World Below the Brine

Written by WPA on . Posted in Public Art, Rendering, Structures, Virginia Beach.

We’re very excited to announce that WPA, in association with Rhiza A+D and Piece of Cake Productions, has been selected by the City of Virginia Beach – Office of Cultural Affairs to design, fabricate, and install a piece of interactive temporary public art at Rudee Inlet Loop. Drawing inspiration from the vivid Walt Whitman poem of the same name, “World Below the Brine” will simulate the ever-changing shore, above and below the water’s surface by creating an canopy that both captures the wind and translates the sun into a “play of light through the water.” The piece consists of a tall steel framework anchored by four concrete benches and supporting a torqued stainless steel wire grid on which 200 painted metal paddles with cast glass counterweights will pivot in wave-like motion as breezes pass through. During the day, visitors will walk below the piece and be covered in moving diffused light and shadow. At night it will be illuminated with LED lighting that will respond to the movements of visitors, creating the visual of a floating anemone visible to passers-by from Atlantic Avenue and the nearby Rudee Inlet Bridge. “World Below the Brine” will debut this September and remain through the Spring of 2020. We are also excited to share that AP Art students from Virginia Beach City Public Schools will be lending a hand with fabrication and installation right at the beginning of their first semester, and that Lynch Mykins will be our structural engineering partner. Stay tuned here and on our Instagram @wpa_norfolk for updates on our progress.

ELIZABETH DORBAD | THE ARCADE

Written by WPA on . Posted in Downtown Norfolk, Event, Exhibit, Monticello Arcade, Norfolk, WPA Gallery, WPA Studio.

popblossom is pleased to present THE ARCADE, selected works from the series, ITINERANT ARCHITECTURES, by Elizabeth Dorbad. Please join us for the Opening, Friday, April 6, 6:30-8:30pm at WPA Studio + Gallery, located in The Monticello Arcade in Downtown Norfolk, VA.

In the ongoing series, Itinerant Architectures, Elizabeth Dorbad ponders the impermanence and mutability of architecture while engaging the notion of architectural time. Using abandoned architecture as subject matter and material, Dorbad produces works across a range of media including, photography, drawing and video as well as sculpture created out of the rubble of discarded mobile home trailers.

Dorbad considers architecture a transient sculptural system and recreates the structural identities of buildings through what she calls, architectural intervention, “the direct actions of cutting, superimposing or adorning,” the resulting sculpture or installation is then captured in a photograph.

Based in San Francisco, Elizabeth Dorbad’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums and galleries. Her global project, ITINERANT ARCHITECTURES, with iterations in Memphis, Baltimore, San Francisco, Oakland, Berlin, Kassel, New York, and Los Angeles, continues with the latest iteration, THE ARCADE, in Norfolk.

Big Time

Written by admin@gotechark.com on . Posted in AIA, AIA, Blog, Event, Norfolk.

Tuesday, Feb 27 at 7:15pm
NARO Cinema
Presented with AIA of Hampton Roads
BIG TIME The film follows young Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, one of architecture’s biggest stars, during the course of five years, while he struggles to finish his biggest project so far. We are let into Bjarke’s creative processes as well as the endless compromises that his work entails, and we are on the side when his personal life starts putting pressure on him, too. Bjarke Ingels’ company Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has been given the task of designing and building one of the skyscrapers that will replace the Twin Towers. The film offers an intimate look into the innovative and ambitious Danish architect, whom the entire world is celebrating as a young genius. (93 mins)  big time trailer and website
 
Introduction by Thom White and Jacob Combee of Work Program Architects in Norfolk.
 
“Somewhat incredibly, the buildings come to life: Kaspar Astrup Schröder puts Ingels’s remarkable communication skills to work through a series of sketches and chats, and then shows us the finished products.” – Alex Bozikovic, The Globe and Mail
 
“Director Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s gorgeous film is informed by that same charm and intelligence the way a sailboat is informed by 7 knots of westerly breeze.” – Chris Packham, Village Voice
 

MING YING HONG | CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY

Written by WPA on . Posted in Blog, Downtown Norfolk, Event, Exhibit, Norfolk, Public Art, Uncategorized, WPA Gallery, WPA Studio.

MING YING HONG | CONDITIONS OF UNCERTAINTY
presented by popblossom
208 East Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510
Showing: Feb 2—March 16, 2018
Opening: Friday, Feb 2, 6:30—8:30pm

Ming Ying Hong’s beautifully rendered charcoal and graphite drawings explore the limits of our knowledge and experience by questioning the way we define and categorize states of being. Her bodily forms—masculine and feminine, dead and alive, aggressive and delicate—her explosions—teetering on the razor-thin edge of dissolution and whole—are common themes throughout her work. According to Hong, by “combining these seemingly contradictory elements, opposites which once defined each other overlap, ultimately dismantling the system in which one definition is privileged over another.” Through this integration of forces, Hong encourages us to examine the in-between spaces of these binaries or areas of uncertainty. As a result, a more complex spectrum of experience emerges.

Ming Ying Hong is an interdisciplinary artist based in Norfolk, VA. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and in 2015, received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. She has exhibited in galleries and institutions throughout the United States, including the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and Ice Box Gallery in Philadelphia. Her work has been featured in numerous publications, most recently in MANIFEST Gallery’s International Drawing Annual 11. Currently, Hong teaches in the Art Department at Old Dominion University.

Altruistic Design

Written by WPA on . Posted in Arts & Design District, Blog, NEON, Vibe District.

WPA is proud to announce that Jeremy S. Maloney has founded Altruistic Design in Virginia Beach. In keeping with his mission, Jeremy has built Altruistic Design on a platform of socially responsible architecture. If you’ve worked with Jeremy before, you know that he loves all parts of the design process from finding the perfect project fit, to programming, design, detailing, and contract administration. We will miss seeing Jeremy in our office every day, but are happy that we will continue to collaborate on our existing projects. We know that by expanding the choice in great design firms in this area, we can build a better connection between the NEON District, the Vibe District, and the region as a whole. Please send Jeremy your congratulations!

BOYER + VITALE | FADED BY THE SUN

Written by WPA on . Posted in Blog, Event, Exhibit, Norfolk, Public Art, Uncategorized, WPA Studio.

BOYER + VITALE | FADED BY THE SUN
Presented by popblossom
208 E Plume St, Norfolk, VA 23510
Showing: Nov 17—Dec 31, 2017
Opening: 6:30—8:30pm, Friday, Nov 17

Like the physical universe in which we live—immeasurable, mysterious, unfathomable—so too the personal universe each of us inhabits and like the physical realm, we have an innate longing to understand it. In their two-man exhibition, FADED BY THE SUN, Hampton Boyer and John Vitale explore the personal universe, contemplating the intimate relationship between consciousness and reality as well as pondering one’s own existence and the largeness of it.

As a source of inspiration and a vehicle for filtering ideas, Boyer and Vitale turned to National Geographic Magazine.  Illustrational in style, Boyer’s compositions hint at imagery found in the magazine, albeit with a bit of humor and a pop-culture twist. His vibrantly hued paintings float on bright yellow walls, evoking the warmth and light of the sun as well as giving nod to the yellow border of the magazine’s iconic cover. For Vitale, the magazine itself becomes medium as well as representation of the ineffable nature of existence as each work’s layered composition emerges from the pages of a single issue of a bound magazine. Vitale notes that there is an element of time in the numbered pages, “individuals dissolving into environments while seeming to play with the ideas of experience and attachment” all the while moving forward in a state of wonderment.

Hampton Boyer is a Hampton Roads based artist whose works have been exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions. A self-taught artist, Boyer’s artistic endeavors manifest in illustrational style graphics, vibrant paintings and youthful murals. In 2014, Boyer cofounded 670 Gallery in Hampton, VA where he served as creative director. In addition to his gallery experience, Boyer has instructed graphic design courses at Hampton University as well as working with the Contemporary Arts Network. Since closing 670 Gallery, Boyer’s focus has been his artistic practice as well as honing his curatorial skills with Thank You Gallery in Norfolk, VA.

John Vitale is a Minneapolis, MN based visual artist. His work has been exhibited in New York, Miami, Chicago, Brooklyn, Portland, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Romania, and Scotland. A graduate of Parson’s School of Design, Vitale has worked as a published and exhibited photographer, a three dimensional designer directing creative projects for Louis Vuitton, Tommy Hilfiger, and Stella McCartney as well as received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to publish zines. After briefly curating pop-up events for VA MOCA, Vitale founded the Nobile & Amundsen Gallery in Norfolk, VA which closed in 2015. He is a practicing Vipassana meditator and works as an EMT on an ambulance.

400 Granby Street • Suite 301 • Norfolk, VA 23510 • Studio: (757) 227-5310

© WPA • Website Maintained By

400 Granby Street
Suite 301
Norfolk, VA 23510
(757) 227-5310
© WPA
Website Maintained By