Modern Habitat: Building Energetic Spaces
September 5 – October 13, 2019
Featuring Will Day, Margie Criner, Davis Arney, Mike Homner, Arch11, Workshop 8, Pyatt Studio, HMH Architecture + Interiors, Renée del Gaudio Architecture, Sopher Sparn Architects & Housefish In partnership with Month of Modern & EFFA
(Boulder, CO – August 5, 2019) – The month of September in the Boulder architecture world is synonymous to the ‘Month of Modern’ (MoM) as coined by local architecture firm, HMH Architecture + Interiors. Established in 2014, this month serves as a “celebration of architecture, design, lifestyle, art, and culture”, as expressed by MoM’s mission statement. In response to these creative causes for celebration, the visual arts curator at the Dairy Arts Center, Jessica Kooiman Parker, has developed an exhibition titled ‘Modern Habitat’.
The work on view is inherently a self-reflection on the artists’ individual values and beliefs within their work and home life, chasing multiple viewpoints, highlighting failures, or challenging affluent domesticity. The exhibitions consider the constant, yet hard to define way in which we build our personal spaces – whether we seek help from others to design and build a structure, or simply relish our ability to acquire objects to fill our space. We build our homes with the desire for stability, but with it comes the complexities, anxieties, and contradictions of contemporary life.
As an ode to this month of celebration, the title of the show inherently encompasses the sensation that is modern architecture; But more broadly, it houses even deeper human notions and emotion such as memory, reflection, even nostalgia and our own existence within spaces. For what would modern life look like and how would it differ without the architectural structures that literally and figuratively house our lives? And what if we didn’t have any home at all? The exhibition uses the fabulousness that is MoM as a platform to invite a perspective that expands beyond modern architecture and addresses the phenomenon of homelessness. Particularly within the Boulder County area with a series of photographs by Mike Homner and a display inviting visitors to learn more about the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFFA).
Guiding Lines
Will Day
Guiding Lines
As a former Wall Street professional-turned-trained-architect, and now modern painter, Will Day has recently entered an exploration of progression through the deconstruction of his art practice down to the primary and inherently imperfect line. Process, particularly foundational mark making to finished work of art, as communicated through an architecturally informed lens, is what Day’s latest series, ‘Guiding Lines’, explores. Day‘s most bold and equally raw piece of this series, “Contour, Birth of Exploration, Map”, became a “worksite” parallel to his life narrative and served as the storyboard which paved the way for the new paintings that followed. Landmarks from the most vital turning points of his life are verbally delineated throughout the expanse of this 8’ x 28’ canvas via a nearly street tagged hand- a style reminiscent of Day’s informative time spent in LA as an architect. The lines surrounding each word, year and symbol of ‘Contour’ guided Day’s completion of the mini-series layered atop, titled “Primary”. The juxtaposition of these polished works on top of the rawness of ‘Contour’ reiterates Will’s emphasis upon process; From start to finish, “it all starts with a line”. The final pieces of ‘Guiding Lines’, “Lighting” and “White Lines 3”, represent the acme of Day’s understanding of ‘Modern Habitat’: An array of pathways endlessly connected, interspersed with “voids of beauty”- space and chaos residing in imperfect harmony.
BIO/ABOUT
Born in New York City, Will Day lives and works in Boulder, Colorado. He has traveled extensively throughout theworld and the experiences of his journeys have inspired him as a person and an artist. Primarily self-taught, his inter-
est in painting intensified during his travels throughout North Africa, South America, and Europe. His fine art traininghas consisted of studies in Paris, France and Dublin, Ireland.After years in the financial world in New York, I was missing that creative outlet for self- expression. In 2001, I enrolledin the Masters of Architecture program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. I graduated in 2004 and moved to Los Angeles to work in the field of architecture and real estate development. Again, I found something was missing. I wasn’t finding my niche. As a result, I started to paint after work, at night, and behind my garage, outdoors, in Los Angeles.
Visit Will Day’s Website:
Under the Same Moon
Margie Criner
Under the Same Moon
Curiosity lurks within the human condition. I believe it should be nurtured, engaged, at any age. I see it as the cornerstone for problem-solving, for understanding each other and situations, for building a better future. My intention as an artist is to engage that curiosity we sometimes forget still stirs in us, to celebrate what we have in common, to remind us that we are all in this together, and if you look further during those everyday moments in life, you may find something that surprises you.
BIO/ABOUT
Margie Criner is an American artist born in Detroit in 1968. Her sculptural work invites the viewer to examine form from a distance, then, thru a lens portal, shift to see a hidden miniature narrative interior. Her narrative work explores universal experiences like waiting, commuting, traveling, and dreaming. Criner’s hard-edge geometric paintings are informed by architectural shapes of her sculptural work. She received a Bachelor of Science in Textile Design from Michigan State University in 1991 and has exhibited her work throughout the United States. Her work is part of a per- manent collection at the WNDR Museum in Chicago and in private collections throughout the world. Margie Criner currently works and resides in Chicago, Illinois.
Visit Margie Criner’s Website:
Reflections
Davis Arney
Reflections
This group of paintings explores the physical culture of affluent domesticity and ways in which people construct and fictionalize stability through the concept of home. We borrow, aggrandize, and fetishize our objects, rituals, and aesthetics; subsuming their original identities into our cherry-picked displays. Certain objects such as masks become double entendres, pointing to facade but also to tangential issues of cultural appropriation, within but also outside the context of modern art history. Not so differently, 17th century Dutch still life painting simultaneously documents and allegorizes the lives of its subjects through a complex series of signifiers. Depicting different materials from wood, to drywall, to food, exposes both the limitations and possibilities of oil paint in tandem. The flexibility of oil paint allows me to move from crisp flatness to moments of naturalistic illusion to thickly applied material exaggerations. Through these disparate adjacent painting languages along with careful cropping and other formal concerns, I hope to create a subtle dislocation or unravelling of illusion. To me this dance between mimesis and strangeness – teetering on drollness – opens a poignant and mysterious liminal space.
BIO/ABOUT
Davis Arney was born in Boulder, CO in 1991 and currently lives and works in Boston, MA where he is earning his MFA degree at Boston University under a full tuition scholarship. His work explores ideas of home, cultural insularity, and complicity. He has exhibited in Brooklyn, NY, Richmond, VA and Philadelphia and will be featured in the upcoming New American Paintings #144 West issue.
Visit Davis Arney’s Website:
Just Say Hello
Mike Homner
Mike Homner
Just Say Hello
From my first time pressing the button of my father’s Polaroid camera and watching the “picture pop out”, I discovered a new and exciting world. It seems that push of a button has been in my life forever. I feel a level of comfort and exhilaration each time I place the camera next to my cheek. What new story can I find in my viewfinder today.
Throughout the years I’ve photographed many different things. The one thing I keep coming back to are people. People draw me in because we all are uniquely different. During my life I have struggled with mental illness. In 2008, my illness was bad enough that I found myself homeless. For the first time in my life, I was the one in front of the lens instead of behind it. My vulnerability was on display for everyone to see. After getting housed, I discovered my love for the camera again. In 2014, I stumbled upon a Tedx video that would change my life. The gentleman giving the speech understood the vulnerability of homelessness and was using photography to change peoples perception. Little did I know how much this would change my life for the better.
Architecture & Design
Featuring works from Arch 11, Sopher Sparn Architects, Renee Del Gaudio Architecture, HMH Architecture and Interiors, Workshop 8, Pyatt Studio and Housefish
Fourfold
“As soon as we have the things before our eyes, and in our hearts an ear for the word, thinking prospers” Martin Heidegger, Building Dwelling, Thinking Architecture as Lens: Four Models/Four screens Architecture is the revealer of place, a lens through which the “real” place/time is perceived. It is not the screen, the mediated representation but rather, presents the tangible and the haptic, undeniable in its impact.
Notes on making and the installation: The device is a transgressive assembly, that through its making subverts expectation. This occurs through the contrast of primitive and modern technologies, or tactile difference in surface articulation. The joint is articulated, whether building to ground, or projector to armature. Making is the act of resistance against the image of the real so pervasive on the daily screen.
Architecture is the assembly, the lens through which we remain in contact with the authentic in resistance to the simulacra presented by the screen. Here four models, representations of the real, artifacts in themselves are arranged to make habitable space. Each of the models are lenses to a distinct site: a horizon, a collection of conceptual art, a meadow, and a distant view. These sites are experienced in the gallery as projections, a representation of the real. Together, in place, one reveals the other. Additional projections allude to this marriage of concept, building and site revealed.
BIO/ABOUT
Arch11 is an award winning boutique architecture practice creating distinctive modern design. Offering full architectural, planning, and interior design services from studios in Boulder and Denver, Colorado, Arch11 is recognized as a leader in
design innovation. Our work reveals the subtleties of light, climate extremes, history and topography. It expands the notion of context by mediating between the specifics of local sites, the influences of global culture and the integration of nature and the built environment.
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Evolving Journey
Sopher Sparn Architects is honored to have been the architect through the Dairy Arts Center’s evolving development over the past 22 years. Since the beginning, we’ve been inspired by the abundance of talented and expressive artists and dancers who frequent the Dairy Arts Center. The shapes and forms of The Dairy building were inspired by the graceful movement of these artists — smooth, balanced and fluid.
The big idea or parti for our display is to create an exhibition that honors the Dairy Arts Center and provides insight into Sopher Sparn Architects’ design process and architecture.
The birch plywood structure is patterned after the curves of the Dairy. The first panel is a direct reflection of the Dairy’s curved elevation. The subsequent panels were designed to parametrically transform into multiple shapes. Harnessing today’s CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) technology we created a flat packed exhibition that shows our commitment to use of efficient use of materials and innovative assembly methods. Ultimately, the exhibit represents our desire to continually evolve our firm to align with the needs of a modern society.
Our practice is guided by the following design values:
Community
Innovation
Sustainability
Technology
Through these values Sopher Sparn Architects strives to create architecture that stands the test of time.
BIO/ABOUT
Sopher Sparn Architects is a Colorado-based archi- tecture firm known for its innovative planning and design solutions. Our firm is unified by the integration of client values, commitment to quality design, sound construction and sustainable design principles. As one of the largest architecture practices in Boulder, our firm offers a depth of talent and experience. Our diverse portfolio includes custom homes, multi-family housing, mixed-used, urban in-fill and affordable housing projects, institutional, commercial and retail projects. Our other disciplines include master plan- ning, entitlement and interior design.
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Renée del Gaudio
PLENTY. The power of small spaces
We all know that small homes have a better environmental impact than large homes. But this exhibit explores my own conviction that smaller spaces are also better for humans. As these three homes show, small spaces can connect us to place, simplify our lives, and inspire us in powerful ways. As an architect, I have designed a wide variety of spaces, including large homes. But again and again, my most fulfilled clients have been the ones who allowed me to efficiently design a house around their lives in the same way a tailor designs a suit around a person’s body. The size of a home will depend on the life of each person or family. But for me a small home means living only with what you need — and no more.
As human beings, we always seem to want more. Maybe it’s an unconscious fear that we will face scarcity in the future. My architecture is a reflection of clients who are able to let go of this fear and affirm the fact that we have all we need, right now, for the life we are leading.When we affirm the abundance of the moment we can live our lives in connected, simple and inspired ways.
Small spaces can help us affirm this power of plenty.
BIO/ABOUT
Renée del Gaudio is a nationally-recognized architect for her buildings that convey a strong connection to place. Her work has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Dwell, and the new Thames & Hudson book Off the Grid: Houses for Escape. She is the recipient of eight prestigious American Institute of Architecture Awards, including a 2018 AIA Western Mountain Region Award. Renée received a B.A. from the University of Michigan, and an M.A. in Architecture from the University of Washington. In the San Francisco Bay area, she worked with the ecological design firm of Leger Wanaselja Architecture, and the residential and winery design firm of Backen Gillam Architects. Before opening her own practice in 2011, she worked with Semple Brown Design in Denver, Colorado. Renee’s work is also influenced by her design-build work in Cuba, Mexico, and Kenya. Renée is a licensed architect in Colorado and is LEED-accredited. Renée is an active member of the American Institute of Architects, and in 2014, won the AIA Colorado North Firm of the Year Award. Renee has been a juror on numerous architecture and design awards programs, as well as a studio critic at the University of Colorado Department of Environmental Design. She has recently been a lecturer for Colorado Month of Modern, Boulder Women In Design, and the University of Colorado.
HMH Architecture + Interiors
Architecture transcends style or trend. Our work is inspired by our investment in the qualities of our client’s lifestyle and the character of their sites. We respond to our client’s values in concert with the ecology, culture and history of their sites by providing:
Architecture that delights. We are masters of, form, space, balance, proportion, rhythm, scale, light and contrast.
Functional living. We explore your lifestyle to create a home that responds to your needs & enhances your life quality.
Individuality. We listen to your desires and dreams and create a home that reflects your personality and your values.
Thoughtful interior design infuses our practice of residential architecture. Our penchant for interiors – part natural affinity and part hard- won skill – leans toward the lasting over the trendy.
Bear Peak, a picturesque summit in the Front Range Mountains, has long been a fresh-air getaway for Boulderites. Its location is close enough to downtown Boulder for commuting and removed enough to enjoy some peace and quiet after a day at work. The HMH team transformed this ”funky 70s timber lodge” to the mountain-modern home the tech industry start-up couple always wanted. This modern mountain retreat reflects a harmonious flow between indoors and out that makes it perfectly in tune with its surrounding natural environment. The architecture and design are characterized by a rustic-modern aesthetic that meshes beautifully with the site. Every detail was well planned and articulated, celebrating the mountain lifestyle.
BIO/ABOUT
Established in 1989, the award-winning Boulder Colorado architects and interior designers of HMH Architecture + Interiors specializes in innovative, energy efficient homes with clean, modern aesthetics – from custom homes, remodels, multi-family projects, mixed use commercial projects, office TIs, retail build-outs and interior design – our goal is simply to create beautiful, comfortable, functional, well crafted “Colorado Modern” designs.
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Design Chaos
The DESIGN CHAOS infographic and sound installation attempts to capture and map the process of turning an abstract idea into a cohesive, physical project. The design and documentation process is exciting, chaotic, overwhelming, yet rewarding. The compilation of vague and specific concepts, multiple opinions, as well as code and structural requirements, is challenging to corral and employs both right and left brain thinking. Over the timeline (sometimes lengthy and sometimes compressed), big ideas and small features are vetted; tangible shape takes form, and the focus becomes detail oriented to provide appropriate solutions and documentation. DESIGN CHAOS is a visual representation that takes the viewer through the process of design—from conceptual chaos to finite decision-making.
BIO/ABOUT
WORKSHOP8 is an award winning, multidisciplinary design studio located in Boulder. Our talents and interests lead us to work in architecture, interior design, urban planning, public art, graphic design, and community engagement for non-profit, for-profit, and governmental agencies. We share a dedication to sustainability, social involvement, and the belief that everyone deserves great design. We believe in building strong relationships, thinking boldly, and designing mindfully.
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The Project
The Thunder Valley Regenerative Community is a visionary design collaboration between local Pine Ridge Reservation community members, Oglala Lakota non-profit organizationThunder Valley CDC, architecture firms BNIM and Pyatt Studio, and engineering firm KLJ, with essential support from Studio NYL . The Regenerative Community is Lakota culture materialized in a built environment –– an entire eco-friendly, climate change adaptable community built from the ground up with Lakota culture & values in mind. Informed by innovative, community driven architectural design and rooted in the voices of Lakota people, this project takes a comprehensive approach to creating systemic change on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Regenerative Community and its Design Team reflect what is possible when collaboration is based on mutual respect and a shared vision for the future.
BIO/ABOUT
Pyatt Studio’s work includes a focus on community driven architectural design. This collaborative approach is built on a set of shared values that leads to successful design processes and successful buildings. Values such as: a focus on people and social impact, transparency and openness in the process, the engagement and participation of all stakeholders, and a willingness to question the status quo and best-practices in a rigorous search for the best and most appropriate solutions for each project.
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Housefish
One of the things that has always annoyed me about the modern practice of design is its insistence on presenting finished objects as precious, perfect creations passed down from the mind’s eye of The Designer. But design doesn’t actually work like that. It is a series of mistakes and errors, iterating toward improvement (but never reaching perfection). There is no Platonic chair. What you’re looking at here is a small selection of mistakes we’ve made over the last few years. Some with corresponding improvements, some so bad they forced a total rethink or abandonment of the concept. Along the way we learned that solid surface material exhibits a brittle failure mode that makes it unsuitable as a chair material; that manufacturing instructions sometimes need to be spelled out with a marker on physical samples, not just drawings; that what looks stable on a computer isn’t actually stable when it meets a human leaning back in a chair; that wood grain direction matters, and that leaving out seemingly minor concrete additives only shows up as a problem months after the concrete has fully cured.
We’re working on it…
BIO/ABOUT
Housefish was conceived as a design laboratory merging tech-nology and craft to produce useful, innovative, sustainable, and affordable modern goods. All of our products are produced in the RiNo neighborhood of Denver, Colorado using a blend of advanced digital manufacturing techniques and hands-on craft methods. We are fanatic about local sourcing- nearly everything we buy, right down to the screws, is produced in the USA, and most of that right here in
Colorado.
Housefish was founded by Scott Bennett. Driven by a childhood love of F1 racing, Scott earned an automotive engineering degree from Loughborough University in England. He went on to be part of design teams for cars that have won the Indy 500, Indycar championship, and Baja off road races. He also helped setup new American-based Indycar and Formula 1 constructors, and branched out along the way to work on aircraft, industrial equipment, and consumer products. A changing landscape in racing led to a permanent shift to furniture design, and the formation of Housefish in 2008.