Geometries of Light by Luftwerk in collaboration with Iker Gil & Oriol Tarragó donned the 2nd part of its trans-national installation at the Farnsworth House in Chicago in October 2019. Eight months after the earlier rendition at the German Pavillion in Barcelona–another of Mies Van Der Rohe’s buildings–the Farnsworth House and surrounding woods were lit with geometric red lasers. Read reviews of Luftwerk’s installation from Colossal, Hypebeast, Dezeen, Archdaily, and Newcity Design.

For a limited run of 30 days in fall 2019, Jonathan Olivares collaborated with Stockholm-based furniture design studio Hem to create a pop-up store in San Francisco. Olivares sectioned the space with brightly colored room dividers and had signage hand-painted on the walls and windows as a visual ode to SF’s vibrant graffiti art. Read more from AN Interior here.

Architect Magazine lists Tigerman Rides Again as the “most poignant among” the offsite architecture & design based exhibitions concurrent with the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Following Tigerman’s show at Volume, Architect Magazine invites readers to visit the MCA, Art Institute, Graham Foundation, and Chicago Architecture Center to see architects address social problems through and within the built environment. Read about “The Final Works of a Chicago Master” and four other notable shows here.

Johnston Marklee’s architectural style evades strict categorization and converses with its location in an unprecedented and imaginative fashion. The LA Times reviews a multitude of the duo’s projects in conversation with Johnston & Lee themselves. Drawing inspiration from the Light & Space movement and self-described “relational” structures have put the firm in high demand from cultural institutions across the nation. Read the LA Times’ article here.

Among The Architect’s Newspaper’s six favorite 2019 fall exhibitions across the country is Volume’s own Tigerman Rides Again. “The exhibition shows how Tigerman was able to bring in diverse influences from all over the art world and synthesize them into clear, poignant visions both on the street and on the page.” Read more here.

“Speaking to a large audience in The Cooper Union’s Great Hall, the young Chilean firm presented a body of work ranging from art performance pieces, to an island villa looking toward the Andes, to a cultural center on the cliffs over the Pacific Ocean. The work, in short, is gorgeous, and Mauricio Pezo and Sofia Von Ellrichshausen spoke about it in a way that checked off every box for a formalist architectural project: considering the promenade, the corner, weight, material, color, seriality, etcetera—the stuff of architecture.”

Read The Architect’s Newspaper’s recount of Pezo Von Ellrichshausen’s lecture for the Architectural League of New York here.

Christy Matson’s weaving, Paragon (2017), is part of “Material Meaning: A Living Legacy of Anni Albers” which honors the late textile artist and printmaker. The exhibition is now open through September 21st at the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles. Read the LA Times review of the exhibition here.

Mamífero 3 by Tanya Aguiñiga has been acquired by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. In Mamífero 3, Los Angeles-based craft artist and activist, Tanya Aguiñiga employs twine, synthetic hair, rope, and various types of fabrics to create a wall-bound draping mass that is intricate and texturally rich. The multihyphenate artist is known for her community-based work and expansive craftwork in disciplines such as ceramic and fiber. Her current work uses craft as a performative medium to generate dialogues about identity, culture, and gender while creating community.

For the 23rd annual Anderson Ranch Arts Center Recognition Dinner, Sung Jang took on the construction of a 40-foot-long wall to adorn its stage. Made out of around 15,000 interlocking (& recyclable) pieces, “this modular work” explores “ideas of elegance and extravagance, taking the simple small pieces and making something lavish with it.” Read the Aspen Times’ walkthrough of Jang’s process here.

Anders Herwald Ruhwald immersive, site-specific installation Unit 1: 3583 Dubois inside an apartment on Detroit’s east side is now open. 3583 Dubois Street in Detroit, Michigan, no longer exists. While the once dilapidated 7,000 square-foot brick apartment building at this location still stands, the city has reassigned its address as 2170 Mack Avenue. In his installation, Unit 1: 3583 Dubois, Anders Ruhwald repositions the building’s identity, intertwining its past, present, and future. Unit 1: 3583 Dubois, will be open yearly from April to October by appointment only. Tours can be booked on unit1.org for Thursdays, between 7-9 pm and Saturdays, between 12-4pm starting on June 22, 2019. See photos and read more about Unit 1 here and here.

Brendan Fernandes exhibition, The Master and Form, at the Whitney Biennial was designed in collaboration with the architecture firm Norman Kelley. Five structures including a “minimal arrangement of scaffolding”  is always on view and used by dancers through durational performances. Read more about The Master and Form here.

Luftwerk’s site-specific installation, Parallel Perspectives, inside Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House located in the Elmhurst Art Museum, is now open to the public until August 25th, 2019. The immersive exhibition uses light and color to highlight and transform the historic structure. See photos of Parallel Perspective here and here.

LACMA has acquired Tanya Aguiñiga’s Quipu Fronterizo/Border Quipu from her project with AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides). Quipu Fonterizo was made collaboratively with US/Mexico border commuters on the Mexican side of the San Ysidro Border Crossing by giving out two stands of thread and asking to anonymously tie them into a knot. “The strands represent the US and Mexico’s relationship to one another, our self at either side of the border, and our own mental state at the point of crossing.” – Tanya Aguiñiga. Purchased with funds provided by AHAN: Studio Forum, 2018 Art Here and Now purchase.

Works by Tanya Aguiñiga, Norman Kelley, Krueck + Sexton, Jonathan Muecke, and OOIEE are included in In the Hot Seat, an exhibition curated by Joey Yates and on view at the KMAC Museum from April 26 to August 11, 2019. “In The Hot Seat offers insight into how the chair is being continually reimagined in contemporary artistic practice. The exhibition combines artist-made chairs with sculptures, installations, paintings, and mixed media works.” Read more here.

Christy Matson’s work will be part of Material Meaning: A Living Legacy of Anni Albers, opening on July 13th at the Craft in America Center in Los Angeles. “Material Meaning will feature work by ten contemporary American artists and designers working with textiles who are strongly influenced by Anni Albers – paired with their statements that make that influence explicit, personal and varied.” Read more about the exhibition here.

Two new exhibitions opening on May 11th at Elmhurst Art Museum will include the work of Christy Matson and Luftwerk. Matson’s work will be shown along other 45 artists in With a Capital P: Selections by Six Painters, curated by six prominent local painters, Leslie Baum, Magalie Guérin, José Lerma, Nancy Mladenoff, Suellen Rocca, and Kay Rosen. The other exhibition, Luftwerk: Parallel Perspectives, will present a color and light intervention by the Chicago-based artistic collaborative in the museum’s recently restored Mies van der Rohe McCormick House. Read more about it here.

Tanya Aguiñiga’s work will be on view in Unravelling Collective Forms at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, a group show that brings together artworks that propose forms of collective resistance to oppressive hegemonies. The exhibition opens on Wednesday, April 3 at LACE. Here is more information. Image: Arshia Fatima Haq (photo by Amina Cruz, veil by Hushidar Mortezaie.) 

Norman Kelley reconfigures and revamps Notre store in West Loop, Chicago. Their design marries the space’s warehouse-gallery history with the spatial vision for the store. Find images and the story here.

Chicago architect Stanley Tigerman spoke with the Chicago Reader about the preservation of historic buildings, the future of architecture, and his architectural and artistic legacy. Read the article here.

The Geometry of Light is Luftwerk’s collaboration with Mas Studio’s Iker Gil at the Barcelona Pavilion. “The installation was intended to animate and highlight the iconic design of the building, completed by Van der Rohe in 1929.” Read more and see photographs here.

Tanya Aguiñiga’s work in Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018 continues to mine her experience as an immigrant through her activist work with underinvested communities along the US-Mexico border. Read more about it here and visit the exhibition on view at The Renwick Gallery in Washinton D.C. until May 5, 2019.

Anders Ruhwald’s exhibition The Body, The Mind, This Constructed World at Casa Museo Jorn, inspired by the late Situationist artist, Asger Oluf Jorn, is now being exhibited at Officine Saffi. Read more about it here and here.

Snarkitecture’s immersive art installation, The Beach Chicago, is open from January 19, 2019 – February 3, 2019 at Navy Pier. Read about how it all came together.