New York, NY
Benjamin Aranda and Christopher Lasch are the principals of the New York based architecture studio Aranda/Lasch. Graduates of Columbia University, the two young designers founded their practice in 2003. Their work-from the 2003 Brooklyn Pigeon Project to their recent Pamphlet Architecture publication Tooling-is characterized by both rigor and whimsy. Like scientists, they are committed to an exhaustive investigation of structures and systems that will enable them to discover new variations in form and surface that they can transform into architecture.
Grotto, 2005; photo courtesy Aranda/Lasch
New York, NY
Benjamin Aranda and Christopher Lasch are the principals of the New York based architecture studio Aranda/Lasch. Graduates of Columbia University, the two young designers founded their practice in 2003. Their work-from the 2003 Brooklyn Pigeon Project to their recent Pamphlet Architecture publication Tooling-is characterized by both rigor and whimsy. Like scientists, they are committed to an exhaustive investigation of structures and systems that will enable them to discover new variations in form and surface that they can transform into architecture.
Grotto, 2005; photo courtesy Aranda/Lasch
Pasadena, CA
Edgar Arceneaux explores societal patterns that are as invisible or unexpected as those that chaos theory examines in the physical world. He is concerned with the erratic nature of daily experience and how this is manifested in the poetic redundancies found in language. His videos and installations have also examined themes such as comedy, alchemy, and dark humor. His work has evolved from traditional drawing media to installations and large-scale film projections, while his approach to construction and form is embedded within the fabric of motion and time.
Failed Attempt at Crystallization III, 2003; photo courtesy Edgar Arceneaux and Susanne Vielmetter, Los Angeles Projects
Los Angeles, CA
Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues are partners in Ball-Nogues Studio, a highly creative young Los Angeles–based practice. Their work addresses not only architecture but also fashion, art, and social space. The two enterprising principals consistently seek out new materials, technologies, and fabrication processes to challenge themselves and push the boundaries of architecture. They believe that a project is not architecture until it is built, and they are committed to building their unique visions. Because Ball-Nogues Studio is an integrated design and fabrication practice, the partners are involved in every aspect of a project, from concept to construction.
Rip Curl Canyon, 2006, cardboard and plywood, commission for Rice Gallery; photo courtesy Nash Baker
Los Angeles, CA
Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues are partners in Ball-Nogues Studio, a highly creative young Los Angeles–based practice. Their work addresses not only architecture but also fashion, art, and social space. The two enterprising principals consistently seek out new materials, technologies, and fabrication processes to challenge themselves and push the boundaries of architecture. They believe that a project is not architecture until it is built, and they are committed to building their unique visions. Because Ball-Nogues Studio is an integrated design and fabrication practice, the partners are involved in every aspect of a project, from concept to construction.
Rip Curl Canyon, 2006, cardboard and plywood, commission for Rice Gallery; photo courtesy Nash Baker
Los Angeles, CA
As a photographer, Uta Barth is preoccupied with vision and more interested in how we see than in what we see. Her creative process grows out of her concern with making art that is about the visual experience. In Barth’s work, vision, time, stillness, and light are recurring themes. In making the choice to photograph a particular subject, she attempts to engage the viewer in the process of looking. Throughout her career she has addressed objective and subjective, exterior and interior concerns that are passionately engaged with the sensory realities that only photography can capture. Since 1990 Barth has been a professor of art at the University of California, Riverside.
Sundial, 2007, Untitled 2007.6, color photographs; photo courtesy the artist
Boca Raton, FL
Pat Bowie is an actress who has graced stages across the United States and London in roles such as Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean, Mrs. Zulu in Tug Yourgrau’s Song of Jacob Zulu, and Amanda in Noel Coward’s Private Lives. Equally at home working with emerging companies, Broadway productions, and the leading institutions of the not-for-profit theater, she has acted in world premieres, canonical classics, and contemporary masterworks. While she has done extensive television work in both Britain and the United States, and is a highly respected recording artist as well, it is her fierce commitment to the work of regional theaters that has distinguished her as a vital collaborator with a host of contemporary actors, directors, and playwrights.
Gem of the Ocean, 2006; photo courtesy Harlan Taylor
Boiceville, NY
Clarinetist and composer Don Byron is well known for his genre-bending abilities to communicate in the musical styles of Motown funk, experimental chamber music, klezmer, German lieder, and various forms of jazz, rock, and hip-hop. He was the artistic director of jazz at the Brooklyn Academy of Music from 1996 to 1999, and his compositions have been recorded by ensembles such as the Bang on a Can All-Stars and Kronos Quartet. A musician’s musician, he was named jazz artist of the year by Downbeat magazine in 1992 and received a Grammy Award nomination in 2004.
New York, NY
Paul Chan uses video technology and digital animation to address the present as a historical moment—a form of living time. He explores moving images as allegories for history’s pervasive influence on social, political, and sexual themes. His video projections, digital shorts, and installations deal with the myriad ways in which the past lingers in the present and anticipates the future. Starting with simple Web-based interactive works and single-channel videos, he later incorporated traditional drawing materials such as charcoal or paper collage. Chan’s recent multimedia projects articulate his concerns with politics and history, particularly the themes of secrecy and violence.
1st Light, 2005, digital video projection; courtesy of The Dakis Joannou Collection, Athens; © 2007 Paul Chan; courtesy of Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; photograph © 2007 Jean Vong
La Mesa, CA
Marilyn Chin is a widely acclaimed poet and feminist activist. She became interested in poetry while translating Tang dynasty texts for her undergraduate degree in classical Chinese literature. She has published three collections of her work, which are considered Asian American classics, as well as translations of modern Chinese and Japanese poetry. Chin writes about Asian American concerns of assimilation and bicultural identity and explores different poetic styles and forms.
Rhapsody in Plain Yellow, 2002; photo courtesy Don Romero and W.W. Norton