renzo piano presents 'fragments' at gagosian gallery new york

california academy of sciences, 2000-2008
© renzo piano building workshop
courtesy gagosian gallery
photography by tom fox, SWA group

renzo piano: fragments
gagosian gallery new york
on june 27- august 2, 1013

new york’s gagosian gallery will be showcasing ‘fragments’ by renzo piano, the characteristically process-heavy italian architect. twenty four tabletop displays of models, drawings, photographs and videos articulate an architectural career that spans 40 years and stretches across the globe. modeled after a reading room more than a gallery, each space builds a narrative about the highlighted projects– all organized around the design process. the result is a plethora of built works and iterations of ideas that fully express piano’s masterful choreography of natural light and his particular sensitivity to museum design. drawings show ideas guided by the human hand and later made manifest with the bolstering power of technology, itself a synthesis unique to the studio. among the projects each monographic tablet will highlight myriad projects; among them, centre georges pompidou, the IBM traveling pavilion,  the menil collection, parco della musica,  jean-marie tijibaou cultural center, the california academy of sciences and even the whitney museum’s new building in downtown manhattan.

jean-marie-tjibaou cultural center, 1991-1998
© renzo piano building workshop
courtesy gagosian gallery
photography by pantz pierre-alain

knowing how to do things not just with the head, but with the hands as well: this might seem a programmatic and ideological goal. it is not. it is a way of safeguarding creative freedom.
-renzo piano

parco della musica ‘auditorium’, 1994-2004
© renzo piano building workshop
courtesy gagosian gallery
photography by maggi moreno

IBM traveling pavilion, 1983-1986
© renzo piano building workshop
courtesy gagosian gallery
photography by stefano goldberg