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“Jim Olson: Architecture for Art” exhibit at Washington State University + enlarge

Photographer: Benjamin Benschneider

“Jim Olson: Architecture for Art” exhibit at Washington State University

  • PROJECT ROLES
  • Chris Bruce, Curator
  • William Franklin, Project Manager
  • LOCATION & YEAR
  • Pullman, WA, 2011

Project Details

“Jim Olson: Architecture for Art” is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to the career of Jim Olson, one of the Northwest’s most significant architects and founder of Olson Kundig Architects.

Organized by the Museum of Art at Washington State University, the exhibit will serve as a retrospective of Olson’s first fifty years in architecture, highlighting his residential legacy, including his own homes—an apartment in downtown Seattle and his cabin on Puget Sound—as well as his public design work, which encompasses the Lightcatcher Museum in Bellingham, Washington, St. Mark’s Cathedral and the Pike & Virginia Building in Seattle, and the architecture for the Noah’s Art Exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Along with the projects themselves, the exhibition will explore the artistic, cultural, natural and personal influences that have made his career so highly regarded by his peers and sought after by clients. “Architecture for Art” will include a range of materials that showcase Olson’s process, including notebooks and ephemera, original sketches and drawings, stunning large-scale photo displays, and models. Original art work from selected residences will be on display, as well as a custom-designed art installation that will provide visitors with a first-hand experience with Olson’s use of space and collaboration with art.

“Architecture for Art” opens at the Museum of Art at Washington State University in Pullman on September 30, 2011 and will run through December 10. The museum will launch a multi-layered web site that includes images and information about Olson’s projects, links to architectural and artistic references, and workshop exercises for students. Olson will give a lecture about his work on September 29 at 7 pm at the Museum of Art. Additional locations for the exhibit will be announced in coming months. For additional information about the Museum of Art at Washington State University, visit museum.wsu.edu.

Learn more about Jim Olson and watch the short feature Architecture for Art, as well as interviews from the exhibit opening.