Allan Wexler

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Allan Wexler
Allan Wexler wearing Amphorae, 2018.jpg
Allan Wexler's Portrait
Born (1949-03-30) March 30, 1949 (age 74)
Bridgeport, Connecticut [1]
NationalityAmerican
Education1976 Pratt Institute, Master of Architecture

1972 Rhode Island School of Design, Bachelor of Architecture

1971 Rhode Island School of Design, Bachelor of Fine Arts

Contents

Known forContemporary Artist Sculpture, Public Art, Multimedia
SpouseEllen Schwartz Wexler
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship, Rome Prize, Chrysler Award for Design Innovation
Website allanwexlerstudio.com
Allan Wexler in Speaking Portraits Allan Wexler in Speaking Portraits.jpg
Allan Wexler in Speaking Portraits

Allan Wexler (born 1949) is an American interdisciplinary artist and educator. A practicing artist since the early 1970s, Wexler works with sculpture, photography and photo-based drawings that poetically and often humorously explore the natural world, our senses and how our environment affects daily rituals.

Early life and education

Wexler was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1949. [1] He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1971 and a Bachelor of Architecture in 1972, [2] both from the Rhode Island School of Design. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from the Pratt Institute.

Wexler entered the Rhode Island School of Design to study architecture. "In the late 1960's he was an early member of the group of architects and artists who questioned the perceived divide between art and the design disciplines. They called themselves visionary architects or paper architects". [3] Wexler moved to New York City in 1973.

Career

After school he set up a studio in New York City. His work continued to question the perceived divide between fine art and the applied arts and between function and poetry. His studio practice includes a wide range of media and activities including sculpture, installations, museum interventions, painting, drawing, writing, and design.

Ritual, ceremony, and memory became the content of his experimental work. New influences seeped in - Japanese Tea ceremony, The Primitive Hut, Duchamp, Warhol and Beuys, John Cage and the Poetics of Space . He found the practical needs of clients and the scale of architecture to be a distraction and so he shifted from the practice of architecture to studying the poetics of buildings, rooms, and utensils.

Wexler's work is exhibited both in the United States and internationally. Included among his recent exhibitions and public works are SACRA Buffalo, New York 2019, [4] Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY 2019, [5] the Wheaton Art Center, Millville, Emanations 2019, [6] the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA, 2017 [7]

Wexler has taught fine art, design, and architecture for over 40 years, currently on the faculty of Parsons School of Design in New York City. [8] He has taught, and lectured internationally for most of his career including at Pratt Institute, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rhode Island School of Design, Bauhaus School of Architecture, Design Academy Eindhoven, Cooper Union School of Fine Arts, Brown University. [9]

Wexler has worked collaboratively with his partner and wife Ellen Wexler; a 2006 sculpture by the pair is installed at the Hudson River Park in New York City. [10] [11]

Public art and commissions

Allan Wexler wearing One Table Worn by One Person, 2020 Allan Wexler wearing One Table Worn by One Perso.2020.jpg
Allan Wexler wearing One Table Worn by One Person, 2020

Selected exhibitions

Collections

Coffee Seeks Its Own Level, 1990 Coffee seeks its own Level.1990.jpg
Coffee Seeks Its Own Level, 1990

Awards

Books and catalogs

Interviews

Allan Wexler at Biennale Architettura 2021 Allan Wexler at Biennale Architettura 2021.jpg
Allan Wexler at Biennale Architettura 2021

Review of Allan Wexler's work at Venice Architecture Biennale by American art critic Aaron Betsky (2021)

Celebrating the power of transformation at Venice Architecture Biennale 2021

Creating Problems: A Conversation with Allan Wexler (2021)

Allan Wexler: Artist Spotlight (2021)

Wheaton Conversations: Artists Allan Wexler & Virgil Marti (2020)

Art Critical - The Andy Warhol of Architecture: Allan Wexler talks about his art and thinking (2017)

Hyperallergic - Allan Wexler - A Radical Deconstructor of Habitation

Allan Wexler, architecture and nature by Michele Calzavara (2016)

Irony and the Power of Artistic Production, Michael Fehr (2001)

Furnishing the Primitive Hut: Allan Wexler's Experiments beyond buildings by Aaron Betsky

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References

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  4. "General 3". ASSEMBLY HOUSE 150. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  5. 1 2 "Artists Choose Artists 2019 : Parrish Art Museum". parrishart.org. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  6. 1 2 "WheatonArts » Explore, Experience, Create" . Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  7. 1 2 "Bed sitting Rooms for an Artist in Residence". Mattress Factory. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
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  9. "Wexler's Teaching Experiences" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-09-20.
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  11. 1 2 "Public Art Work Two Too Large Tables".
  12. Muscatello, J. Scott (2006-07-17). "Windworks is Coming to the Science Center Wind Turbine". Cleveland vs. The World. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
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  23. "Chrysler Awards for Design Innovation Allan Wexler". Archived from the original on 2002-06-15.
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  27. "Allan Wexler, structures for reflection : the small buildings, furniture and utensils of Allan Wexler = Die Kleinen Gebäude, Einrichtungen und Utensilien von Allan Wexler / Michael Fehr, Hrsg". Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2021-03-26.