Erin Wright: Fever Dream
LOS ANGELES CA | albertz benda is pleased to present Fever Dream, a unique exhibition of paintings in which the house is both gallery setting and painting subject. Los Angeles based artist and architect, Erin Wright’s first solo exhibition with the gallery takes place at albertz benda’s domestic location, set in a midcentury house in the West Hollywood hills. Fever Dream, turns albertz benda’s LA gallery into a playground of painting, architecture, and design. Wright uses her trademark style of highly rendered painting to replicate elements of the house’s infrastructure, from doorknobs to windows to fireplaces, creating a visual experience in which the paintings echo the building itself.
Wright aptly names these elements architectural stickers, as a fireplace is transcribed over onto an adjacent wall, and a full floor length window is added to the room with a painting where there was none before. Wright pushes the duplication further by including design objects shown by Friedman Benda. Her paintings incorporate objects by renowned designers such as Wendell Castle and Faye Toogood, which are then situated inside the gallery along with the objects themselves.
Behind the rigorous exactness of these architectural stickers is a playfulness that is heightened by the displacement of the works around the space, and by the eventual movement of works out of the gallery to be displayed in other homes and venues. In Wright’s own words, the gallery is a space for architecture to take itself less seriously, and perhaps for a gallery in a domestic setting even more so.
Toys are typically viewed as valuable tools for child development, facilitating imaginative play. As children play, they are prepped for roles as adults, allowing for learning and cognitive development. In Architecture, we have few toys that are expressly for exploration. Models or full sized replicas fall under the Academic umbrella as “deliverables” and end up in exhibitions as project residue, rather than generative plaything. The gallery (abstract meaning) serves as a conceptual kindergarten, where ideas of the project are tested and explored, fostering a playful environment that encourages innovation and creativity in architectural thought. The boundaries between play and serious inquiry blur. – Erin Wright