Storefront for Art and Architecture is a contemporary art and architecture institution founded in 1982 in New York City.
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Founded in 1982 by Kyong Park, Storefront for Art and Architecture is a nonprofit organization in New York City committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and design. Storefront's program includes exhibitions, events [performances, artists talks, film screenings, conferences], competitions and publications with the stated intention of "generating dialogue and collaboration across geographic, ideological and disciplinary boundaries."
Storefront is located in a unique triangular ground-level space on Kenmare Street in the Chinatown/Little Italy/Soho area of New York City. Situated on a major downtown thoroughfare between three radically different cultural sectors. Nearly 100 feet long, the gallery tapers from 20 feet to 3 feet at its west end. In 1993 Storefront commissioned a collaboration between artist Vito Acconci and architect Steven Holl to redesign the facade of the Kenmare Street gallery space. The resulting project transformed the structure by placing rotating panels of various orientation along the length of the gallery's facade. When the panels are open the design blurs the border between the gallery and the street, creating a dialogue between the experimental projects being exhibited inside and the city outside. Though the original design was only intended to last for two years, the building has become an architectural landmark in New York City since its completion in 1993. The facade underwent restoration in the summer of 2008.
The format of shows have ranged from single artist site-specific installations, to thematic group shows that have addressed issues from new technology to the social and political forces that shape the built environment. Over one thousand artists, architects and designers have shown at Storefront including projects by Daniel Arsham, Ramak Fazel, Bjarke Ingels Group[1], Jean Nouvel, Terence Gower, Yves Klein, Torolab, Manfred Pernice, Sze Tsung Leong, Geoff Bunn, Center for Land Use Interpretation, Diller + Scofidio, Center for Urban Pedagogy, Lebbeus Woods, Dan Graham, and Shirin Neshat among many others. Information about these exhibitions, as well as all the others, is available in the archive.
Through a constant programming of events, Storefront provides a dynamic forum for discussion of contemporary issues through book discussions, film screenings or performances. As a platform to expose innovative ideas in relation to established discourses, Storefront operates as a space of encounter between institutionalized realms of practice and emerging voices through new formats of exchange and debate. Thousands of artists and architects have participated in Storefront events, including Enrique Walker, Kersten Geers & David Van Severen [Office], Sho Shigematsu OMA, Bernard Tschumi, Peter Cook, Anthony Vidler, Mark Wigley, Chris Leong & Dominic Leong, Felicity Scott, David Benjamin, Lindsay Bremner, Raumlabor, Prem Krishnamurthy, Juergen Mayer, Jimenez Lai, Spyros Papapetros, Mitchell Joachim or Saskia Sassen. Information about these events, as well as all the others, is available in the archive.
Beyond the space of the gallery, Storefront develops projects through temporary actions that bring Storefront's programming to places and cities around the world.
In 2008, a Pop-Up exhibition, "CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed," was held in an unused portion of a print éworks on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles from April 11 to May 17 of that year and featured Frédéric Chaubin's photographs of late Soviet architecture.
In 2009, the Spacebuster, a mobile inflatable structure - a portable, expandable pavilion - designed by Raumlabor to transform public spaces of all kinds into points for community gathering, traveled throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn for 10 consecutive evenings hosting various community events.
Postopolis! an on-going series of talks held in New York (2007), Los Angeles (2009) and Mexico City (2010) reflect about the current state of cities and design practices through a series of public sessions of near-continuous conversations curated by some of the world’s most prominent thinkers from the fields of architecture, art, urbanism, landscape, music and design.
With the aim to address relevant issues within contemporary culture, Storefront has held a series of competitions throughout its history. In 1985 within the exhibition "Homeless at Home" a call for designs asked for the projection of alternative housing models for homeless in New York. In 1985, "Before the Whitney" asked for alternative designs for the Whitney Museum. In 2008 "White House Redux" asked for alternative designs of the White House. In 2010, Total Housing asked for new typologies of inhabitation that addressed outmoded ideas of domestic space and contemporary urban lifestyles. In 2011, on the occasion of the Festival of Ideas for the New City, "StreetFest" asked for alternative models of temporary outdoor spaces for public occupation and gathering.
Storefront maintains an archive as an open public resource for anyone interested in experimental art and architecture available by appointment. A brief version of the archive can be found on-line within Storefront's webpage.
Storefront books is a micro-bookstore housed in the far end of the gallery space. The bookstore's centerpiece is a series of individually curated collections from various artists and architects who have exhibited at Storefront: Keller Easterling, Toyo Ito, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA, Pedro Reyes, Beatriz Colomina, Vito Acconci, fr:Eyal Weizman, Frederic Tuten, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Steven Holl, Matthew Stadler, and Dan Graham. The bookstore also offers the artist book collection published by Centre for Contemporary Art Kitakyushu (Japan) as well as a number of books and catalogues that have been featured in exhibitions or events at Storefront.