Project Details

AREA

4,500 Square Feet

Date

2023

TOOLS

SketchPad, AutoCAD, Photoshop, InDesign

The Sherman Resident Artist Program by American contemporary artist Cindy Sherman provides space, resources, and time for artists to focus intensely on their craft, explore new ideas and techniques, push their work to new levels, and have an opportunity to meet with the art world establishment with Sherman's many contacts.

The program's home is an Upper East Side building with many different identities: first as a firehouse, then as the studio for Andy Warhol in the 1960s, and later as a home to the art of the Old Masters and Impressionists with art dealers Wildenstein & Co.

The newly renovated building provides flexible studio space and gallery, generous space for entertaining art-world guests, comfortable private suites upstairs for visiting residents, and an office and suite for Sherman.

ALTERED IDENITY

Inspired by Cindy Sherman’s work with fluidity of identity, it is melded with the history of the building—the firehouse, the artistic works, and the artists associated with it. An energizing environment that fosters thought and innovation, making new connections, and seeing things in ways you may not have seen before. It might not make sense and be unsettling, like Sherman’s work and New York City. It is brought to life with a layering—a collage—of references; hardworking materials such as concrete, iron, and NYC subway tile from a firehouse of the mid-19th century; Vibrant color and repetition of Warholian Pop Art; moody nooks reminiscent of old master paintings; and referential forms that manipulate meaning.

Process

PLANS & ELEVATIONS

DAYLIGHTING & POV PLAY

Windows, skylights, and light shafts allow daylight to penetrate the building, while perforated metal screens, stairs, and elevator shaft create playful light patterns, altering views and giving alternative vistas into adjacent spaces.