Los Angeles. The “Vernacular Environment” exhibition explores the meandres of space

Curated by David DeBoer – director of the gallery – and on show until July 14th, “Vernacular Environment, Part 2” is the second chapter of an annual exhibition that the Edward Cella Gallery (Los Angeles) dedicates to the exploration of the pluralities of the notion of space. Mixing both the conceptual research of significant architects of the 20th century and the works of contemporary American artists, the show reflects on the elusive connections between space, and more specifically architecture, and art. “Vernacular Environments speaks to a psychological aspect of space which gives vividness to a thought or event or relationship” explains the curator, suggesting that imagination is intrinsically linked to our understanding of a place. A correlation that abstract painter and sculptor Rema Ghuloum unveils by merging internal and external environments in her “painted constructions”; while Aili Schmeltz’s drawings absorb the architectural language and purism of the modernist movement to better challenge the 2D of the canvas.

From modernism to functionalism, speculative architecture and utopian drawings are inherent to the practice of architecture. So, fostering a visual dialogue with the contemporary artworks, the exhibition features the abstract compositions by Japanese architect and artist Shusaku Arakawa, but also “Undersea Island”, a project by the visionary American designer R. Buckminster Fuller, early drawings by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein, as well as Italian born architect Paolo Soleri’s series “Space for peace” and some of the experimental environments imagined by the American conceptual architect Lebbeus Woods. Finally, to break the monotony of the gallery’s white walls and highlight some of the exhibits, American artist Ruth Pastine has imagined colourful zones of focus.