From the Ground Up: Design Here + Now

From the Ground Up Design Here + Now January 31 – April 11, 2015 Curated by Katya Crawford, Viviette Hunt, Kristen Shaw & Mira Woodson

Artists & Designers Chris Beccone Donavan Boone + Parker Sprague Tim Castillo, Ian LeBlanc + Eric Meyer Brandon Clark Katya Crawford Bruce Warren Davis Maria Estrada Beverly Fisher Miguel Gandert, Levi Romero + Hue Walker Cheyenne Gurule Keila Gutierrez Gabrielle Herbosa Mike Heighway Lance G. Hinkle Justine Humble + David Gallegos Kei & Molly Kenji Kondo Studio Jeff Krueger Richard Levy Danielle Rae Miller Zachary Mills Stephen Mora + Sandy Johnson Valentin Raphael Montoya Kenneth Myers Brandon Ortiz Virgil Ortiz Emi Ozawa Eiman Rezai Noreen Richards Amanda Robinson Dillon K. Romero Lorenzo Ruiz Antolin Salazar Gervacio Veree Parker Simons Sara Stewart Thomas Tomlinson Jennifer Vasher Max Vasher

Damian Velasquez Eduardo Ventura Alec Vittitow Kima Wakefield Madie Wickstrom Steve White Mira Woodson + Kristen Shaw Nicole Zollner White Cube Installation: Rana Abudayyeh + Kramer Woodard Geoff Adams Jon Anderson Mark Baker Gordon Barnard Chris Beccone Matthew Bollinger May Coleman + Indira Kaini Devendra Contractor, DNCA Don Dudley Jessica Dunn, Dominique Dupont + Kristina Guist Werenko Entropic Industries, Cory Greenfield + Jared Winchester Ed Fitzgerald Lee Gamelsky Architects Graham Hogan Josh Johnson + Thomas Tomlinson Carly Matthews Piccarello Efthimios Maniatis MRWM Landscape Architects Xavier Nu単o-Whelan Antoine Predock Bart Prince Jay Rice, Spade Design Build Max Vasher Judith Wong

Introduction It is a pleasure for 516 ARTS to present From the Ground Up: Design Here + Now, which celebrates the depth, breadth and ingenuity of Albuquerque’s contemporary art, design and architecture. The guest curatorial team, comprised of Katya Crawford, Viviette Hunt, Kristen Shaw and Mira Woodson, have brought their own individual creativity and passion to the process of assembling this exhibition.

Although it features over 80 designers and architects and offers a sweeping look at current talent in Albuquerque, it represents just a sampling of the vast and evergrowing local production in these fields.

This exhibition was developed as part of On the Map: Unfolding Albuquerque Art + Design, an expansive arts collaboration that celebrates the art of central New Mexico by over 20 partnering organizations. 516 ARTS is one of the leaders on the organizing committee for On the Map, along with the Albuquerque Museum, Harwood Art Center, Richard Levy Gallery and the City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Program. For information, visit ABQontheMap.com.

I would like to extend heartfelt thanks to all the artists and curators, our small but mighty staff of Rhiannon Mercer, Teresa Buscemi and Claude Smith, the 516 ARTS Board of Directors and all of our generous funders and sponsors.

I hope you enjoy the show! – Suzanne Sbarge Executive Director, 516 ARTS Veree Parker Simons, Contemplation, digital print on archival watercolor paper, 14.25 x 19 inches

From the Ground Up Design Here + Now

By Katya Crawford, Guest Co-Curator

Under the surface of Route 66 nostalgia, strip malls, hot air balloons, kokopelis and Breaking Bad tours, Albuquerque is teeming with contemporary designers, architects, landscape architects, artists, industrial and graphic designers, ceramicists, jewelers and fashion designers who are all actively reimagining the city’s 21st century identity. From the Ground Up celebrates this phenomenon by sampling an array of Albuquerque’s established and burgeoning designers.

As a home for designers, Albuquerque is simultaneously a supportive and harsh environment. Affordable living, 300+ days of sun a year, the University of New Mexico’s creative and intellectual core, an international airport and a stunning landscape rub up against the challenges often found in poor urban planning and tight resources. Within this context exists a visionary group deeply committed to the integrity of architecture, design, regional beauty, and the quality of life for the urban dweller. Architects such as Antoine Predock, Sam Sterling, Jon Anderson, Devendra Contractor, Ed Fitzgerald, Mark Baker and Lee Gamelsky, to name a few, respond to site context, climate, and regional identity without compromising form, beauty and function. In short, their work represents 21st century paradigms and technology engaged in a rich dialogue with history and place.

In From the Ground Up, these Albuquerque architects reside together in the suspended White Cube Installation. A portal in each cube reveals to the viewer a conceptual or built project. The diverse body of work creates a rich dialogue between materiality, technology, form and space, building and landscape, while the viewing format gives the visitor an intimate and spatial experience of the two-dimensional images. With over fifty architects and landscape architects represented, the visitor is exposed to the strength and diversity of Albuquerque design talent.

The University of New Mexico’s School of Architecture and Planning harnesses local talent and draws young designers from across the nation. The school feeds Albuquerque’s architectural design community and in turn, a strong handful of local architects teach part time. This give-give relationship provides praxis, providing the city with a strong architectural anchor. Emerging designers from the school hold a prominent space in From The Ground Up. In Personal Cartographies, an architectural process of three-dimensional modeling maps memory and identity. The individual cartographies are placed on 16 pedestals and compose a complex and imperfect grid, not unlike the city we inhabit. The material restraint, craftsmanship, composition and narrative reveal the foundations of an architectural design process.

The exhibition capitalizes on the Art in architecture. Agoojiganan, the Ojibwe word for something hung, challenges conventional notions of architecture by creating an ethereal room comprised of thousands of pieces of suspended string. Where as traditional buildings are anchored to the ground, this piece floats above the floor.

Visitors are invited to enter this levitating space and partake in a phenomenological experience through the delicate and tactile qualities of an unconventional architecture. Juxtaposed to Agoojiganan is Jennifer Vasher’s installation Spalter, a small claustrophobic vestibule lined with modular tiles made of clustered castings of pharmaceuticals. Set within a more traditional structure, Spalter is a satirical response to our culture’s obsession with health and beauty. The Dome, a third experiential installation conceived of by Tim Castillo, Ian LeBlanc and Eric Myer,

Donavan Boone + Parker Sprague, Agoojiganan, interactive string room installation, 8 x 12 feet

offers an immersive, visual and auditory environment for the projection of digital film. Here, the outside world is captured, reimagined and brought into a controlled interior space.

Upon entering 516 ARTS, a rich assemblage of functional objects begins the design discourse of From the Ground Up. The design installation runs floor to ceiling showcasing everyday objects that consider beauty, materiality and form in tandem with function. The work represents both traditional building methods and new technologies and demonstrates a rigorous appreciation of craft and making. As a whole, this installation explores how common objects have the potential to enrich and change the way we interact with and see the world. Jewelry and fashion design consider the landscape of the body, and question traditional notions of ornamentation. Amanda Robinson’s graffiti dresses fuse the male dominated visual language of street art with the feminine history of the dress. The result is a wearable architecture that combines the urban landscape with domestic material.

Eiman Rezai’s kinetic jewelry considers the life of each object both off and on the body. At the moment of human touch and placement, both the object and the wearer are transformed.

From the Ground Up brings together regional art, architecture, landscape, form and function under one roof, creating a timely Albuquerque-specific dialogue on design in the valley we call home. Not without struggle, this high desert home demands commitment, passion and collaboration from its designers. As projects by regional designers permeate the globe, Albuquerque is positioned securely on the map as a site of resourcefulness, innovation and vision.

Eiman Rezai, Kinetic Bracelet, nickel, 2.5 x 2.25 inches

Thank you!

516 ARTS PATRON DONORS Diane Burke New Mexico Orthopaedics Rick Rennie & Sandy Hill Nancy Salem Paula Smith-Hawkins Strell Design Randy Trask David Vogel & Marietta Leis Dr. Marta Weber Clint Wells

FUNDERS City of Albuquerque: Richard J. Berry, Mayor City Councilor Isaac Bention & City Councilors Beatriz Rivera, Director, Cultural Services Department Urban Enhancement Trust Fund Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Bernalillo County: Commissioner Maggie Hart-Stebbins Community Events The FUNd of Albuquerque Community Foundation

SPECIAL THANKS

McCune Charitable Foundation

Albuquerque Museum Chef Billy Brown Don Mickey Designs Screen Images, Inc. Starline Printing Stubblefield Screenprinting

New Mexico Arts New Mexico Tourism Department The University of New Mexico: Geraldine Forbes, Dean, School of Architecture + Planning Kymberly Pinder, Dean, College of Fine Arts

MEDIA PARTNERS Albuquerque Journal KUNM Radio 89.9 FM New Mexico Mercury Pyragraph

Richard J. Berry Mayor

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

FRONT: Kenji Kondo Studio, Circle Lamp, laser cut acrylic, laser-cut Baltic birch plywood, 12 x 22 inches Damian Velesquez, Chair No. 35 from the half 13 Collection, powder coated stainless steel, 24 x 30 x 27.5 inches

516 Central Avenue SW Albuquerque, NM 87102 505-242-1445 www.516arts.org

516 ARTS is an independent, nonprofit, 501(c)(3) contemporary arts organization, operating a museum-style gallery in the center of Downtown Albuquerque. It is made possible in part by grants, contributions and Friends of 516 ARTS like you!

To join the Friends of 516 ARTS, visit www.516arts.org/join