“Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture” presents two-dimensional work that explores the architecture and utopian ideas of the modern period. “The artists are less interested in the built structures themselves and what it might feel like to be inside one, and more interested in the philosophy and idealism they represent,” curator Jessica Hough suggests. “The way in which the buildings signal a possibility of utopia is essential—a future that could have been. Sentimentality runs through much of the work.”
In the NYTimes, Benjamin Genocchio writes that Modernist buildings—whether in Europe, South America, or the United States—were designed to achieve standardization, largely for cost and functionality. He notes that what is endearing about the works on view is how lovingly the artists have embraced individual buildings, photographing, painting, or recreating them with thought, feeling, and emotion, infusing the impersonal with the personal. Read more.
“Painting the Glass House: Artists Revisit Modern Architecture,” curated by Jessica Hough and Mónica Ramírez-Montagut. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT and the Yale School of Architecture Gallery, New Haven, CT. Through July 27. Artists include Alexander Apóstol, Daniel Arsham, Gordon Cheung, David Claerbout, Angela Dufresne, Mark Dziewulski, Christine Erhard, Cyprien Gaillard, Terence Gower, Angelina Gualdoni, Natasha Kissell, Luisa Lambri, Dorit Margreiter, Russell Nachman, Enoc Perez, and Lucy Williams.
