Steven Holl: Making Architecture

The Dorsky Museum’s Hudson Valley Masters series continues in 2018 with Steven Holl: Making Architecture, an exhibition examining the work and process of one of the world’s foremost architects.

The exhibition will be on display from February 10–July 15, in The Dorsky’s Morgan Anderson and Howard Greenberg Family Galleries. A public opening reception will be held on Saturday, February 10, from 5–7pm.

This exhibition celebrates Steven Holl, the New York-based architect and watercolorist who, as the leader of Steven Holl Architects, has realized numerous commissions, from private houses to major urban projects, both in the United States and internationally.

Among his most significant and well-known designs are Simmons Hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Linked Hybrid building complex in Beijing, China, the Bloch Building at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the contemporary art museum Kiasma, in Helsinki, Finland.

Holl’s practice reveals an inextricable link between art and architecture. He draws with watercolors every day, a solitary and hermetic practice from which each of his projects emerges, and also develops conceptual ideas in sculpture. 

Steven Holl: Making Architecture represents the first major consideration of the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of Holl’s recent architecture, including many projects still under construction. It collects approximately 100 presentation models, study models and watercolor sketches created for eleven recent projects, including the Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University; Hunters Point Community Library, Queens, NY; the Exploration of IN house on the architect’s property in Rhinebeck, NY; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Richmond, VA; the Exploration of IN House, on the architect’s property in Rhinebeck, NY; and Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in London, recognized in a recent Architectural Digest list of the most influential buildings of 2017.

The exhibition intends to bring visitors inside Holl’s creative process, and demonstrate his progression from representation to built object. Models will be shown in close proximity to unframed drawings placed simply on table, in a process-oriented display emphasizing thinking, making and reflecting.

Holl is featured as a part of The Dorsky Museum’s “Hudson Valley Masters” series, an ongoing presentation of in-depth exhibitions focusing on single artists from the region. These are accompanied by scholarly catalogues that become part of a permanent archive documenting the region’s rich contemporary art scene. Previous Hudson Valley Masters include Dick Polich, Robert Morris, Don Nice, Leslie Dill, Judy Pfaff and Carolee Schneemann.

About the Curator
Nina Stritzler-Levine is the director of the Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York City, and has been the curator of numerous exhibitions including the recently acclaimed Artek and the Aaltos, which focused on the architect couple Aino Marsio and Alvar Aalto, co-founders of and designers for Artek, the Finnish firm widely known for the production of Alvar Aalto’s bentwood furniture.

About the Dorsky Museum
Through its collections, exhibitions and public programs, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz supports and enriches the academic programs at the College, presents a broad range of world art for study and enjoyment and serves as a center for Hudson Valley arts and culture. The museum is widely recognized as the premier public showplace for exhibition, education and cultural scholarship about the Hudson Valley region’s art and artists from yesterday and today. With more than 9,000 square feet of exhibition space distributed over six galleries, The Dorsky Museum is one of the largest museums in the SUNY system. Since its official dedication on October 20, 2001, The Dorsky has presented more than 100 exhibitions, including commissions, collection-based projects and in-depth studies of contemporary artists including Robert Morris, Alice Neel, Judy Pfaff, Carolee Schneemann and Ushio Shinohara.