From the Ground UpDesign Here + Now

January 31 – April 11, 2015

Curated by Katya Crawford, Viviette Hunt, Kristen Shaw & Mira Woodson

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 Nuño-Whelan

Antoine Predock

Bart Prince

Jay Rice, Spade Design Build

Max Vasher

Judith Wong

Artists & Designers

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 ever-growing 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

introduction

Veree Parker Simons, Contemplation, digital print on archival watercolor paper, 14.25 x 19 inches

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, cerami-

cists, 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.

From the Ground UpDesign Here + Now

By Katya Crawford, Guest Co-Curator

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

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 phenomeno-

logical 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,

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

FUNDeRs

City of Albuquerque:Richard J. Berry, MayorCity Councilor Isaac Bention & City CouncilorsBeatriz Rivera, Director, Cultural Services DepartmentUrban Enhancement Trust Fund

Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Bernalillo County: Commissioner Maggie Hart-StebbinsCommunity Events

The FUNd of Albuquerque Community Foundation

McCune Charitable Foundation

New Mexico Arts

New Mexico Tourism Department

The University of New Mexico:Geraldine Forbes, Dean, School of Architecture + PlanningKymberly Pinder, Dean, College of Fine Arts

516 ARts PAtRoN DoNoRs

Diane BurkeNew Mexico OrthopaedicsRick Rennie & Sandy HillNancy SalemPaula Smith-HawkinsStrell DesignRandy TraskDavid Vogel & Marietta LeisDr. Marta WeberClint Wells

sPeCiAl tHANKs

Albuquerque MuseumChef Billy BrownDon Mickey DesignsScreen Images, Inc.Starline PrintingStubblefield Screenprinting

MeDiA PARtNeRs

Albuquerque JournalKUNM Radio 89.9 FMNew Mexico MercuryPyragraph

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts

Richard J. BerryMayor

thank you!

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