Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Taking Another Look — Art Feast: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is Open

Reposting one of my most popular recent posts from May 17, 2016:


I’ve visited it extensively over the last three weeks.

This week, I’ve written and listed in detail how to survey and visit and get the most out of SFMOMA. The museum is complex, massive, and rich in major art and ideas and new concepts.

I don’t want you to miss Agnes Martin’s gallery, Gerhard Richter’s portraits, the Typography show (featuring Jony Ive’s iPhone), and Wayne Thiebaud portraits, a rare Andy Warhol ‘Mao’, and the lyrical paintings of Brice Marden. Matisse, Cezanne and Picasso are here. And Sightglass coffee. You’ll need it.

Set aside a full morning or afternoon. Book a timed ticket. And plan to take in an artist lecture, a curator talk.



SFMOMA: The new 10-floor addition floats across the city skyline like a giant Christo wrapped monolith. At night the pale grey exterior hovers in the fog. It’s located at 151 Third Street, between Howard and Mission Streets.

The new addition to SFMOMA makes it one of the largest modern art museums in the world. It was designed by Snohetta, the acclaimed American/Norwegian architects.




I’ve figured out a great tour for you.

The international art world is abuzz with the opening of the newly invented museum But, with seven floors of exhibits, nineteen dramatic inaugural exhibitions, multimedia, and 1,900 art works on show, new galleries, new collections, and superbly shaped interior architecture—where do you look, what do you see first, where do you linger, and especially where do you start?

In five recent visits to the museum, I’ve planned your first visit.

This is a long and detailed post.

Print out this post and take it with you on your first visit. I describe the secret places where you can see favorite pieces, corners where you can disappear, terraces where you can go out and see the city, and rooms to sit in the dark, commune with art greatness, and fall in love with paintings and art works that inspire reverie, laughter, knowledge, and entertainment.






Come with me for an art feast—and find the great artists, pleasures, delights, and discoveries and have lots of fun (and a restorative hand-crafted coffee). Give yourself about four hours. And bring a protein bar or two, or an apple, a pocketful of almonds.
The café (called Café 5) is located on the 5th floor next to the 5th floor garden/sculpture terrace. Catering by McCalls. The much anticipated restaurant, In Situ, designed by Aidlin Darlin, with chef Corey Lee, opens soon.






Best Tip: Start at the Top


The sculpture terrace on the seventh floor. Go outdoors, view SOMA from above.

1. Seventh Floor

My SFMOMA private tour starts on the 7th floor. Take an elevator to the 7th floor, and after a quick glance at the Jeff Koons flower bouquet sculpture, turn left.

Stop and sit on the window ledge to gaze out. These wide-ledge windows are a handsome feature of the new museum, allowing cityscapes and a place to loll and linger.
Head to the pair of glass doors leading out to the Sculpture Terrace directly outside. You are high on the building's north wall. Enjoy the unexpected city view, with historic brick buildings and narrow alleys, a very fascinating sense of place. Ponder and muse over the relationship of the museum with this formerly gritty section of town, now full of tech offices.

Walk through the provocative Mimi and Peter Haas galleries. Note the Sherrie Levine small sculpture, a wooden cradle.






Note: Mobile apps and links throughout the galleries offer more information about the works of art. I propose for the first visit, use these minimally. They distract more than inform…and they break your reverie and close relationship with the art.


Take the stairs down to the sixth floor. The stairways are off-kilter, soaring, and thrilling.







2. Sixth Floor

View the magnificent Fisher Collection with its thrilling monographic galleries. Start by reading the museum notes, beside ‘Zwei Kerzen’.



Gerhard Richter, Zwei Kerzen (Two Candles), 1982; oil on linen, 48 in. x 40 in. (121.92 cm x 101.6 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection; © Gerhard Richter



Immediately turn left and head toward the window—then turn right and walk down the long, elegant wall to the end. This is a quiet moment.








Turn right into the gallery of photography by Bernd and Hilla Becher. 







The highly admired German couple photographed industrial structures—and in turn taught and inspired photographers Thomas Struth and Andreas Gursky, who are shown in the following galleries.



Thomas Struth, Louvre 2, Paris, 1989, 1989; chromogenic print face-mounted to acrylic, 86 1/4 in. x 71 1/4 in. (219.08 cm x 180.98 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Thomas Struth


Take a seat. The museum has many leather-topped benches. Ponder the Struth photograph of a Louvre interior. Magnificent.

Turn left into the Shirin Neshat video gallery and disappear into the darkness to watch her thought-provoking film, with a soundtrack by Philip Glass. Mesmerizing.




Shirin Neshat
Passage
2001

Move swiftly to one of several Gerhard Richter’s galleries to ‘Lesende’, his wife. Take a seat, and muse on this ravishing portrait, referencing Vermeer. Study his other portraits.




Gerhard Richter, Lesende (Reader), 1994; oil on linen, 28 1/2 in. x 40 1/8 in. (72.39 cm x 101.92 cm);  © Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter, Brigid Polk, 1971; oil on linen, 39 1/2 in. x 49 1/2 in. (100.33 cm x 125.73 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Gerhard Richter


It’s at this point, brain abuzz, that close reading of the many of the gallery paintings reveals the profound influence and imprint of photography on art, on paintings, on concepts of art, and on our way of experiencing paintings and art works.

Then at the entrance to these German art galleries, take a new look at ‘Zwei Kerzen’.


Upon exiting, turn right and near the window, turn left into ‘Typeface to Interface’, a fantastically intelligent and wide-ranging show. It shows chic portable Olivetti typewriters, as well as Haight-Ashbury classic psychedelic posters, subway maps, early Apple computers, and then the triumph of Jony Ive’s iPhone. 









The superb show is an elegant homage to San Francisco and especially to Silicon Valley and its genius world-changing ideas, fixations and brilliant risk-taking.

Watch at the exit for riveting computer-designed, chalk-crafted calligraphy on a black wall. It’s by Jurg Lehni.

Head down to the fifth floor, taking the stairs.

“SFMOMA is an extraordinary, submersive universe. It’s important to be open to experiencing everything.”—Artist José Arias, who is a member of the ‘visitor experience’ team. Team members are the helpful and incredibly knowledgeable and charming people in red t-shirts, who guide and advise visitors. Look for them near the elevators. Oh, and ask for José Arias. He’s such good company.



3. Fifth Floor — Pop, Minimal and Figurative Painting

Walk down the north hallway. It’s angled. Stop and look out the windows. These ‘interim’ spaces are Snøhetta at its best. Thank you, Craig Dykers.

At the end of the hallway turn right, and scope past Dan Flavin, Frank Stella, and Sol LeWitt.






Pause to muse on Chuck Close’s portraits, powerfully presented here. I love his portrait of Agnes Martin, and the devotion, discipline and exuberance of the painting.




Chuck Close, Agnes, 1998; oil on canvas, 102 1/8 in. x 84 in. (259.4 cm x 213.36 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Chuck Close


Wayne Thiebaud’s portrait and landscape are here. He’s 96, and full of spirit. I met him at one of the opening parties. 


Wayne Thiebaud, Valley Streets, 2003; oil on canvas, 48 in. x 60 in. (121.92 cm x 152.4 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York


Wayne Thiebaud, Student, 1968; oil on linen, 60 1/8 in. x 48 1/8 in. (152.72 cm x 122.24 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA, New York


David Hockney has a small figurative piece here.

Andy Warhol is a powerful presence—with works that are powerful and engaging. “Triple Elvis’ (a popular selfie background), and ‘Jackie’ and tuna cans all here. Pause. It’s a treat.




Andy Warhol, Triple Elvis [Ferus type], 1963; silver paint, spray paint, and silkscreen ink on linen, 82 1/4 in. x 118 1/2 in. (208.92 cm x 300.99 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Before exiting 5, scope around to the Oculus Bridge in the Botta building.



4. Fourth Floor — A Favorite: The Fisher Collection, American Abstraction

Walk down the hallway, pause at the windows, then head through the Ellsworth Kelly galleries to the Agnes Martin ‘chapel’. Take a place on the ottoman, and lose yourself in her peerless abstractions (a favorite of Doris Fisher). It’s pure poetry, pure abstraction. It calms the brain and eye.



Agnes Martin, Night Sea, 1963; oil, crayon, and gold leaf on linen, 72 in. x 72 in. (182.88 cm x 182.88 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Estate of Agnes Martin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Cy Twombly, Second Voyage to Italy (Second Version), 1962; oil, crayon, and graphite on linen, 59 in. x 79 in. (149.86 cm x 200.66 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Cy Twombly Foundation


Pass then to two of my favorites—Cy Twombly and equally Brice Marden. Rest and reflect. I had the pleasure to meet Brice at an opening party. His ‘Cold Mountain 6 (Bridge) recalls Pollock and Twombly, and seascapes, air, calligraphy, light, and pure poetry.



Brice Marden, Cold Mountain 6 (Bridge), 1989-1991; oil on linen, 108 in. x 144 in. (274.32 cm x 365.76 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Purchase through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis; © Brice Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York




Brice Marden, 6 (Course), 1987-1988; oil on linen, 84 in. x 60 in. (213.36 cm x 152.4 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Brice Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Circle to the Francis Bacon portrait, and the Fernand Leger portraits. Compare and contrast.



Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait (With Two Owls), 1963; oil on canvas, 78 in. x 57 in. (198.12 cm x 144.78 cm); Fractional and promised gift of Helen and Charles Schwab; © 2011 Estate of Francis Bacon / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York



5. Third Floor — Coffee and Snøhetta Inspirations

Walk down the stairs to the third floor and speed to Sightglass café. I hope there are pastries from Patisserie B for you. Watch the baristas handcraft your latte. Take a seat.

Wander freely through the photography galleries. The world is here. Larry Sultan’s work is a favorite, and these galleries are rich.

Then head over to a small gallery for ‘Model Behavior’ the inspiring exhibit that shows how Snohetta invented SFMOMA. First concepts –which look remarkably like the finished museum—were improvised in foamcore, tissue paper, wood, resin, cardboard and wood. It’s a fantastic metaphor for creativity in action.








6. Second Floor — Matisse

It’s here that you’ll take an inspiring look back—at painting, at Matisse, Cezanne, and Picasso—and the magnificent Rothko. View Frida Kahlo and Diego as well. You could spend hours here. Moments of bliss.



Henri Matisse, Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat), 1905; oil on canvas, 31 3/4 in. x 23 1/2 in. (80.65 cm x 59.69 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Bequest of Elise S. Haas; © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Henri Matisse, Paysage: Les genêts (Landscape: Broom), 1906; oil on panel, 12 in. x 15 5/8 in. (30.48 cm x 39.69 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Bequest of Elise S. Haas; © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


Henri Matisse, Sketch for "Le Bonheur de vivre" ("The Joy of Life"), 1905-1906; oil on canvas, 16 in. x 21 1/2 in. (40.64 cm x 54.61 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Bequest of Elise S. Haas; © Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York


And then walk toward to Howard Street entrance—to sit on the steps above the marvelous Richard Serra sculpture. This is a marvelous museum moment, and perhaps it is time to munch on your protein bar, as you reflect on your SFMOMA day.






Head back into the bustle and blur of San Francisco.

And come back soon. There is so much more to see.





About the Museum:  History + Highlights

SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to modern and contemporary art.

The San Francisco Museum of Art opened on January 18, 1935, under the direction of Grace McCann Morley.

1936: The museum’s second year offered an exhibition of works by Henri Matisse — the first on the West Coast — primarily drawn from two local private collections.

The San Francisco Museum of Art becomes one of the first museums to recognize photography as a fine art by establishing, under the guidance of Curator John Humphrey, a collection of photographic works.

SFMOMA was the first museum to present a solo exhibition of the works of Jackson Pollock. Eventually the museum left the Veteran’s Building, and moved to SOMA into a new Mario Botta-designed museum that forms the center of the new Snøhetta center.





Neal Benezra became director in 2002.

After a three-year closure, the newly transformed and expanded San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opened its doors to the public on May 14, 2016. With nearly three times more gallery space than before, the museum opened with 19 inaugural exhibitions.

The curated selection from the distinguished Doris and Donald Fisher Collection is the highlight of the museum.

There is a floor devoted to the fantastic Pritzker Center for Photography, as well as favorites from SFMOMA’s permanent collection, and works specially commissioned for the new museum. SFMOMA now includes nearly 45,000 square feet of art-filled free public spaces. A café, and restaurant, In Situ, designed by Aidlin Darling Architects, will open soon.

On the 3rd floor is Sightglass coffee bar, with pastries by Patisserie B (sometimes, alas, sold out).

SFMOMA will offer free admission for all visitors 18 and younger in perpetuity.







A Must-Visit Inspiring Exhibit: How Snøhetta Designed SFMOMA

Spend time and take a close look at this subtle and lovely show.

It shows how began to conceptualize the museum, using low-key and playful materials like tissue paper, resin, wood, old newspapers, and plastic. It’s fascinating to see that from their initial concepts—the ideas were refined and examined but the floating abstract layers remained the same. This is one of my favorite exhibits in the museum.



Model Behavior: Snøhetta’s First Concepts for SFMOMA
May 14, 2016–January 16, 2017
Floor 3

As a practice, Snøhetta architects begin each project by identifying a set of conditions inherent to the site — not merely its physical setting, but also its cultural context with the goal of designing spaces that frame a condition, direct attention and provide a deliberate experience. More than 50 sketch models and five sketchbooks on view offer perspective on the process behind the SFMOMA expansion design, and a new mobile app provides an additional museum experience of built architecture with a narrated walk-through of key design decisions in the new SFMOMA.

The new museum project was led by the museum director Neal Benezra, along with Gary Garrels, senior curator, and Ruth Berson, a deputy director who oversaw the three-year architecture expansion.

Gerhard Richter, Stadtbild Madrid (Cityscape Madrid), 1968; oil on linen, 109 in. x 115 in. (276.86 cm x 292.1 cm); The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; © Gerhard Richter

Current Exhibition Highlights

EXHIBITION
German Art after 1960
The Fisher Collection
May 14, 2016–ongoing
Floor 6

German artists who emerged after 1960 explored their postwar landscape — situated between recent disaster and emerging prosperity — with a combination of skepticism, uncertainty and excitement to begin anew. Drawn from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection, this exhibition features monographic galleries devoted to leading German artists Georg Baselitz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.



EXHIBITION
Approaching American Abstraction
The Fisher Collection
May 14, 2016–ongoing
Floor 4

This exhibition explores the diverse approaches to abstraction developed since 1950 by selected American artists in the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. In luscious paint strokes, luminous planes of uniform color and dynamic constructions of wood and metal, the nearly 80 paintings and sculptures assembled illustrate artists’ individual ideas about the making and meaning of abstract art. Highlights on view range from the forceful brushwork of Lee Krasner’s Polar Stampede (1960), to the enigmatic wood forms of Martin Puryear’s Untitled (1990) and Malediction (2006-2007) to 26 contemplative canvases and reliefs by Ellsworth Kelly and an intimate, octagonal-shaped gallery devoted to Agnes Martin.



EXHIBITION
Typeface to Interface
Graphic Design from the Collection
May 14–October 23, 2016
Floor 6

Typeface to Interface notes the shift from analog to digital in visual communication, and includes important examples of communication tools that have shaped our relationship with graphic design. Oscillating between structured formalism and free form expression, the works on view illustrate the rapidly evolving field of graphic design. Advertising, wayfinding and information systems are displayed alongside artistic and conceptual experimentation, providing a view of the progressive discourse on what graphic design is and how it is used.



EXHIBITION
Art of Northern California: Three Views
May 14–November 2016
Floor 2

Underscoring SFMOMA’s commitment to the art of California, and the Bay Area specifically, the inaugural installation of the museum’s California galleries feature artists in three groupings: artists associated with the University of California, Davis, including Robert Arneson, Wayne Thiebaud and William T. Wiley; art by Joan Brown, Jess and Lee Mullican, emphasizing the personal, often spiritual, underpinnings of art produced in the region; and the Bay Area’s vibrant Conceptual art scene of the late 1960s and 1970s, explored through works by David Ireland, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Tom Marioni, among others.



Art Lecture

GALLERY TALK
Spotlight on Rothko
Part of Spotlight Conversations: Director’s Picks
May 16–Sept 5, 2016
.
Daily, 10:30 a.m., Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.
Floor 2






Upcoming Exhibitions

EXHIBITION
Anthony Hernandez
September 24, 2016 – January 1, 2017
Floor 3, Pritzker Center for Photography

Featuring approximately 180 photographs — many of which have never before been seen or published — Anthony Hernandez is the first retrospective to honor the more than 40-year career of this major American photographer. Presenting the full scope of Hernandez’s work, including black-and-white and color photographs, the exhibition celebrates the artist’s unique style of street photography, and how it has changed and developed over time. 


Carleton E. Watkins, Yosemite Falls, View from the Bottom, Yosemite, ca. 1878; albumen print, 21 in. x 15 1/8 in. (53.34 cm x 38.42 cm); Gift of Helen and Charles Schwab through The Art Supporting Foundation


EXHIBITION
California and the West
Photography from the Campaign for Art
May 14–September 5, 2016
Floor 3

California and the West consists of nearly 200 gifts and promised gifts to the museum that depict wild nature as a spiritual resource and native heritage, illustrate how land has been used over time and explore diverging photographic approaches—from documentation to self-conscious art making. Arranged chronologically from 1856 to 2014, the show reveals works by Ansel Adams, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Lewis Baltz, Imogen Cunningham, Lee Friedlander, Jim Goldberg, Dorothea Lange, Ed Ruscha, Peter Stackpole, Larry Sultan, Carleton E. Watkins, Edward Weston, Minor White and others.




CREDITS:


Principal photography courtesy SFMOMA. Photography by Henrik Kam, John McNeal, Iwan Baan and Joe Fletcher.



Note:  SFMOMA is committed to protecting the copyrights and other intellectual property rights of creative artists and other owners of intellectual property rights. SFMOMA grants permission to use image(s) only to the extent of its ownership rights relating to those image(s). Certain works of art, as well as photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by SFMOMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains solely with the party reproducing the image(s). SFMOMA reserves the right to request copies of such permissions. In addition, image(s) must be reproduced with notice of attribution, and the party reproducing the image(s) may not crop, distort, mutilate, or otherwise modify the image(s) in any manner that would prejudice the artwork or the artist’s honor and reputation. 

Additional photography by Brian Dittmar, Art Director of THE STYLE SALONISTE, and founder of Brian Dittmar Design, www.briandittmardesign.com.

Please note that artwork locations are subject to change, and not all works are on view at all times.

Most of the current exhibits are on view through August, and some through November. Check with their helpful ‘visitor experience’ staff.




SFMOMA

151 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone:(415) 357-4000

For more information and timed ticketing: www.sfmoma.org


Monday, May 23, 2016

A Passion for Venice: The Ecstasy and the Beauty of La Serenissima

The Venice Biennale opens next week with a frenzy of parties, exhibitions, speeches, and international critiques, and a swathe of water taxis and vaporetti dashing back and forth across the lagoon to Arsenale and Giardini.

For Venice, it’s a heady time, with the crush of journalists, art collectors, art dealers, museum directors, artists, architects, and their followers. The festivities start May 28. This year the focus is on architecture.

I have loved Venice since I first arrived there as a student, delirious and dizzy from the beauty, mystery, art, and architecture and romance. I’m addicted to the strange allure of its Gothic-Revival architecture, and the splash and salty tang of the canals and tide, and hallucinatory reflected light.

Come with me this week, to discover an inspiring new and very insider book on Venice interiors, as well as all the details on the Biennale. The new book, ‘Inside Venice’ is now my essential Venice reference, a remarkable record of historic rooms and baroque splendor.

Most of the Biennale exhibits are open through August, and many are on show through November. No rush. Dare to go in your own sweet time, and explore and discover ideas and controversy through November.

And I have a special recommendation for hotels—the Bauers hotel group, which includes the Venetian hotel Il Palazzo where I stay, close to the water in San Marco. And the Palladio hotel and spa on Giudecca, the ultra-quiet island just across the water.




‘Inside Venice A Private View of the City’s Most Beautiful Interiors’ offers poetic views of historic and modern interiors. These are the ultra-private places that would be accessible only if you have a friend who is a member of the centuries-old Venetian families that still inhabit their majestic and ethereal palaces.

To visit a private palazzo in the late afternoon, with golden light glancing off the Grand Canal, is one of the world’s great experiences. ‘Inside Venice’ offers these up-close views and a sense of being there.




Toto Bergamo Rossi, the author of ‘Inside Venice’ is the director of the Venetian Heritage Foundation, whose mission is to safeguard the Venetian cultural heritage of architecture, music, and fine art.

The book features seventy–two historic Venetian properties, most of them with views of the Grand Canal or historic churches and grand architecture. For some locations, it is a quick look and for others, a reader can wander and meander through dream-like rooms.

Divided into seven chapters highlighting each of Venice’s seven neighborhoods, San Marco, San Polo, Santa Croce, Castello, Dorsoduro, Cannaregio, and Giudecca, Bergamo’s book presents private palazzi never before photographed) and significant interiors, museums, and historic churches and synagogues.

Every property, including chapels that are seldom open, and the grandest palaces, rare museums, and quirky attics and artists’ studios, were photographed exclusively for the book by Jean-François Jaussaud. 





In ‘Inside Venice’, with 310 pages, Mr. Rossi presents the best and most beautiful—showing terraces and canal-side views and grand ballrooms, as well as modernized garrets (Giudecca) and the dramatic Punta della Dogana museum.

The author focuses on history and authenticity--and pages are rich with marble columns, plaster ornamentation, centuries of frescoes and gilded embellishments, sparkling leaded glass windows, eccentric detailing, mosaics, libraries, a sacristy, and ceilings to make a reader dizzy. I loved the range of interiors—and the celebration of joyful baroque exuberance.




In particular, my favorites among many treasures are the breath-taking Chiesa degli Scalzi, the Fortuny headquarters on Giudecca, the Naval Museum, and Palazzo Mocenigo, the textile museum.

M. Jaussaud’s photography is exquisite, with poetic afternoon light reflected on the water, and the subtle allure of morning sunshine gleaming on elaborate gilded mirrors.

Mysterious night-time images along remote canals, summer in fragrant palace gardens, and the handsome modern library of the Giorgio Cini Foundation on San Giorgio Maggiore island, are all captivating. Palazzetto Alvisi Gaggia, with its direct views of Basilica della Salute is sublime, along with distant views of San Giorgio Maggiore by Palladio. Glorious.



Venice Biennale, Architecture, ‘Reporting from the Front’

The Venice Biennale 15th International Architecture Exhibition will take place from May 28 to November 27 in Giardini and Arsenale and in other venues in Venice.

The exhibition will include 88 participants from 37 countries, as well as many collateral events.




American Participation in the Venice Biennale: The Architectural Imagination

Commissioner: Monica Ponce de Leon. Curators: Cynthia Davidson and Monica Ponce de Leon. Exhibitors: Marcelo López-Dinardi and V. Mitch McEwen, A(n) Office, Detroit; Kelly Bair and Kristy Balliet, BairBalliet, Chicago and Columbus.

Greg Lynn, Greg Lynn FORM, Los Angeles.

Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Atlanta; Marshall Brown, Marshall Brown Projects, Chicago.

Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith, MOS Architects, New York; Florencia Pita and Jackilin Hah Bloom, Pita & Bloom, Los Angeles.

Albert Pope and Jesús Vassallo, Present Future, Houston; Preston Scott Cohen, Preston Scott Cohen Inc., Cambridge.

Stan Allen, SAA/Stan Allen Architect, New York; Thom Moran, Ellie Abrons, Adam Fure, and Meredith Miller, T+E+A+M, Ann Arbor.

Andrew Zago and Laura Bouwman, Zago Architecture, Los Angeles.

Venue: Giardini



Prizes and People

Focus of this year’s biennale is architecture of the Southern Hemisphere, as well as low-cost architecture and housing.

The Board of la Biennale di Venezia appointed Alejandro Aravena as director of the Architecture Sector, with the specific responsibility of curating the 15th International Architecture Exhibition.

On the occasion of his nomination, Alejandro Aravena said:

“There are several architecture battles that need to be won and several frontiers that need to be expanded in order to improve the quality of the built environment and consequently people’s quality of life. This is what we would like people to come and see at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition: success stories worthy to be told and exemplary cases in which architecture made a difference in social battles and frontiers”.



Highlights of the 2016 Biennale

Biomimicry and The Future: concepts announced for the biennale

For some, the resolution of societal ills will always be found in new technologies: they are, after all, simpler to achieve than social transformation. The Israeli Pavilion, titled “LifeObject: Merging Architecture and Biology,” will be comprised of a large-scale sculptural installation and seven speculative architectural scenarios relating to Israel, each focused on the relationship between biology and architecture.

An emerging new construction technology blends robotics, 3D printing, and biomimicry, and is particularly advanced at Zurich’s ETH university. ETH experts will be working both with the Swiss Pavilion, and with Foster+Partners in this year’s Biennale. Singapore-based architectural practice WOHA will showcase its most innovative designs – based on eco-sensitive buildings that turn skyscrapers into vertical landscapes – in Palazzo Bembo.

The tragic passing of Zaha Hadid will be remembered with a dedicated exhibition at the 16th-century Palazzo Franchetti, showcasing her futuristic designs that were long deemed impossible to build.




A Must-Visit Exhibit on Giudecca

To coincide with the opening of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, Daata Editions and Zuecca Projects present ‘Gentrification’, an exhibition of new commissioned artworks by Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, 24 May 2016 – 24 August 2016

Zuecca Project Space was founded in 2011 by current director and project supervisor, Alessandro Possati.

‘Gentrification’ centers on the documentation and regeneration of interiors of the historic gay bar.

ZUECCA PROJECT SPACE, Giudecca 33, (near Palladio Hotel). http://www.zueccaprojectspace.com.



Where to Stay in Venice During the Biennale

I stay at the Hotel Bauer Il Palazzo near San Marco, or at the Bauer Il Palladio hotel and spa, across the water on Giudecca.

Known as The Bauers, the collection of hotels and accommodation, which includes Bauer L’Hotel and Il Palazzo in San Marco and Villa F on Giudecca, are owned and run by one of the world’s great hoteliers, Francesca Bortolotto Possati.

Francesca, CEO and chairman, manages Bauers L’Hotel and Bauers Il Palazzo in San Marco, and additionally the Bauers Palladio hotel and spa, and Villa F located on Giudecca Island.




The location of Il Palazzo, a fast water-taxi ride to every location of the Biennale, is a definite advantage. It’s in the heart of Venice, within a fast walk to favorite restaurants and only-in-Venice shops like Jesurum.

New is Assouline at the Bauer hotel. Assouline, the publisher of luxury lifestyle and literary works, opened its new boutique on the ground level of the Bauer Hotel. The bookshop is decorated with beautiful baroque wallpaper and hand-painted ceiling beams. All of Assouline’s favorites are here—along with special signed editions of books on Venetian history and art.

Prosper Assouline designed the handsome walnut bookcases and wall shelves. While books take center stage, the antique vintage table, and specially designed light fixtures make the store extremely chic and the books all glow elegantly in the evening.









CREDITS:

‘Inside Venice A private View of the City’s Most Beautiful Interiors’ by Toto Bergamo Rossi, with photography by Jean-Francois Jaussaud, and an introduction by James Ivory, and forewords by Diane von Furstenberg and Peter Marino is newly published by Rizzoli. www.rizzoliusa.com

Photography by Jean-Francois Jaussaud used here with express permission of Rizzoli.

The Bauers Hotels

Photography of the Bauers hotels courtesy of the Bauers.


For more information about the six-month Venice Biennale program of architecture lectures, films, demonstrations, installation and exhibitions: http://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/index.html