EXHIBITION STATEMENT

This experimental exhibition celebrates the exciting advances in engineering and 3D printing that open up new ways to create organic forms in architecture—at a much larger scale than the artistic mud structures humans have shaped by hand for eons. Inspiration comes from Zaha Hadid’s fluid Aliyev Center in Baku, Studio Gang Architects’ extraordinary Natural History Museum in New York, the emerging technology of 3D-printed dwellings made from locally sourced clay for affordable or temporary housing, and Bjarke Ingels Group’s luxury hotel in Marfa. Vessels & Voids explores what forms may take shape next.

A group of notable DC architects—Ankie Barnes, Melinda Becker, Janet Bloomberg, Wouter Boer, Olivia Demetriou, Phil Esocoff, David Jameson, Michael Marshall, Mark McInturff, Robert Sponseller, Dhiru Thadani, Amy Weinstein, and Christian Zapatka—will present sketches of organic structures, fantastical and futuristic imaginings of architectural forms and voids, and concepts for livable sculptures.

Ceramic artists well-versed in the material’s potential and limitations—Robert Devers, Marissa McInturff, Jon McMillan, Virginia Pates, and Paul DiPasquale—will exhibit their own vessels and organic architectural sculptures in clay.

Architect and artist Brian Peters will demonstrate 3D clay printing technology in the Kaplan Gallery. The exhibition invites dialogue between architects and ceramic artists and contributes to the ongoing conversation about organic and biomorphic architecture—and where it might be headed.

Read the review in The Washington Post and the feature in Home & Design magazine.