Archinect - News

MoMA exhibition on 20th-century Latin American design is a 'gem' says Michael Kimmelman

2024-04-05T13:31:00-04:00

The show is a gem. It focuses on domestic design from six countries (Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Venezuela), produced between 1940 and 1980. Latin America had entered a period of transformation, industrial expansion and creativity. Across the region, design was becoming institutionalized as a profession, opening up new avenues, especially for women.

Critic Michael Kimmelman has heaped praise on the 'Crafting Modernity: Design in Latin America, 1940–1980' MoMA exhibition in a new piece for The New York Times. As we reported in December of last year, the show looks at the growth of modernism through an industrial and entrepreneurial lens, using a selection of examples from well-known and revered architects and designers such as Joaquim Tenreiro, Lina Bo Bardi, and Oscar Niemeyer.

"The role that women and immigrants played in shaping professional design and developing a national design vocabulary in Latin America will be emphasized, including the work of designers such as Clara Porset in Mexico, Cornelis Zitman in Venezuela, and Susi Aczel in Argentina," MoMA said about their exhibition at the time.

Curator Tanja Hwang joins MoMA's Department of Architecture and Design

2024-01-09T12:39:00-05:00

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has announced the addition of curator Tanja Hwang to its Department of Architecture and Design.

Effective today, January 9, Hwang will join the museum and begin working in a capacity that entails managing the design collection, expanding the department’s acquisitions program, organizing exhibitions, managing exhibition catalogs and other publications, as well as “cultivating relationships within the Museum and in the design community.”

Hwang begins at the museum after serving as one of the first curatorial staffers at Hong Kong’s Herzog & de Meuron-designed M+ museum and having completed her academic training at the Freie Universität Berlin, according to a LinkedIn profile.

In a statement, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA, Martino Stierli, said: “Tanja comes to us with a global perspective and a deep knowledge of the canonical history of modern design. With her background in organizing exhibitions at both the...

Refik Anadol's Machine Hallucinations generative AI piece acquired by MoMA

2023-10-11T15:59:00-04:00

Refik Anadol has made history as one of two prominent digital artists to have their works acquired into the permanent collection of the 94-year-old Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.

The museum announced its acquisition of Anadol’s 2022 Generative AI piece Unsupervised – Machine Hallucinations, along with the blockchain-based piece 3FACE. 2022 from artist Ian Cheng, this week. Anadol's work was a gift to the museum by the 1OF1 Collection (which is led by Ryan Zurrer) and the RFC Collection, which is led by Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile and Desiree Casoni.

Writing on Instagram, Anadol commended the museum’s curatorial decision, saying it “inscribes a historic chapter as MoMA welcomes the first Generative AI and tokenized artwork into its esteemed permanent collection.” The work was one of three made for last year’s special solo exhibition using a machine learning algorithm to interpret publicly available data taken from the museum’s collection to produce reinterpreted images that...

MoMA PS1 fellowship offers ‘launching pad for individuals in the arts’

2023-08-30T14:30:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Junior Architectural Engineer at Cover, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for a Program Production Fellow at MoMA PS1.

Based in Long Island City, the six-month fellowship will see the successful applicant gain “hands-on training within a contemporary art institution and an understanding of how MoMA PS1 operates, develops programs and engages audiences.” According to the institution, the fellowship will serve as a “launching pad for individuals within the arts and management fields to hone their skills and attain real-world experience with structure and support.”

Why the role interests us

The latest fellowship offers us the opportunity to reflect on recent exhibitions and activities of note that have taken place both at MoMA PS1 an...

Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design finally gives MoMA the chance to showcase its growing video game collection

2022-11-04T11:54:00-04:00

MoMA’s acquisition of games is the responsibility of the Architecture and Design Department, which is focused on objects that are celebrated for their function. Paul Galloway, who has served as the point person for the museum’s video game acquisition efforts, says these multimedia objects are a natural fit for the most omnivorous section of the museum.

The show is open now and runs until July of next year in MoMA's first-floor gallery. Galloway and his co-organizers Paola Antonelli, Anna Burckhardt, and Amanda Forment say their department collects along four central criteria — esthetics, space, time, and behavior — though curatorial efforts to acquire "museum-ready" media are sometimes limited by intellectual property restraints concerning the game maker's original source code.

"It’s a show about interaction design, and video games are some of the purest, clearest examples of interaction design," Antonelli said in a preview. "Games are such complex acquisitions because when you acquire video games, you don’t just go ahead and buy them, you acquire a relationship because you want to make sure that… 50 years from now, curators will still be able to show these games without being bogged by intellec...

MoMA to host Refik Anadol’s first solo US museum exhibition

2022-11-01T11:48:00-04:00

New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has unveiled details of an upcoming exhibition featuring the work of media artist Refik Anadol. Titled Refik Anadol: Unsupervised, and open from November 19th, 2022 through March 5th 2023, the installation will feature three new digital artworks by the artist.

Image © Refik Anadol Studio, courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Anadol’s three new pieces will use artificial intelligence to interpret more than 200 years of art from MoMA’s collection. Located on the museum’s ground floor, a 24 x 24-foot media wall will continuously generate new forms grounded in the intersection between technology, creativity, and modern art.

Image © Refik Anadol Studio, courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York

“This project reshapes the relationship between the physical and the virtual, the real and the unreal,” said the exhibition’s organizer Michelle Kuo. “Often, AI is used to classify, process, and generate realistic representations of the world. An...

MoMA PS1 Director Kate Fowle resigns after just three years in the role

2022-06-14T17:13:00-04:00

Kate Fowle, who became director of MoMA PS1 in 2019 and barely had the chance to lead the museum as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, abruptly announced on Friday that she was stepping down as of July 15 from the museum in Long Island City, Queens.

“This has been an extraordinary opportunity to lead MoMA PS1 over the last (nearly) three years and to work with all of you alongside our Board, patrons, and funders,” Fowle said in an email to museum staff according to The New York Times. “I want you to know that I have deep respect and admiration for you all, and that I am incredibly proud of all the work we have achieved together.”

Fowle hasn’t provided any reasoning behind her departure, however, an unnamed source told The New York Times that she had expressed difficulty managing her job during a meeting with MoMA PS1’s chair Sarah Arison and MoMA’s director Glenn D. Lowry.

While a lot of Fowle’s time has been spent mitigating the challenges brought by the pandemic throughout her brief tenure as director, there seemed to be a lot of optimism over her progressive vision for the museum. Shortly after her appointment in 2019, MoMA PS1 started a program called “Homeroom”, an exhibition space curated by community groups. Fowle also...

MoMA's next exhibition will explore the role architecture played in shaping post-colonial South Asia

2021-11-11T16:53:00-05:00

MoMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has announced a forthcoming new exhibition that will examine the way in which the modern architecture of former colonial enterprises helped shape the post-independence era of self-determination politics in latter South Asia.

Woman carrying cement at the Capitol Complex, Chandigarh, India, in front of the Secretariat (1951–58) designed by Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, 1887–1965). 1956. Photograph: Ernst Scheidegger.

Comprised of over 200 photos, architectural models, and other media taken from institutions in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, the exhibition highlights key projects from some of the region’s most prominent designers, including Mahendra Raj and 2018 Pritzker laureate Balkrishna Doshi.

Chittagong University, Chittagong, East Pakistan (Bangladesh). 1965–71. Vastukalabid (est. 1964). Muzharul Islam (1923–2021). Master plan. Ink and pencil on paper. Muzharul Islam Archives.

The exhibition was organized by MoMA...

Mies van der Rohe design for Indiana University is being built, 70 years later

2021-06-18T12:21:00-04:00

Indiana University (IU) has shared an update of their Mies Building at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design. The scheme, currently under construction, realizes a recently rediscovered 1952 design by Mies van der Rohe for the IU Bloomington campus. The scheme has been adapted for contemporary use by architects Thomas Phifer and Partners and is expected to open in the Fall of 2021.

When completed, the Mies Building will be a 60-foot-wide, 140-foot-long rectangular structure of thin, white-painted steel and expansive glass with 10-square-foot panes. Floor-to-ceiling windows will wrap around the entire second story, which will feature a central exterior square atrium to enhance the building’s aura of transparency. Much of the lower level is external, with the main second story elevated above the ground.

Exterior view of the northwest corner of the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, a Mies van der Rohe Design, on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. ...

Carson Chan appointed as the first director of MoMA's Emilio Ambasz Institute

2021-06-11T16:19:00-04:00

The Museum of Modern Art has appointed curator, writer, and educator, Carson Chan, as the first director of the museum’s Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment. He will also serve as a curator in the museum’s Department of Architecture and Design, where he will lead initiatives focused on ecology and sustainability in collaboration with all six departments at MoMA.

As the director of the Ambasz Institute, Chan will develop a “robust and diverse” roster of exhibitions, paired with digital and onsite programs that address the interconnectedness of architecture and ecology. He will begin his new role later this summer and will organize and present a major exhibition focused on the emergence of ecological thinking in architecture, scheduled for 2023.

“I look forward to challenging MoMA’s current and future audiences with new ways to define architecture in the midst of our ecological crisis,” said Carson Chan. “My vision for the Ambasz Inst...

MoMA to showcase China’s new generation of architects through “Reuse, Renew, Recycle” exhibition

2021-06-04T12:02:00-04:00

The Museum of Modern Art has announced details of “Reuse, Renew, Recycle: Recent Architecture from China,” an exhibition highlighting a new generation of Chinese architects and their commitment to social and environmental sustainability. On display from September 16, 2021 through July 4, 2022, the exhibition will present eight projects including the adaptive reuse of former industrial buildings, the recycling of building materials, the reinterpretation of ancient construction techniques, and the economic rejuvenation of rural villages and regions through non-invasive architecture.

Atelier Deshaus, Long Museum West Bund, Shanghai, China, 2012–2013. Photograph by Shengliang Su (MoMA 263.2020.4)

The exhibition features projects by Pritzker Prize–winning Amateur Architecture Studio (Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu), Archi-Union Architects (Philip F. Yuan), Atelier Deshaus (Liu Yichun and Chen Yifeng), DnA Design and Architecture (Xu Tiantian), Studio Zhu Pei (Zhu Pei), Vector Architects (Dong Gong...

'Architecture as a vehicle for liberation and joy:' Michael Kimmelman in conversation with the Black Reconstruction Collective

2021-03-11T19:02:00-05:00

What’s below is a conversation with members of the Black Reconstruction Collective, which came together during the past year and a half, in tandem with an exhibition now at the Museum of Modern Art called “Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.” The collective’s members are the 10 architects, artists and designers in the exhibition.

NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman has published a condensed version of his conversation with Amanda Williams, Emanuel Admassu, J. Yolande Daniels, and V. Mitch McEwen — four of the ten architects, designers, and artists of the Black Reconstruction Collective whose work is currently featured in the MoMA exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

Related on Archinect:

MoMA agrees to temporarily cover Philip Johnson's name with Black Reconstruction Collective artwork

2021-03-02T13:59:00-05:00

The debate over Philip Johnson's past and ongoing legacy continues: after The ---- Johnson Study Group published an open letter calling for all institutions to remove the name of Philip Johnson from "every leadership title, public space, and honorific of any form" in response to the architect's documented Fascist past and support of white supremacy, the Museum of Modern Art, where he was the Director at the Department of Architecture, has now agreed to temporarily cover up Johnson’s name during the run of its current exhibition Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America.

A 10-by-10 foot denim textile piece created collaboratively by the nonprofit Black Reconstruction Collective (BRC) and printed with the group's "Manifesting Statement" will greet visitors at the exhibition entrance, blocking the museum's permanent gallery signage.

Previously on Archinect: Creative community issues a call to remove Philip Johnson's name because of his fascist past

"We accepted their exhib...

New MoMA exhibition investigates architecture, Blackness, and anti-Black racism in America

2021-02-12T12:57:00-05:00

Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America is the fourth installment of the Issues in Contemporary Architecture series at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The exhibition investigates the intersections of architecture, Blackness, and anti-Black racism in the United States.

Olalekan Jeyifous. …other seasonal occupancy neighborhoods. 2020. Courtesy of Olalekan Jeyifous. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Moreover, the featured projects will look at contemporary architecture and its role in the systemic racism that has facilitated discrimination and injustice in the U.S. A system that has informed and continues to inform the design of American cities through public policies, municipal planning, and architecture that has specifically impacted the Black community.

J. Yolande Daniels, principal, studioSUMO | Los Angeles. Race Plate. 2020. Digital rendering, 24 x 36″ (61 x 91.4 cm). Image courtesy of the artist. The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Reconstructions will feature 10 n...

Countryside: The Future and the Past

2021-01-26T20:48:00-05:00

It is no exaggeration to say that our present is the future that Dorothea Lange’s images foretold. The crisis of agriculture in the face of toxic capitalism and climatic disaster that is at the center of her famous photographs might also have served to focus and sharpen "Countryside: The Future," where it is occasionally a subject but more often merely an unstated subtext.

In "Countryside: The Future and the Past," Deborah Gans reviews Countryside: The Future, at the Guggenheim Museum, the multimedia culmination of years of interdisciplinary, globe-spanning research led by OMA's Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, director of its think tank, AMO, alongside Dorothea Lange: Words and Pictures, curated by Sarah Hermanson Meister at the Museum of Modern Art, the first solo show devoted to the celebrated documentary photographer in more than half a century.

Although the exhibitions are very different in scale, ambition, and emotional tenor, each is propelled by the efforts of vastly different urban artists and professionals to document and comprehend historical transformations in rural life. Together they offer an intriguing counterpoint: one body of work is determined to remain detached; the other is driven by political commitment.

Creative community issues a call to remove Philip Johnson's name because of his fascist past

2020-12-03T18:00:00-05:00

The ---- Johnson Study Group, an online organization "studying the legacy of a 20th century white supremacist [Philip Johnson] who founded the most significant modern architectural institutions in the United States" has released the following letter calling for all institutions to remove the name Philip Johnson from any reference of honor.

The letter specifically cites the Museum of Modern Art, where Johnson was the director at the Department of Architecture from 1930-1936 and 1946-1954. The letter mentions Johnson used his office at MoMA and his curatorial work as a pretense to collaborate with the German Nazi party.

According to this Twitter thread, the form will eventually be opened up for additional signatures. Follow the The ---- Johnson Study Group on Instagram to stay updated.

New photos of the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed MoMA expansion have been released

2019-10-16T11:34:00-04:00

The ongoing rennovation and expansion of the Museum of Modern Art will culminate in its opening on Monday October 21, 2019.

Installation View of the Marie Josée and Henry Kravis Studio, The Museum of Modern Art. Photo by Iwan Baan, Courtesy of MoMA

The expansion was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DSR), in collaboration with Gensler and adds more than 40,000 square feet of gallery spaces allowing the museum to exhibit a larger collection of works. The project also aims to provide visitors with a more welcoming and comfortable and also seeks to better connect the Museum to the urban fabric of midtown Manhattan.

Flagship Museum Store. Photo by Brett Beyer, Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Blade Stair, Level 3 Landing. Photo by Brett Beyer, Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The Studio in the heart of the Museum will feature live programming and performances that will explore histories of modern art and the current cultural moment. Up on the second-floor, a Creativity Lab fo...

MoMA re-opens Architecture & Design galleries as new Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed expansion prepares for its public debut

2019-10-10T16:15:00-04:00

A new $450 million renovation of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) complex in New York City by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Gensler is getting ready to make its official debut.

As part of the expansion, the museum has also re-opened its dedicated Architecture and Design galleries, which, contrary to previous iterations for the museum's approach to curating architecture and design topics, will now be spread out along every floor of the museum complex. The change reflects a "curatorial vision of a 'both–and' approach, acknowledging architecture and design both as integral to the interdisciplinary conversation with the visual arts and as autonomous disciplines with specific histories and methodologies," according a MoMA press release.

Ahead of the much-anticipated opening, Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times, previe...

MoMA has received a generous gift of African contemporary art

2019-07-30T09:09:00-04:00

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has received a trove of 45 works of African contemporary art from the photographer and collector Jean Pigozzi.

The Italian photographer, Jean Pigozzi has what many regard as the largest collection of contemporary African art. He has now donated a total of 45 works to the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York which include sculptures by the acclaimed sculptor and artist Bodys Isek Kingelez.

César Pelli has passed away

2019-07-19T23:57:00-04:00

Argentina’s Telam state news agency reported his passing on Friday, as did the governor of Tucuman province, where Pelli grew up and spent his formative years. “With much regret we receive the sad news of the death of the great Architect César Pelli,” the region’s governor, Juan Manzur, said in a post on Twitter. “I want to convey my condolences to his whole family, his friends and his team.”

César Pelli, a prolific and relentlessly inventive architect who has shaped the skylines of major cities from Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York City, and Kuala Lumpur, has passed away at age 92.

News of Pelli’s death came from Argentina’s state news service Friday afternoon, according to Reuters.

Pedro & Juana's “Hórama Rama” cyclorama opens at MoMA PS1

2019-06-28T14:15:00-04:00

After winning MoMA PS1's 2019 Young Architects Program this past March, “Hórama Rama” is now open to the public in time for summer festivities. Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss of Mexico City-based studio Pedro & Juana designed the temporary installation as a 40-foot-high, 90-foot-wide cyclorama structure that immerses visitors into a jungle landscape.

Hórama Rama by Pedro & Juana, presented as part of the Young Architects Program 2019 at MoMA PS1. Image courtesy MoMA PS1. Photo: Kris Graves.

The cyclorama has a panoramic image of a jungle on scaffolding that sits above the PS1 courtyard, which reconfigures the courtyard space into an immersive environment that allows visitors to move in and out of. To add to that, the installation features a functioning, cooling waterfall and hammocks that were made in the south of Mexico. Wooden “bristles” protrude from the s...

Kate Fowle announced as new Director of MoMA PS1

2019-06-26T14:43:00-04:00

Assuming her new role as Director of MoMA PS1 in September, Fowle will use her previous experience as Chief Curator at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and director of the Independent Curators International (ICI) to lead the institution. Her global curatorial expertise and directorial experience will allow her to continue with the museum's mission.

Since its founding in 1976, MoMA PS1 has grown to become the largest site for contemporary art in the nation and is considered to be one of the largest in the world. Upon receiving the news of her appointment, Fowle shared in MoMA's press release, "It's an honor to take the helm of MoMA PS1 at this juncture in its rich history, I look forward to working with the team and board to create a generative environment where our outlook is transformed through artists and their perspectives on the world."

Image © MoMA

Before her career as an accomplished curator, writer, and museum director, Fowle grew up in the U.K. and is a trained ar...

Six years since #FolkMoMA, the state of folk art at MoMA

2019-06-07T13:50:00-04:00

What I’ll miss during the Museum of Modern Art’s four-month public shutdown is something I’ve already been missing for five years and will probably continue to miss when the expanded museum reopens in October. I’m talking about the presence on West 53rd Street of the American Folk Art Museum, which was physically demolished in 2014, and whose site the expanded MoMA absorbs, but whose spirit lives on as a restless ghost in the corporate machine that MoMA is.

Holland Cotter, NYT co-chief art critic, on the state of art apart from the usual household names at MoMA since the TWBTA-designed American Folk Art Museum building next door was demolished in 2014, as well as looking ahead to the reopening of the expanded MoMA this fall.

"I would suggest that we, and MoMA, don’t need any more Rauschenbergs, or Richters, or Serras, or Twomblys," writes Cotter. "What we do need is 'many others.' And some of those Others were, for 13 years, to be found in the Folk Art Museum next door. Maybe MoMA can now be persuaded to acknowledge its spirit, and their genius, in its expanded home."

Toward a Concrete Utopia reviewed

2019-03-11T15:03:00-04:00

The North American layman tends to consider the Eastern bloc as a homogenous chunk of misery. It falls to the curators then to differentiate the USSR from Yugoslavia, and they are not off to a good start. Simultaneously, they are obliged to titillate concrete-loving Instagrammers with images of Brutalist hulks. Only once these two aims are achieved can they pose the salient question: does Yugoslav architecture merit more study than a social media scroll?

In his piece for The Observer, George Grylls reviews MoMA's highly publicized exhibition, Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980, which recently came to a close in New York.

Miodrag Živković, Monument to the Battle of Sutjeska, 1965-71, Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina. View of the western exposure. Photo: Valentin Jeck, commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2017.

"In truth, the exhibition has been teasing us for its big finale," Grylls writes. "And just when you were about to ask for your money back, you get what you came for – spomeniki, lumbering onto stage like the Rolling Stones dutifully returning for an obligatory encore."

MoMA's temporary closure provides a moment of self-reflection

2019-02-06T19:28:00-05:00

As the Museum of Modern Art begins the final stage of its $400 million overhaul, it will close for four months to reconfigure its galleries, rehang the entire collection and rethink the way that the story of modern and contemporary art is presented to the public. The Picassos and van Goghs will still be there, but the 40,000 square feet of additional space will allow MoMA to focus new attention on works by women, Latinos, Asians, African-Americans and other overlooked artists...

Over the span of its 89 year history, The Museum of Modern Art has been the subject of both praise and disappointment among cultural elites. In particular, its Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed plan to expand into the adjacent American Folk Art Museum, by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, was the subject of sharp criticism when it was announced only a few short years ago.

Rendering of new Museum of Modern Art Facade. Credit: Diller + Scofidio Architects.

But as that project draws closer to its opening day by the end of this year, the museum has decided to use the months of its temporary closure (between June 15th and Oct. 21st) as an opportunity to reconsider how it exhibits its world-famous collection. This not only means a reassessment of the segregation of media, but also that of racial and sexual representation.

“A new generation of curators is discovering the richness of what is in our collection, and there is great work being made around the world that we need to pay atte...

MoMA receives landmark gift of nine projects by Herzog & de Meuron

2019-01-25T14:49:00-05:00

The Museum of Modern Art has received a major donation courtesy of Herzog & de Meuron, whom have gifted the New York institution with materials relating to nine of their most influential built and unbuilt works. The contribution—which holds sketches, models, and architectural fragments as well as digital drawing sets and videos—will build upon the museum's previous collection of works by the Swiss firm, and bolster MoMA's vast and diverse holdings relating to architecture and design.

Herzog & de Meuron (Basel, est. 1978). 56 Leonard Street, New York, New York, USA. 2006–2008. Floor plans. Digital drawing files. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron Kabinett. Photo © Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel.

Herzog & de Meuron (Basel, est. 1978). 1111 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach, Florida, USA. 2005–2008. Exhibition model, scale 1:90. Oak, 18 11/16 × 26 × 22 1/16″ (47.5 × 66 × 56 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of t...

Concrete Utopia

2018-11-14T09:22:00-05:00

In the construction of the new Yugoslavia, modernist thinking and design were deployed to guide the country’s rapid urbanization and industrialization as well as to unify the ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse population.

In columnist Belmont Freeman's latest article for Places, he examines the exhibition “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980,” now on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and finds a rigorous and revealing survey of Yugoslavia’s extraordinary built legacy that until now has been neglected by mainstream architectural historians.

The fantastic, cardboard city models of Bodys Isek Kingelez on display in MoMA's first retrospective of the Congolese artist

2018-05-01T14:26:00-04:00

In its first-ever solo show of a Black African artist, New York's Museum of Modern Art will put the work of visionary Congolese artist Bodys Isek Kingelez on full display. On view from May 26, 2018 through January 1, 2019, City Dreams will span the sculptor's three-decade career from his early single-building sculptures, to his spectacular sprawling cities and futuristic late works.

Bodys Isek Kingelez (Congolese, 1948-2015). Paris Nouvel. 1989. Paper, paperboard, and other various materials, 33 7/16 × 24 × 27 9/16″ (85 × 61 × 70 cm). Long-term loan from the Centre national des arts plastiques, France to the Château d’Oiron, France, FNAC 981003. © Cnap (France) / droits résérves; photograph by Frédéric Pignoux, Studio Lud

The self-trained artist, who passed in 2015, was known for his "extreme maquettes" in which he transformed paper, commercial packaging, and other everyday materials into dazzling, intricate sculptures. From fanciful models of civic buildings and public monuments, t...

An augmented reality art exhibit hijacks MoMA's Jackson Pollock gallery

2018-04-27T14:57:00-04:00

NEW YORK’S MUSEUM of Modern Art is under siege. Well, a virtual siege, at least. A group of renegade artists has co-opted the brightly-lit Jackson Pollock gallery on the museum’s fifth floor, turning it into their personal augmented reality playground. [...] those that have downloaded the MoMAR Gallery app on their smartphones, the impressionist's iconic paintings are merely markers—points of reference telling the app where to display the guerilla artists’ works.

MoMAR's augmented reality app and the unauthorized accompanying group show Hello, we're from the internet explore the intersection of private physical space and the public digital realm. "MoMAR is an unauthorized gallery concept aimed at democratizing physical exhibition spaces, museums, and the curation of art within them," the group explains on its website. "MoMAR is non-profit, non-owned, and exists in the absence of any privatized structures."

Get the app on Android or iOS and head to MoMA's Jackson Pollock room on the 5th floor to see Hello, we're from the internet until May 3.

New images of Jean Nouvel's posh, MoMA-integrated luxury condo tower 53W53

2017-09-12T19:04:00-04:00

As the brand-new rendering above shows, the luxury condo tower designed by Jean Nouvel will boast an unusual amenity: floors 2, 4 and 5 of 53W53 will serve as new gallery levels for the Museum of Modern Art when construction is completed. Additionally, according to a fact sheet, "benefactor W53 MoMA membership runs with each residence, and includes curated benefits and the potential for the building to host private events in the museum's sculpture garden." The tower, which is slated to top out at 1,050 feet, will be home to 145 residences ranging in size from one to five bedrooms, with a few private-elevator-accessible penthouse suites.

Images above and below: Hayes Davidson

No two condos will have the same layout, thanks to the combination of Jean Nouvel's self-described "diagrid," which refers to the tower's pronounced exterior structural system, and the tapering design itself, which precludes repetitive formats. The interiors of each condo are being designed by Thierry Despont, a...