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21 April - 21 May 2005. |
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Frederieke Taylor gallery
Opening reception: Thursday, 21 April, 6-8pm.
The Frederieke Taylor Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of Raimund Abraham’s drawings
and models for the “JingYa Ocean Entertainment Center” in Beijing. For this edifice, to be completed in 2006,
the architect has devised a new type of curtain-wall that surrounds and veils its interior structure.
Raimund Abraham is widely known for his exquisite drawings and models as well as
for the innovative nature of his architecture.
On the subject of the project in Beijing, Abraham states his architectural intent as follows: “Since the designated site in Beijing, only a few blocks from the Forbidden City, had been voided of its urbanistic memory, I was forced to create my own site, my own memory, in order to provide the essential perimeters for the architectural intervention. Recalling the distinctive power of the ocean, a building block, an artificial extension of the earth, 150 ft. long, 90 ft. wide and 150 ft in height, had been partially carved and chiseled into an amorphic landscape, to be finally transformed into a precise geometric structure, detached from the volume of the block.” Kenneth Frampton says of Raimund Abraham’s drawings: “The architectural drawing occupies a central position in the evolution of Abraham’s work in challenging the predominant notion of built architecture…Abraham’s drawings and projects as well as the built realizations reflect the roots of a concise architectural theory.” (Kenneth Frampton, Reality and Representation in Contemporary Architecture, 1982.) Raimund Abraham was born in Austria in 1933, and immigrated to the United States in 1964 from Vienna. He became a member of the faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1964-1971. From 1971-2002 he had held a tenured professorship at Cooper Union in New York where he lives and works. In addition he has taught at Harvard and Yale, as well as universities in London, Graz, Copenhagen, Strassbourg, and Houston. He is presently a visiting professor at Sci-Arch in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Museo Correr in Venice, Pinacotek in Athens, Leo Castelli Gallery, and the Venice Biennale. He has won numerous awards and distinctions, including the Stone Lion of the Venice Biennale and the Grand Prize of Architecture of the City of Vienna, 1995, as well as its highest award, the Gold Medal, in 2005. Among his most recently built projects is the celebrated Austrian Cultural Forum in New York.  Gallery hours are: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 to 6 For further information and visuals, please contact the gallery. | |
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