Exhibition of New and Site-Specific Contemporary Art and Design Opens in the Architecturally Significant Midcentury Home of Gerald Luss Organized by Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing
At The Luss House Takes Place in the Ossining, NY Midcentury Home of Gerald Luss,Designer Best Known for the Interiors of the Time-Life Building. The Second Iteration of a Collaborative Exhibition within an Architect’s Own Home — Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing Present Works by Lucas Arruda, Cecily Brown, Matt Connors, Green River Project LLC, Tony Lewis, Eddie Martinez, Ritsue Mishima, Paulo Monteiro, Johnny Ortiz, and Marina Perez Simão, Among Others.
New York, NY, May 5, 2021 – Today, At The Luss House: Blum & Poe, Mendes Wood DM and Object & Thing, opens to the public, providing a unique opportunity to experience an exhibition of newly created contemporary art and design, including site-specific works, at the former home of architect and designer Gerald Luss (b. 1926, Gloversville, NY) that he designed and completed for his family in 1955 in Ossining, New York. On view from May 7 - July 24, 2021, At The Luss House continues to explore the possibilities of connecting today’s artistic ideas with those of past eras through the presentation of contemporary art and design within an architect’s own domestic environment as the organizers also did last fall at the home of industrial designer and Harvard Five architect, Eliot Noyes.
The exhibition features works from 18 international artists in response to the house’s environment, including Alma Allen, Lucas Arruda, Cecily Brown, Green River Project LLC, Eddie Martinez, Ritsue Mishima, Johnny Ortiz, Frances Palmer, Paulo Monteiro and Marina Perez Simão among others. In addition to the organizing galleries, Blum & Poe and Mendes Wood DM, Object & Thing is presenting works contributed by Alison Bradley Projects (New York City) and GALLERY crossing (Minokamo, Japan).
An atmospheric video tour that includes comments from Gerald Luss and curator and writer Glenn Adamson, allows the opportunity to experience the space on an intimate, personal level virtually. For those able to travel to Ossining (approximately 45 minutes up the Hudson River from New York City), the exhibition is also open in-person through carefully coordinated, private reservations available every Friday and Saturday from May 7 - July 24, 2021, which can be made online from the three organizers’ websites beginning on May 5.
Select highlights of the presentation include:
- A new group of aluminum furniture by Green River Project LLC inspired by Gerald Luss’s life and work, including a rectangular table which directly references architectural elements of the Time-Life building.
- A site-specific installation from Kishio Suga inspired by the woods surrounding Luss House, using locally sourced materials. First conceived for Kaneko Art Gallery, Tokyo, in 1985, when Suga remade the piece outdoors for the Biennale of Middelheim in 1989, adapting the original constituent parts to fit the space between two trees, it became an icon of his uniquely site-specific and adaptive approach to art making.
- Five new works by fiber artist Kiva Motnyk created specifically for the Luss House, including a hand-pieced fabric panel stretched within a wooden frame that fills the main bedroom window and tapestries placed over each of the beds.
- New paintings by Marina Perez Simão, which were created during quarantine and inspired by a desire for color and light during lockdown.
- Cecily Brown’s new painting Reasons to Be Cheerful (2020-2021), which reflects the artist’s interest in sensually depicting both representational and abstract elements of nudes.
- A sculpture from Daniel Steegman Mangrané, which, though not site-specific, responds beautifully to the constructive syntaxis of the Luss House and its surrounding nature, with a similar contrast between the brute opacity of the concrete base and the airy transparency of the glass panel.
- Similarly, Ritsue Mishima’s glass sculptures are sited near the house’s walls of glass, illuminated by the natural light and in conversation with the exterior natural environment.
- Works by painter, sculptor and draughtsman Eddie Martinez, who’s archeological approach facilitates a reverse anthropomorphism in his compositions.
Additionally, ceramics are a large focus of the object-based works in the exhibition, including a new body of wood fired pieces by Connecticut-based Frances Palmer who will arrange spring blossoms from her own garden in the vases throughout the exhibition, hand-dug micaceous clay vessels made by artist and chef Johnny Ortiz (who recently traveled from New Mexico to be a guest chef in the Stone Barns and Blue Hill residency program) and the first U.S. showing of Japanese abstract ceramicist Yoichi Shiraishi.
An influential designer and architect, Luss is best known for his influence on large-scale corporate projects during the post–World War II building boom in Manhattan, although his work can be found around the world. He is particularly noted for the innovations he developed for the 350,000 square feet of interiors for the famed Time-Life office building (1959) on Avenue of the Americas in midtown Manhattan – the epitome of midcentury modern skyscraper design, commonly recognized today as the backdrop to AMC’s Mad Men series.
His home in Ossining, commuting distance from New York City, was Luss’s first freestanding architectural project and where he lived during the three years he spent working on the Time-Life project. The home was used for many planning meetings between Luss and Time-Life staff and employs a similar connection between interior and exterior environments as well as shared materials and color schemes. At 94 years old, Luss is a collaborative partner in the exhibition, lending examples of his furniture and designs including three of his recent timepieces - one he sited in the main bedroom’s bathroom - and the poker table he designed and uses in his own New York City studio. Other Luss designs at the house include a twelve-foot sofa that he designed for the house and has always remained at the house, which inspired the design of the sofas at Time-Life; a chaise lounge from the 1950s designed for Lehigh Furniture Company and a glass coffee table.
Abby Bangser, Founder and Creative Director of Object & Thing commented, "After having worked with Blum & Poe and Mendes Wood DM on last fall's exhibition at the Eliot Noyes House in New Canaan, Connecticut we wanted to find another opportunity to bring together contemporary art and design in an architecturally significant setting with a story that we could share." Matt Bangser, a partner at Blum & Poe, added "the warmth of materials and connection with nature at the Luss House resonates with much of the work we are all featuring," and Pedro Mendes, co-founder of Mendes Wood DM, commented that "the collaboration continues our gallery's interest in creating meaningful artistic conversations between the past and present."
Gerald Luss commented, “It is satisfying to have this exhibition infuse new life in the home I designed and built for my family at the onset of my career and to see new generations of artists and designers bring their contemporary perspective into the space. In my own life, I find it is essential not only to create new work, but to also live among the objects and work of other artists, expanding my vision of the world. I look forward to experiencing how this exhibition casts new light on my former home and sharing in the inspirations for us all.”
The video tour was filmed by Michael Biondo, a New York and Connecticut-based photographer specializing in architecture and design. Independent writer and curator, Glenn Adamson, is included in the film and wrote an essay about the exhibition.
To see the virtual experience or book a reservation to visit, please visit At The Luss House exhibition pages on www.blumandpoe.com, www.mendeswooddm.com or www.object-thing.com.
The press kit with installation images can be accessed here.
Artists
Alma Allen
Lucas Arruda
Cecily Brown
Matt Connors
Green River Project LLC
Mimi Lauter
Tony Lewis
Eddie Martinez
Ritsue Mishima
Paulo Monteiro
Kiva Motnyk
Paulo Nazareth
Johnny Ortiz
Frances Palmer
Marina Perez Simão
Yoichi Shiraishi
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
Kishio Suga
About Blum & Poe
Blum & Poe was founded by Timothy Blum and Jeffrey Poe in Los Angeles in 1994 as a space to show local and international contemporary art in all media. Throughout a twenty-six-year history, Blum & Poe has shaped the trajectory of contemporary art by championing artists at all stages of their careers—cultivating the lineages that run between emerging and established practices, and working with artist estates to generate new discourse surrounding historical work. Now spanning three locations in Los Angeles, New York, and Tokyo, Blum & Poe has collaborated with celebrated curators to stage museum-caliber surveys, examining the historical work of such movements as the Japanese Mono-ha school; the Korean Dansaekhwa monochrome painters; the European postwar movement CoBrA; a rereading of Brazilian Modernism (2019); and more.
About Mendes Wood DM
Mendes Wood DM was founded in 2010 by partners Felipe Dmab, Matthew Wood and Pedro Mendes with the intent to exhibit international and Brazilian artists in a context conducive to critical dialogue and cross-pollination. Central to the gallery’s program is a concern for regional difference and individuation while fostering cosmopolitanism and collaboration. Inspired by a belief that artistic practices broaden the scope of human agency and have the power to both touch and change the world, Mendes Wood DM cultivates a program premised on conceptualism, political resistance and intellectual rigor.
About Object & Thing
Object & Thing brings together object-based 20th and 21st century works from leading international art and design galleries, and artists’ studios, in an innovative fair concept that focuses on the object both through in-person exhibitions and a corresponding e-commerce site, object-thing.com. Objects are presented in carefully considered environments without separation between art and design, offering an accessible platform for the appreciation and acquisition of these artist-made works – both sculptural, or functional in daily life. Object & Thing was founded in 2019 by Abby Bangser, former Artistic Director of Frieze Art Fairs for the Americas and Asia with significant experience in non-profit arts institutions, and is organized in coordination with artistic director Rafael de Cárdenas.
For additional information, please contact:
Morgan Potts
Camron PR
[email protected]
+1 646.420.0768
Naz Cuguoglu
Blum & Poe
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Nancy Brown
Mendes Wood DM
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