Adam Caruso (Caruso St John Architects) will conclude the series of lectures and exhibitions dedicated to “Spaces for Art” by architects resident in the UK.  Invited architects have included David Chipperfield, Jamie Fobert, John Miller and Tony Fretton.
Canadian born Adam Caruso worked for Florian Beigel and Arup Associates prior to establishing his own London based practice with Peter St John in 1990.
Caruso St John have achieved an international reputation by producing sensitive and bold projects for buildings which have public resonance, notably art galleries and museums.  Characteristic of the practice is an interest in the physical qualities of construction and in the emotional potential of materials. Caruso St John is perhaps best known for the New Art Gallery in Walsall that opened in 2000.
The architects’ sensitivity to the installation of a wide range of art has led to frequent collaborations with artists, and invitations to design exhibitions at a number of leading institutions such as the Hayward Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Modern and the Cartier Foundation, Paris.
The exhibition at the British School will be divided into two parts. One part will be dedicated to completed “art spaces”, and a series of photographs will show art works installed in the Gagosian galleries  in London as well as other venues such as the New Art Gallery in Walsall, and two very different exhibition designs for the artist Thomas Demand. The second part of the show will concentrate on a work in progress, the Centre for Contemporary Art, Nottingham (CCAN). The audience will be able to follow the project from the early stages of its conception to the present day. Caruso St John will exhibit the working drawings as well as model photographs of CCAN shown digitally.
“Our practice has always made work that is related to things that we have seen before. We are interested in the emotional effect that buildings can have. We are interested in how buildings have been built in the past and how new constructions can achieve an equivalent formal and material presence. We are confused by the laissez faire state of contemporary architecture. In this environment of excess we have found ourselves attracted to the more intimate artistic ambitions of past architectural traditions.”

Date:

Lecture: 30 January 2007
Exhibition: 30 January - 18 February 2007

Venue:    Rome

British School at Rome, Via Gramsci 61

Information:

tel. 06 3264939