathan Muecke, Tanya Aguiñiga, Jonathan Olivares, and Anders Ruhwald, who exchanged ideas on the topic before each creating a custom piece responding to it. Click here to see the results.

RO/LU: The Wall Street Journal

September 4, 2014

The Dynamic Design Duo Behind RO/LU: The founders of RO/LU, Matt Olson and Mike Brady, blur the lines between art, furniture and contemporary design.

‘I want to create a chair that my mind wants to sit in, not that my body wants to sit in,’ is a mantra for Mike Brady and Matt Olson of RO/LU.

This month sees a trio of RO/LU exhibitions: A collaborative performance piece debuts at Lower East Side art destination Jack Hanley Gallery at the same time that two furniture shows open at Chicago’s Volume Gallery and Patrick Parrish’s brand-new New York gallery (formerly modernist mecca Mondo Cane). Full content here.

 

RO/LU and FUTURE TROPES: Pin-Up Magazine

RO/LU seems to be on a roll these days! Hot on the heels of the launch of their new website, the multi-talented Minneapolis-based design firm is taking part in not one, not two, but three exhibitions across the US. Read full content here.

ROLU: In Waves at Jack Hanley Gallery, New York

September 2, 2014

In Waves: Arp + RO/LU + Paul Clipson September 7 – October 5, 2014 Opening Reception Sunday, September 7th, 6-8pm Jack Hanley Gallery is very pleased to announce In Waves, a group show featuring the work of Arp, RO/LU, and Paul Clipson.

For additional information.

ROLU: Patrick Parrish, New York

Surfaces On Which Your Setting and Sitting Will Be Uncertain is a group of sculptural furniture objects by RO/LU with matching clothing by Various Projects. The work will be on view as the inaugural show at Patrick Parrish Gallery in New York from September 4th through October 4th. The opening will take place Thursday September 4th at 50 Lispenard Street from 6-9 pm.

RO/LU continues to explore “art history as a material” by starting with very literal information from existing works and reinventing through intuitive connections to others. A collage of the past and the present—Superstudio’s Quaderna line, environmental installations by Ettore Sottsass, Scott Burton and James Lee Byars’ utilization of man as a symbol object—along with intangible new ideas that emerge through action. The objects, made from welded wire mesh, seem to change when one moves in their presence, in some way becoming different with each step taken around them.

Extending ideas embraced and explored by the Mono-ha movement in late sixties Japan and current philosophers like Bruno Latour, RO/LU and Various Projects explore the “life of things”—the belief that objects, images, and ideas included—have their own agency and won’t simply sit still under someone’s watch, on someone else’s terms. In fact, what makes them compelling is precisely what animates them, what they want, and how they behave when they are set loose into the world. In other words, objects, images, and ideas have lives to live. Suddenly we are interested in getting closer to these objects, establishing a poetic proximity that will allow these things to teach us in ways no person could.

Various Projects’ four square dresses, track suits, bangles, scarves and
turbans—produced in the same grid pattern as RO/LU’s objects—act as a playful “meta-mirror” and encourage a sort of performative approach to our everyday interactions with the living world around us.

For additional information.

ANDERS RUHWALD: Urban Glass, New York

Anders Ruhwald: One Thing Follows Another (And You Make It Happen)

Opening reception: September 3rd, 6 – 8pm

In the exhibition Anders Ruhwald: One Thing Follows Another (And You Make It Happen), the artist, who is artist-in-residence and head of Ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, explores form, materiality, and perception through a series of installations that compare and contrast one design rendered in three diverse media: ceramics, wood, and glass.

On view through Tuesday, September 30, 2014

For additional information.

SNARKITECTURE: Complex

August 10, 2014

Interview: Snarkitecture Talk Reimagining Buildings and Objects, Projects for En Noir and Richard Chai

BY CEDAR PASORI

With their art and architecture collective Snarkitecture, Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen take over buildings and create objects that challenge the imagination. Here, they discuss how they’re changing the way people look at the world.

VOLUME GALLERY: Collective 2 New York Artsy

May 2, 2014

Preview the upcoming Collective Design Fair. Jonathan Nesci and Matthias Merkel Hess both make appearances in the critic’s picks!

NORMAN KELLY: The Architectural League of New York

April 25, 2014

CONGRATULATIONS to Norman Kelley for being named a 2014 Prize Winner at the Architectural League of New York!!

Click the link to read more.

THADDEUS WOLFE: Cultured Magazine

April 3, 2014

Read about Thaddeus Wolfe’s latest show Unsurfacing at Volume Gallery in the spring issue of Cultured.

MATT MERKEL HESS: Vogue

March 2, 2014

Vogue Magazine highlights some things to do in New York this spring…coming in at #20 Collective Design Fair and an image of a piece by Matt Merkel Hess we will be showing.

THOMAS KELLY: Nowness

February 2, 2014

Can you spot Rome Prize winner Thomas Kelley (half of Norman Kelley) in this piece about the meals at the American Academy in Rome?

THADDEUS WOLFE: Sight Unseen

January 31, 2014

For a preview of tonight’s Thaddeus Wolfe UNSURFACING show, head over to Sight Unseen for an interview and images.

NORMAN KELLY: Mocoloco

January 5, 2014

Check out the pictures posted by MoCo Loco of the WRONG CHAIRS by Norman Kelley.

NORMAN KELLY: Visual Art Source

January 2, 2014

Click here for the review of the Norman Kelley show WRONG CHAIRS on Visual Art Source.

THADDEUS WOLFE: Architectural Digest

Read the article on the interior of Anne-Gaëlle and Christophe Van de Weghe, pictured with a prized Basquiat in the living room of their Manhattan townhouse, which was renovated by Annabelle Selldorf and includes works by Thaddeus Wolfe.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Architizer

December 8, 2013

A wonderful article on Jonathan Muecke’s Open Objects that were presented at Design Miami this year. Read article here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Opening Ceremony

December 7, 2013

Friends of Opening Ceremony on the best of Art Basel including Daniel Arsham on Jonathan Muecke’s furniture for Volume Gallery….

JONATHAN MUECKE: Artsy

“Take note: Jonathan Muecke is sure to be a voice for decades to come.” The always amazing Andrea Lipps gives Artsy a snapshot of Design Miami:

JONATHAN MUECKE: Huffpost

Marianne Goebl gives notice to Jonathan Muecke at Design Miami! Read the full article here.

 

VOLUME GALLERY: Sight Unseen

December 5, 2013

It was a crazy week in Miami – look at what caught our eye (and a bunch of others as well).

Screen Shot 2014-09-02 at 12.14.44 PM

JONATHAN MUECKE: Artinfo

December 4, 2013

“Design Miami can be said to have two defining specialties, the other is cutting-edge contemporary, with high-energy artist-designers flexing their high-concept sculptural talents.” “Jonathan Muecke’s polygonal Stabilizer at Volume initially appears to be a table, but its angled surfaces subvert any conventional notions of function — its role is to “stabilize a room by providing an interior horizon,” Muecke explained.” Read full article here.

JONATHAN MEUCKE: Vogue

Volume Gallery’s presentation of Jonathan Muecke is one of Vogue’s 15 highlights at Art Basel in Miami!…

http://www.vogue.com/culture/article/15-highlights-you-cant-miss-at-art-basel-miami-beach-2013-/#1

JONATHAN MUECKE: Design Miami 2013 Preview: The Top 15 events/ Wallpaper Magazine

November 28, 2013

Wallpaper picks Jonathan Muecke’s pieces at Design Miami as a highlight of can’t miss pieces while in Miami.

http://www.wallpaper.com/design/design-miami-2013-preview-the-top-15-events/6989#90843

 

JONATHAN MUECKE: Design Miami/ Questionnaire Artsy

November 27, 2013

Check out what we are looking forward to at Design Miami/.

 

 

NORMAN KELLY: Domus

October 22, 2013

Andy Warhol said and Norman Kelley quotes, “When you do something exactly wrong, you always turn up something.”

Norman Kelley takes on the notion of ‘wrong’ through the iconic Windsor chair in an upcoming exhibition at Volume Gallery. Opening November 15th NK explains, in an exclusive interview with DOMUS, the evolution of “Wrong Chairs”, the resituating of history, and the potency of a good one-liner.

Read the full interview here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Architizer

December 20, 2013

A wonderful article was posted recently on the Architizer website about Jonathan Muecke’s work. They talked to Volume Gallery and reviewed the pieces on view at Design Miami.

Read the article here.

CHARLIE OGEEN: Mas Context

October 16, 2013

MAS CONTEXT goes inside (literally) Charlie O’Geen and Frank Fantuzzi’s collaboration Dizzy.

“The concept of building a dwelling from the tires is relatively simple, but the artists’ execution was remarkable. Tires are normally a bland necessity I’ve learned to unsee in the world around me, but somehow Fantauzzi and O’Geen had rendered something not only feasible but charming.”

Read the full feature here.

ROLU: Pin-up Magazine

October 4, 2013

PIN-UP INTERVIEWS publishes book filled with seven years worth of interviews from 57 designers. Straight talk on design and architecture from Roy McMakin to Rick Owens to Volume’s own Matt Olson and Mike Brady co-founders of RO/LU.

Hear (but really read) from Olson and Brody here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Design Miami Preview

September 22, 2013

Volume Gallery is participating in Design Miami 2013 as part of ON/SITE.

The global forum for design, Design Miami satisfies a growing demand for a high-end art fair with a curated section titled, ON/SITE, highlighting the innovations taking place in contemporary design through small-scale yet high-level exhibitions of new work by an individual designer.

See what works by Jonathan Muecke will be making an appearance as featured in ARTINFO “Preview of Design Miami 2013”- view slideshow.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Artsy

September 10, 2013

Jonathan Muecke sits down with Arsty to discuss OPEN OBJECTS his second solo exhibition at Volume Gallery.

“The periphery is the position that I prefer for my practice—it is ideologically free. I do not distinguish architecture from design. I am interested in interior and exterior—the interior of an object and the exterior of space.” – JM

Read the entire interview here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Sight Unseen

September 6, 2013

“Jonathan Muecke makes me anxious. I love his work so much, but I don’t entirely know what it means. I love his work so much, but he barely makes any of it. I love his work so much, but I don’t understand what he’s doing up there in Minneapolis, keeping mostly to himself…” from SightUnseen in EXPERPT: EXHIBITION JONATHAN MUECKE FOR VOLUME GALLERY FOR VOLUME GALLERY.

Read the entire article here.

Don’t miss the opening TONIGHT and put your own ending on why you love Muecke.

Opening reception 6-8PM at Volume Gallery, 845 W Washington, Chicago, IL 60607.

SNARKITECTURE: Design Miami Log

August 27, 2013

Check out this studio visit interview of Snarkitecture’s Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen, featured in Design Miami / Design Log.

NORMAN KELLY: Wrong Chairs

August 25, 2013

Read all about the great new work by Norman Kelley in this article featured in Domus. Volume Gallery is excited to exhibit these new pieces in a show opening November 15! More information coming soon…

NORMAN KELLY: Casa Vogue

August 20, 2013

More great press for Norman Kelley!

SNARKITECTURE: Domaine du Boisbuchet

Snarkitecture is instructing a Summer workshop called Excavation at Domaine du Boisbuchet in August.
For a list of all the workshop, click here!

For more info on Excavation click here!

August 16, 2013

Charlie O’Geen of Volume Gallery (volume 12) awarded one of 18 Kresge Artist Fellows in the Literary and Visual Arts for 2013.

Responding directly to the conditions of a specific site through architectural investigations O’Geen often utilizes found objects as building materials. For O’Geen the Kresge Fellowship is an opportunity to “flesh out some experiments that have been on [his] mind.”

Congratulations Charlie! Read more on Charlie O’Geen and the Kresge Fellowship here.

TANYA AGUINIGA: Ventura Lambrate

April 14, 2013

The Humpback Chair Ventura Lambrate to celebrate Milan Design Week! If you’re in Milan, be sure to stop by to the reception on April 8-10!

VOLUME GALLERY: Collective 1.

April 11, 2013

This May, Volume will be participating in Collective .1! The first annual New York design fair will exhibit vintage and contemporary works alike from select galleries around the world.

Collective .1 will be held at Pier 57, New York, NY from May 8th to the 11th

TANYA AGUINIGA: Good 100

earn more about Tanya and her work GOOD!

Read the Good100 article here!

SNARKITECTURE: Wallpaper Felt Light

April 10, 2013

Felt light will be available through Wallpaper Magazine’s Handmade Exhibition 2013, shown at Milan Design Week!

SNARKITECTURE: Master Design Classes

April 4, 2013

Ever wanted Snarkitecture to evaluate your work? Here’s your chance… Cool Hunting is hosting Master Design Classes is offer crtiques for young up-coming designers during Milan Design Week and Alex Mustonen will be reviewing architectural works.

For more info!\

To Apply!

SNARKITECTURE: Home Front

March 16, 2013

Bend, the seating from Drift was featured in The Home Front which was a one day event at the Museum of Art & Design.

For more info click here!

TANYA AGUINIGA: Time Out Chicago

March 6, 2013

LA textile artist and designer Tanya Aguiñiga is featured in Time Out Chicago Critic’s Pick

If you wanna read more click here!

SNARKITECTURE: A+ Award Trophy

December 20, 2012

See Daniel and Alex talk about the making of the Architizer A+ Award trophy.

Watch the video!!!

Volume Gallery: CHICAGO MAGAZINE

When Heiji Choy Black from Chicago Magazine calls wanting to know what types of things you surround yourself with and are inspired by, you answer. We are very honored to have had an opportunity to be featured in April’s issue of Chicago Magazine.

Click here to read the article and see what we like.

VOLUME GALLERY: New York Times

December 15, 2012

Design Miami was featured in an article in the New York Times titled “After the Boom, a Better Kind of Art”. A refreshing take on the the design market, featuring both vintage and contemporary design. We are very honored to have had the chance to contribute to the discussion.

Click here & to read the piece.

SNARKITECTURE: Drift in Frame

Frameweb.com has some great images of the Drift pavilion.
Check it out!

SNARKITECTURE: Dezeen

Design Miami/ may be over, but you don’t have to miss out on Drift. Dezeen Magazine posted some spectacular photos along with a short commentary from Daniel Arsham.

Get the pics here!

VOLUME GALLERY: Pin-up Magazine

December 11, 2012

This month’s Pin-Up highlights material using Felicia Ferrone’s marble table Shift, Jonathan Nesci’s aluminum Reference Shelf, Jonathan Muecke’s brass Low Table.

Check out the Goods…

VOLUME GALLERY: Culture Magazine

December 7, 2012

Culture Magazine Dealer’s Choice- Volume Gallery discusses American design and thriving designers.

Our choice is on pg. 78!

VOLUME GALLERY: Design Miami

December 6, 2012

One more time for the cheap seats in the back!! This year’s Design Miami/ will be fully loaded with interesting and alluring design. So if you’re in Miami, come by and stop in awe at the entrance pavilion created by Snarkitecture then swing by for some Funiture at Booth 001.

Want a glimpse? Well then follow me….

SNARKITECTURE: Design Miami

December 5, 2012

Gotta love those tubes! Design Miami/ opens to the public with the highly anticipated Drift by Snarkitecture and Architizer just posted some great images of the tubular sculpture structure. If you’re not in Miami, then at least treat yourself to some photos and a mojito ….or three.

Get the pics here!

ROLU AND MONDO CANE: Design Miami

December 3, 2012

Great design at Design Miami! Funiture by Snarkitecture will be shown by Volume Gallery in Booth 001, but don’t forget ROLU’s Nature/Nuture presented by Mondo Cane.

SNARKITECTURE: Drift

¡Gran diseño de Design Miami, con Snarkitecture!
Deténgase en el stand 001 para algunos Funiture

Haga clic aquí para obtener más información

SNARKITECTURE: A+ Awards

October 11, 2012

Architizer is hosting the first A+ Awards ….and Snarkitecture has designed the trophy!

Take a peek!

VOLUME: Culture Magazine

October 10, 2012

Muecke, Snarkitecture, and Wolfe ….Oh My! Check out the latest issue of Cultured Magazine featuring Michael Jefferson from Wright listing a few of his favorite designers and Snarkitecture’s Shelve on the cover!

Get some Culture here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Design and Havard

Harvard Grad School of Design will be hosting Liminal Objects, including a panel discussion called Design-In-Practice featuring Jonathan Muecke, among other designers. Be sure not to miss out on this session!

10|19|12 3:20PM
Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall

Liminal Objects:Design-In-Practice

SNARKITECTURE: Drift

October 3, 2012

Miami is awaiting the homecoming of Miami native Daniel Arsham, as well as the inflatable entrance that Snarkitecture designed!

For more info, visit Miami New Times!

SNARKITECTURE: Drift

October 2, 2012

Volume Gallery is pleased to present Drift, the entrance pavilion for Design Miami/ designed by Snarkitecture.

Design Miami/
12|05|12 – 12|9|12

For more info, click here!

SNARKITECTURE: Lecture at Princeton

September 25, 2012

Snarkitecture will be speaking at the Princeton School of Architecture.
Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen will host the open lecture, held on September 28th!

Friday 09|28|12 6PM
Betts Auditorium

Click here for more info.

SNARKITECTURE: Open Studio Tour

September 18, 2012

Get a chance to visit the Snarkitecture Studio with Dwell and New York Magazine City Modern.
October 2, 2012 2-5pm

For more information, click here!

SNARKITECTURE: Mayor Bloomberg, Story & NYC Fashion Week

September 11, 2012

Experimental retail shop, STORY, celebrates New York Fashion Week with Mayor Bloomberg and Snarkitecture by unveiling the winners of Project Pop-Up NYC.

click here to find out more…

JONATHAN MUECKE: Graham Foundation

May 30, 2012

Congratulations to Jonathan Muecke on receiving a Graham Foundation Grant! He will be working with Sophie Krier to push the ‘epistemological barriers’ of design and how it is viewed/captured.

Read about the project here.

VOLUME GALLERY: Abitare

May 4, 2012

Abitare has a nice write up on their blog about the Volume Gallery show Foundation, open through July 3, in Louisville, KY. Read about it here.

SNARKITECTURE: New York Times

April 26, 2012

Alex and Daniel were interviewed by the New York Times about their work together and the pieces in the Funiture show.

 

SNARKITECTURE: Artinfo

April 15, 2012

If you are curious about the progression Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen have made with Snarkitecture, Artinfo.com has written a great article discussing their new first solo show which is proudly hosted by Volume Gallery.

click here to read this article.

SNARKITECTURE: Artlog

April 13, 2012

Artlog covers the past and present in Snarkitecture’s exhibits to discuss the exciting anticipation to their first solo show, opening next week in chicago with volume gallery.

take a look

SNARKITECTURE: Wallpaper Handmade

April 4, 2012

Snarkitecture has new designs coming for Wallpaper* Handmade. The new objects will be shown in Milan on April 9th.

Take a look at Wallpaper* Handmade 2012

VOLUME GALLERY: MAD, New York

March 26, 2012

Volume Gallery is proud to be a part of the final installment of the Home Front series taking place in New York City at the Museum of Arts and Design at 7 PM on April 12. We are on a panel titled, Local Behavior: What Makes An American Designer. Along with Snarkitecture and Drura Parrish, the panel will be lead by Christopher Ho. Look forward to a lively discussion with audience participation encouraged.

See more information about the event here.

TANYA AGUINIGA: DnA

March 20, 2012

KCRW’s DnA (Design & Architecture) interviewed Tanya Aguiniga about her design and direction she’s heading towards!

Listen here!

VOLUME GALLERY: Temperature 2012

January 28, 2012

Temperature 2012 is a survey, or diagnostic, of American contemporary design, with interviews from over 35 designers and design observers. The book is being released in collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and the Home Front Series – an annual event which spotlights American design through lectures, open studios and publications.

Please join us to celebrate the release of Temperature 2012, Saturday January 28th from 4-7 PM at the Andrew Rafacz Gallery – 835 W Washington Blvd, Chicago IL.

DANIEL ARSHAM: Nowness

January 25, 2012

One of my favorite websites, Nowness, has a very nice interview with Daniel Arsham in which he talks about his practice and new works for OHWOW gallery in Los Angeles. Check it out.

DANIEL ARSHAM: Post New

January 24, 2012

For an interesting article that gives a bit of insight into the work of Daniel Arsham – half of Snarkiteture – check out this great interview on the website Post New.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Forbes

January 14, 2012

Congratulations to Rich Brilliant Willing on being named to the Forbes list 30 Under 30: Art and Design. Super cool!

DANIEL ARSHAM: New York Times

January 3, 2012

Here is a great article on Daniel Arsham’s work with Merce Cunningham. Daniel is half of the design group Snarkitecture (look for an announcement soon….).

THADDEUS WOLFE: Sight Unseen

December 12, 2011

Take a second to read this great article on Thaddeus Wolfe on the always interesting Sight Unseen website for some insight into the inspiration and techniques used to create the Assemblage pieces shown at Volume Gallery. Read here.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Huffington Post

September 22, 2011

The Huffington Post has an article today comparing the drive of new/young design firms to that of starting a rock n roll band. Check out the article and come to your own conclusion.

Click here to read the piece.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Architectural Digest

August 12, 2011

Once again Rich Brilliant Willing is highlighted as designers to watch. This month in Architectural Digest’s AD Innovator column.

Click here to read all about it.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Design Bureau

July 25, 2011

Design Bureau’s new issue features a nice article on Rich Brilliant Willing. Check out the piece for a little on each of the guys (Alex, Charles, Theo) and how their personalities combine to make Rich Brilliant Willing designers to watch.

Click here for the article. Or better yet, pick up a copy!

JONATHAN NESCI: You Have Been Here Sometime

July 22, 2011

Take some time and go over to the You Have Been Here Sometime blog to read an interesting article conducted recently with Jonathan Nesci. And while you are there, make sure to check out the rest of the interviews on the site.

Click here to read the interview.

FELICIA FERRONE: Michigan Public Radio

July 14, 2011

Felicia Ferrone was interviewed by Michigan Public Radio a few weeks back regarding her work as a designer utilizing local resources (something Volume always prides itself in as well) and also her new company call Shared-Practice. SP is an online community meant to connect like-minded individuals in the architecture/design/fabrication fields. Make sure to go to the website and join.

Check out the interview here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: W Magazine

May 23, 2011

In the most recent issue of W Magazine there is a great piece about Jonathan Muecke’s work – likening Mass to a black hole for your living room (an interesting use).

Click here for the article.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Best New Designers

May 16, 2011

A big congratulations to Theo, Charles and Alex for winning the Best New Designer 2011 Editor Award at this year’s ICFF. Fantastic news for Rich Brilliant Willing.

Click here to see the list of winners.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Graham Foundation

May 9, 2011

Please join us this Saturday May 14th at 4:30 for a lecture at the Graham Foundation by Jonathan Muecke, titled “Open Objects”. This is sure to provide fascinating insight into the pieces being shown at Volume Gallery, as well as the larger design philosophy that informs Jonathan’s work.

Click here for more information and to RSVP.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Core77

April 27, 2011

Once again, Core77 has written a great piece on the upcoming Jonathan Muecke show. Thanks Lisa Smith.

Click here to read.

JONATHAN MUECKE: T Magazine

Thanks to Pilar Viladas for a nice preview of the upcoming Jonathan Muecke show Open Objects. We are very excited to be in the New York Times in some way or another for our last two shows. Keep the streak alive!

Click here to read.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Design Applause

April 2, 2011

Not long ago, Volume Gallery sat down with Rich Brilliant Willing and discussed with the Design Applause blog to talk about design – in a marco and micro context. Follow the links below to read the two-part interview.

Part 1

Part 2

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: You Have Been Here Sometime

March 20, 2011

The You Have Been Here Sometime blog has written an interesting piece on the inception of RBW’s Pro Forma collection – showing the project from start to finish.

Click here for the post.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Designboom

March 18, 2011

Thanks for the mention of Designboom today. The post has great blown up images of all the pieces in the collection for your inspection.

Click here to read.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Core77

March 17, 2011

There is a great post about the Pro Forma collection on the Core77 website that is definitely worth checking out.

Click here to read it.

VOLUME GALLERY: New York Times

March 16, 2011

This is very exciting for us! The Rich Brilliant Willing show Pro Forma debuting this weekend at Volume Gallery got a preview in the New York Times. We are very proud of this accomplishment.

Read the piece here.

VOLUME GALLERY: Timeout Chicago

March 14, 2011

This week’s TimeOut has a great article written by Lauren Weinberg on the work that we do at Volume. The piece gives a great preview for the upcoming Rich Brilliant Willing show, as well as a nice recap of the Jonathan Nesci and Felicia Ferrone shows.

Click here to read.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: VIP lounge at the Armory

RBW teamed up with Ligne Rosset to design the VIP Lounge at this year’s Armory Show in New York. Check out this short video that gives a behind the scenes look at the lounge they created.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Core 77 Design Award Trophy

March 8, 2011

According to the Core77 website:

“This one we’re keeping under our hats a bit, but suffice it to say that we all know what’s wrong with most design award trophies (hint: it’s not the aesthetics). We have invited iconoclastic New York-based design firm Rich Brilliant Willing to design the inaugural Core77 Design Award Trophy, live, over the 2-month entry period so that participants can witness the evolution of the trophy they are trying to win. And of course, all winners, Runners-Up, and Notable entries will be published in the Core77 Design Awards Gallery site and across the Core77 online network.”

We are looking forward to what they design as well!

Click here to read about the awards.

FELICIA FERRONE: You Have Been Here Sometime

January 27, 2011

Felicia Ferrone vs. Fontana Arte. A worthy comparison.

Read it here.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Abitare

January 21, 2011

What a pleasant surprise to find that Abitare posted the information for the upcoming Rich Brilliant Willing show Pro Forma. A great big thank you to Abitare for their support of the RBW.

Click here to read.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Un Beige

January 20, 2011

Thanks UnBeige. Make sure check out this article written on the Rich Brilliant Willing show for Volume Gallery titled Pro Forma. Excellent.

Click here to read the post.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Detnk

January 19, 2011

Stop by the Detnk website for all of your design needs – a great site from London that gives the reader up to date information on design happenings around the world. Thanks for the mention of the Rich Brilliant Willing show Pro Forma.

Read the post here.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Because London

For a great article on all of the different projects that Rich Brilliant Willing are involved with, make sure to check out this cool piece on Because London’s website. Did you know that they are designing the VIP lounge with Ligne Roset for the Armory Show this year? Right on.

Read all about it here.

VOLUME GALLERY: Details Magazine

January 11, 2011

How cool is this? In the December issue of Details Volume Gallery was mentioned as one of the world’s finest design galleries. Very cool.

Click here to check it out.

JONATHAN NESCI: Chicago Magazine

December 20, 2010

Chicago Magazine recently asked area shopkeepers who they are keeping their eye on. Chicago tastemaker Morlen Sinoway picked Jonathan Nesci – we could not agree more. Click here for the article, and make sure to stop by Morlen Sinoway Atelier.

FELICIA FERRONE: Carnet de Notes

December 10, 2010

Felicia Ferrone’s work for Volume Gallery is featured on the Carnet de Notes hot sheet. Click here to check it out.

RICH BRILLIANT WILLING: Sight Unseen

December 1, 2010

Rich Brilliant Willing are at it again. This time they are featured on the always wonderful Sight Unseen. Read about what inspires and informs their designs; from a recent trip to China to a glass insulator – these three look at what surrounds us with a sensitivity that is uniquely there own. Click here for the article.

FELICIA FERRONE: Otto Otto

November 1, 2010

Otto Otto has recently put up a great interview with Felicia Ferrone that delves into her creative process. Also, there are great pictures of many of the prototype and processes each piece in On Space went through before being fully realized.

Read the article here.

FELICIA FERRONE: Otto Otto

October 29, 2010

Here is a great piece that the blog Otto Otto published showing Felicia Ferrone’s installion for the On Space collection.

Have a look at the article here.

FELICIA FERRONE: Chicago Home & Garden

Chicago Home & Garden stopped recently to talk with Felicia Ferrone. They have posted this nice little article on the their blog – giving some insight into some of Felicia’s piece.

Read the article here.

JONATHAN MUECKE: Abitare

October 10, 2010

Check out this wonderful article written by Jonathan Olivares that was published in Abitare Magazine. It is a fascinating look into the world of Jonathan Muecke’s work. Volume Gallery will be presenting pieces by Muecke in 2011. Get ready. The article is here.

FELICIA FERRONE: Core 77

October 3, 2010

Please read the article written by Lisa Smith about Felicia Ferrone’s show On Space for the website Core77 here.

FELICIA FERRONE: On Space on Dexigner

September 23, 2010

Felicia Ferrone’s pieces are featured in an article on the dexigner blog. Click here to check it out.

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