new york NEW YORK

We often hear that art is important, but we’re seldom told exactly why. Renowned Swiss-born popular philosopher and essayist Alain de Botton believes art has relevance in answering some of our most intimate and ordinary dilemmas: Why is my work not satisfying? Why do other people seem to have a more glamorous life? How can I improve my relationships?

lecture: Alain de BOTTON, “Art as Therapy.”
Friday, 10/18
6.30–8.00 p.m. / The Great Hall, Foundation Building
The Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street
New York, NY 10003

*photo: Charlotte de BOTTON.

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

Kevin MACK:

Standing Mind Over Matter
An array of shapes form complex relationships through selective random happenstance and deliberate design. The forms are entangled and weave in and out of each other in purposeful and irrational ways.The apparently organized structural system provides conflicting stimuli. Rules are established, but not adhered to. Identity and function appear determinable, but are not.

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UNITED KINGDOM

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

Yulia BRODSKAYA:

Gypsy
This is a self-initiated work, one of a series of portraits that I have started recently. I have chosen to work on portraits because I was curious to know what can, and what cannot, be said within the boundaries of the chosen medium—edge-glued paper strips and material— and if it is possible to successfully convey meaning and emotions. And what is more challenging than a person’s face?

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nantes FRANCE

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

PEZ: The “Endless Faces Project” is a series of portraits realised with graphite pencils on 300 gr/m2 paper. All drawings are 19×25″ in size, each portrait requiring approximately 30–40 working hours to complete.

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berlin GERMANY

Robert Seidel’s permanent video Installation, Grapheme, at Museum Wiesbaden, Germany opened on May 7th, 2013.

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wellington NEW ZEALAND

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

Britt BELL: Exploring the future Earth that has sunk into decay due to the decreased intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field. This has allowed animals to mutate and caused them to grow taller and more fearsome.

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2011

Kissing Architecture explores the mutual attraction between architecture and other forms of contemporary art. In this fresh, insightful, and beautifully illustrated book, renowned architectural critic and scholar Sylvia Lavin develops the concept of “kissing” to describe the growing intimacy between architecture and new types of art—particularly multimedia installations that take place in and on the surfaces of buildings—and to capture the sensual charge that is being designed and built into architectural surfaces and interior spaces today.

houston TEXAS

Soo Sunny Park’’s installation Unwoven Light animates Rice Gallery’’s expansive space, transforming it into a shimmering world of light, shadow, and brilliant color. Suspended from the walls and ceiling, thirty-seven individually sculpted units are arranged as a graceful, twisting flow of abstract form. Entering the gallery there is no set path to follow. Instead, we are invited to meander slowly as one might stroll along a river’s edge, stopping to admire the glints of light that dance on the water’s surface.

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ann arbor MICHGAN

University of Michigan Museum of Art
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art, “Florencia Pita/FPmod” explores the provocations and intersections of digital technology, material experimentation, and ornament in the work of Argentina-born, Los Angeles-based architect and designer Florencia Pita. The exhibition and its related publication, part of the UMMA Books series, trace the evolution of Pita’s design ideology through installation pieces, urban design, tableware, furniture, and architecture, as well as small adornments.

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lawrence KANSAS

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

Melissa ANDERSON: This project attempts to make people become more empathetic by relating environmental issues to the human body by pairing portraits with unadulterated photographs of a local stream. By doing this, I encourage the viewer to question our relationship with nature.

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