Towers of Light over the Empire, LaVerdiere & Myoda © 2001
Concept rendering for the Towers of Light Memorial Initiative
Prime Mover, 2004 sterling silver, bronze, black granite, walnut, bronzed glass, micro-electronics, sepia-toned diazotype print
LINKS
http://www.lehmannmaupin.com
http://www.tributeinlight.com
http://www.evergreene.ch |
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Julian LaVerdiere was born in 1971 and raised in New York City. He earned a BFA from The Cooper Union in New York and a MFA in sculpture from Yale University. He is a founding member of the production-design collective BigRoom LLC, which has received international acclaim for its innovative approach to commercial production design.
In 1999, LaVerdiere had his first New York solo exhibition at Andrew Kreps Gallery. He has since had solo shows at No-Limits Gallery in Milan, Italy, Ever-Green Gallery in Geneva, Switzerland and the Lehman Maupin Gallery in New York, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in the United States and Europe. In 2000, his work was prominently featured in Greater New York, an exhibition at PS1-Moma, Long Island City, New York. In the same year, while developing Bioluminescent Beacon (a public art project with Creative Time), he was granted studio residencies at both the American Museum of Natural History and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Studio Program on the 91st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
In 2001 and 2002, LaVerdiere worked with fellow-artist Paul Myoda, three architects, Creative Time and the Municipal Arts Society to create ěTribute in Light,î the temporary light memorial to the victims of September 11th, 2001. This public artwork has subsequently been selected to become an annual addition to the WTC Memorial.
In 2003, LaVerdiere had his first solo museum exhibitions at the Museums of Contemporary Art in Miami and Cleveland and his work is included in the permanent collections of PS1-Moma, NewYork, MOCA, Miami, Museu Nacional de Historia Nattural, Portugal and the Library of Congress, DC as well as a number of major private collections.
LaVerdiere has received awards and grants for both individual and public art collaborations. In 2000, LaVerdiere and Creative Time received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Warhol Foundation grant for the Bioluminescent Beacon. In 2002, he received the first Annual Cooper Union Urban Visionaries Award. In 2003, he and his fellow Tribute in Light collaborators received the Brendan Gill Prize from the Municipal Arts Society. In 2004, he received a NYC Percent for Art grant to make a piece for FDNY Engine Company #277, which is to be installed in 2006.
Employing a pastiche of symbols, signs and themes from the past and the present, LaVerdiere draws attention to pivotal moments and events that serve as historic harbingers of coming change and paradigm shifts.
LaVerdiere lives and works in New York City and is represented by Lehmann Maupin Gallery. |
