Jim Condron
“Collected Things” Art Exhibition
This was the first time Medesign had worked with American artist Jim Condron, a well-recognised contemporary artist who lives and works in Baltimore and Brooklyn in the United States. The artist contacted our creative design studios in London on recommendation from one of our New York-based clients we had previously designed several exhibitions for.
At the exhibition’s core was a series of 26 contemporary sculptures created from everyday objects and transient materials Jim had collected from artists, writers, and thinkers.
These individual contributors had been influential and inspiring to other creatives and artists during their lives, and this use of discarded items has an exciting and amusing whimsy to their composition.
Showcasing everyday artefacts
into playful art
Art Exhibition New York
The exhibition was to be held at Artcake, a creative hub in Brooklyn, New York, that was previously an industrial warehouse and still incorporates interesting architectural features. It was decided to divide the exhibition into three galleries, with the entrance having a photographic gallery of those who had contributed. The middle and largest gallery would display “Collected Things,” while the smallest gallery would house a selection of the artist’s earlier works on a smaller scale.
After discussing this art project in detail with the artist, we walked the space together, where we unfolded some of our many ideas, to Condron’s amazement. He remarked, “I love these ideas”! He especially liked the long T-shaped plinth sitting directly under the glass atrium.
Adding this T-shaped plinth to the space (see image above) gave order and a natural visitor flow to the exhibition. It broke down this largest space into a more scaled environment, focusing on the art. Another advantage of positioning the plinth under the atrium was it allowed the art to interact with the external light as it changed throughout the day.
Sculptures created from objects of unknown origin
From the moment you entered the building, you needed to realise there was something a little different and special about this exhibition. The use of vertical titling for the exhibition name was located on a piece of an existing wall that would normally be unusable.
The narrow and long gallery made for a perfect photographic display, with a window opening at its end, allowing the visitor to glimpse the next gallery, a great focal point. On the other side of this window, we placed a significant artwork on a plinth and another composition on the far wall to pique the visitor’s curiosity about what is yet to come, a little sneak peek.
For the placement of the artist’s work “Collected Things”, we used a scaled 3D model of the space and imported each work to scale, trying various ideas to achieve the optimum layout. It was important to give each piece enough space to breathe while still connecting them where necessary with the narratives. These layouts were shown to the artist and adjusted to take account of his thoughts and comments.
Finally, the smaller gallery was laid out with rigorous attention to detail, and all the galleries had their lighting focused on creating a cool oasis of creativity. The result of the finished exhibition speaks for itself. The art exhibition and artist have received wonderful reviews!
We look forward to working with Jim on his next exhibition.
Images courtesy of Tonya Morton