Into the Fog with Fujiko Nakaya

Renowned artist Fujiko Nakaya, known for her pioneering use of fog as a sculptural medium and for being the first artist to create a sculptural fog environment, is joined by Henry Urbach, Director of the Glass House, to discuss the artist’s current project, Fujiko Nakaya: Veil, on view at the Glass House (May 1 – November 30). Nakaya also discusses her fascination with and motivations for exploring an everyday weather phenomenon in her body of work, which includes fog gardens, falls, geysers and the enshrouding of the Pepsi Pavilion at the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka. Urbach considers the dynamic and participatory aspect of this anti-architectural medium, which transforms, distorts, and conceals its surroundings.  Moderated by Julie Martin, Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).

Fujiko Nakaya
Fujiko Nakaya was born in Sapporo, Japan in 1933. Her father, Ukichiro Nakaya, a physicist credited with making the first artificial snowflakes, had an impact on her work and, as a young art student, she became interested in working with cloud-like forms. In 1970, at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, Nakaya created the world’s first fog sculpture when she enveloped the Pepsi Pavilion in a vaporous mist, in collaboration with the legendary artist collaborative Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.).
 
Nakaya has created fog installations around the world, including projects for the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao; the Grand Palais, Paris; the Australian National Gallery, Canberra; and the Exploratorium, San Francisco, among others. She consulted with architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro on the Blur Building for the 2002 Swiss Expo, and has worked with numerous artists (including Trisha Brown, David Tudor, and Bill Viola) on environments for music and performance. Her work, Fujiko Nakaya: Veil, is being exhibited at the Philip Johnson Glass House and will open on May 1, 2014. This will be her first large-scale installation on the east coast of the United States and the first time her work has been presented at an internationally renowned historic site.
 
Henry Urbach
Henry Urbach became Director of the Glass House, New Canaan, CT in April 2012. Previously he was Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and, prior to that, directed Henry Urbach Architecture, a gallery of contemporary art and architecture in New York. Urbach completed his Master of Architecture degree at Columbia University and his M.A. in History and Theory of Architecture at Princeton University. He has taught at several schools of architecture, including UCLA and Yale University, and has written extensively about art, architecture, and culture.

Tickets $12/$8 Japan Society members, seniors & students

Co-organized with the Glass House.