Running from September 1-October 10, 2014, this exhibition at the Paul H. Cocker Gallery in Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science features the work of CannonDesign principal Andrew King, who has simultaneously led his own design and research initiative AK A for over 20 years, examining very large architecture and small objects, the radically divergent landscapes of the country, and the intersection of architecture, installation and art collaboration.
TRANS ARCHITECTURE looks at the fluidity of contemporary critical practice by exploring the breadth of King’s research initiatives. The exhibition examines the intersection of several modes of architectural investigation: large practice, speculative design laboratory, academic research streams, criticism and critical art practice. These modes of investigation are linked through King’s preoccupation with minimalist formal and tectonic strategies, cinematic perception, movement and abstraction. TRANS ARCHITECTURE consists of a series of experiments in and around this position, including an in situ installation acting on the gallery space framing 30 models and objects, 200 drawings, and 1,500 filmic fragments arranged into seven commissioned works. King’s research gleaned from the Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome forms the armature for the exhibition.
Andrew King is graduate architect, author, critic, curator and educator, and has practiced and taught across Canada and in London, Berlin, Budapest, Rome, Seville and Copenhagen. His work has been published in international art and architecture journals and recognized with international design awards. He was selected as one of Canada’s design leaders by The Globe and Mail in 2003. He was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Prix de Rome in 2003 and a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence. In 2012 he was awarded two American Institute of Architecture Progressive Architecture (P/A) Awards. King has worked with internationally recognized architects such as Zaha Hadid in London, Tim Hiede in Berlin and Brian Mackay-Lyons in Halifax.
He is Design Principal for Canada at CannonDesign, currently leading teams in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal and overseeing projects across Canada and in Asia. His Capillano University Film School for CannonDesign was awarded a 2010 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence, and his Wilfred Laurier University Sports Centre for CannonDesign was recently awarded a 2012 AIA P/A Award of Excellence.
Additionally, he has led his own design and research initiative AK A for over 20 years, creating architecture, urban design, installation and publications, many of which have been recognized through awards and publications, including a 2012 AIA P/A Award of Excellence for Hawk House.
King held the Gerald Sheff Visiting Professorship (2012) at McGill University’s School of Architecture and the Azrieli Visiting Chair (2009-10) at Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism. In 2004, he was Visiting Professor at Copenhagen’s Royal Academy of Art, and he has held visiting, adjunct and special faculty appointments in architecture at the University of Calgary, McGill and Dalhousie, leading a five-year research initiative at the Banff Centre for the Arts.
His critical art practice (with Angela Silver) has made in-situ and gallery-based installations across Canada and abroad, including artcity, the Stride, YYZ, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Dalhousie University School of Architecture, arch3 gallery and the Pratt Institutes gallery space in Rome. Commissions include lens for the Banff Centre for the Arts for inclusion in the 2005 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, and ex-urbus for Black Dog Press’s Informal Architecture, edited by Anthony Kiendl.
Lectures include the Tate Gallery in London, the Spertus Institute in Chicago, the University of Lethbridge, Carleton University, La Sapienza University in Rome, New York University in Florence, the Royal Academy in Copenhagen, the Design Exchange in Toronto, the Confederation Arts Centre in Charlottetown, the Stride Gallery in Calgary, and the Walter Philips Gallery in Banff.
For more information, please visit www.arch.ryerson.ca.