October 13- November 4, 2018
Opening Saturday October 13th, 6-10pm
Room 1 & The Backyard:
Barbara Baer, Kevin Baer
Observations
Observations presents a mother-and-son collaboration between two sculptors. The artists use indoor and outdoor installations to entice closer observation of the natural world. In The Front’s outdoor exhibition space, grass and trees serve not only as subject but as part of the artworks.
Baer and Baer have fused two very different studio practices to look at the interaction between humans and nature. The unpredicted results are presented for your exploration.
Barbara Baer
Most of my studio works have been sculpture commissions, projects developed for a specific place and range of emotional intent. I have completed sculptures in San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, Chicago, Vail, Denver, and in Germany, Japan and New Zealand. In 2011 two public artworks for the City of Ft. Collins, CO, received Urban Design Awards.
I am both an object–maker and an installation artist, intrigued with spatial design and the interaction of materials with light. My plastic and metal constructions incorporate rich, translucent color and shifting shadow play to engage and reward perception. Their mood is often playful and curious.
My BFA is from Tulane University in New Orleans and MFA in sculpture from the University of Colorado in Boulder. For many years I taught graduate courses with Lesley University and now maintain a studio practice in Denver.
Kevin Baer
Kevin Baer was born in Denver, Colorado to an architect father and sculptor mother. Family hikes and camping trips in the Rocky Mountains gave him an appreciation and interest in the natural world. Kevin continues to approach projects in his studio with a Boy Scout’s pragmatism and a scientist’s fervent curiosity.
He attended college in California, achieving his bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University. Graduate study brought him to Louisiana where he earned his MFA at the University of New Orleans. After graduate school Kevin has worked as an arts educator, teaching at both the college and high school level.
Kevin Baer currently lives in New Orleans with his girlfriend and his large cat.
Room 2:
David Bordett
The Patient Gothic Chisel
David Bordett (b.1991) is a New York based artist making regular returns to New Orleans. He grew up in the Appalachian region of Virginia, and would go on to receive his BFA from the department of sculpture and extended media and VCU.
Rooms 3 & 4:
Nurhan Gokturk, Air is not free, 3.5 x 3.5 x .5 Inches, Nutrient agar, carbon with UV lamp, 2018
Air is Not Free
Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim, Nurhan Gokturk
Curated by Nurhan Gokturk
It is said that early cave dwellers considered the atmosphere to be an invisibly thin layer of lampblack where marks could be inscribed in its soot from fires and flames. When the soot in the caves became too much to bear, they left those hollows and entered the natural world. As our own natural world has been irreparably damaged from carbon emissions, we place ourselves in an increasingly uncertain environmental future. We present objects that document the current conditions of the planet through living material, accept the inevitable and prepare for the aftermath with a post carbon city-state using digital fabrication and computation, and finally map the historical output of carbon through drawings and direct transfers.
Terreform ONE [Open Network Ecology] is a nonprofit architecture and urban design research and consulting group that promotes smart design in cities. Through comprehensive projects and outreach efforts, they aim to illuminate the environmental possibilities of cities across the globe. Operating as a
unique laboratory of specialists with diverse disciplinary backgrounds that explore and advance the larger framework of socio-ecological design. The group develops innovative concepts and technologies for local sustainability in energy, transportation, infrastructure, buildings, waste treatment, food, and water. These
novel research endeavors are derived from the interface of technology, design and synthetic biology.
Mitchell Joachim is the Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU. Formerly, he was an architect at the offices of Frank Gehry and I.M. Pei. He has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and fellowships with TED, Moshe Safdie, and Martin Society for Sustainability, MIT. He was chosen by Wired magazine for "The Smart List” and selected by Rolling Stone for “The 100 People Who Are Changing America”. Mitchell won many honors including; ARCHITECT R+D Award, AIA New York Urban Design Merit Award, 1st Place International Architecture Award, Victor Papanek Social Design Award, Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability, History Channel Infiniti Award for City of the Future, and Time magazine’s Best Invention with MIT Smart Cities Car. He's featured as “The NOW 99” in Dwell magazine and “50 Under 50 Innovators of the 21st Century" by Images Publishers. He co-authored three books, "XXL-XS: New Directions in Ecological Design," "Super Cells: Building with Biology," and "Global Design: Elsewhere Envisioned". His design work has been exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Biennale. He earned: PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, and MArch Columbia University.
Nurhan Gokturk is a multidisciplinary artist and urban designer. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Nurhan immigrated to New York City at the age of three. Raised in Queens and Brooklyn and educated in the public school system, he went on to receive a Master's Degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute. His projects have been featured at the Venice Biennale, Buenos Aires International Biennial of Architecture, Aqua Art Fair (Miami), GLOBAL Design (London), Contemporary Art's Center New Orleans 40th Anniversary Show and Ephemera Obscura, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Governor’s Island Art Center (NYC), the New Institute in Rotterdam, the Onsite Gallery in Toronto, the Inaugural and second Bywater Biennial, and Masterpeace - a P.S. Satellite - A Project of Prospect New Orleans. His work has also been exhibited in Barcelona, Berlin, Boston, Detroit, London, Toronto, Vienna, as well as, across France, Germany and the United States. He has been featured in Metropolis Magazine, Gambit's Top 40 under 40, was Interviewed on NPR and awarded the Architizer A+ Award. He is the Collectors Club artist for the Contemporary Arts Center and a member of The Front artist collective. He is a participating artist in the Jazz and Heritage Festival. Nurhan coordinated the first major Habitat for Humanity Buckminster Fuller Design Science Exhibition in Istanbul. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans.