Granary Arts invites you to join us on Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 6:30pm for a virtual symposium discussing the exhibition The Center Can Not Hold with Hikmet Sidney Loe, Anne Mooney, John Sparano, Aurora Tang, Hannah Vaughn, and moderator Amy Jorgensen.
The Center Can Not Hold investigates place as realized through the artistic works of three architects. Ephraim—the home of Granary Arts—is the actual center of the state of Utah and the metaphorical center of the exhibition. Yet how can this standing hold if optics are obscured, if regional materials are presented in abstracted forms? Please join curator Hikmet Sidney Loe as she introduces the themes that led to the exhibition, architects Anne Mooney and John Sparano (Sparano+Mooney Architects) and Hannah Vaughn (VYArchitects) as they discuss their artistic processes and work, and contributor Aurora Tang as she provides additional dialogue. Moderated by Granary Arts executive director and chief curator Amy Jorgensen.
The symposium will be held via Zoom. Please RSVP on Eventbrite to attend. Zoom Meeting ID and Passcode will be emailed to you.
The Center Can Not Hold is an exhibition by architects Anne Mooney, John Sparano, and Hannah Vaughn, curated by Hikmet Sidney Loe. On view at Granary Arts October 12, 2022 – January 20, 2023.
About the Symposium Participants
About the Symposium Participants
Born and raised on the east coast, Hikmet Sidney Loe developed an affinity for Great Basin deserts and the environs of Great Salt Lake. In response to these landscapes, her work advanced to examine the changeable nature of the earth and address our perceptual and cultural constructs of the land. Her ecuratorial projects mine ideas of place. She authored The Spiral Jetty Encyclo: Exploring Robert Smithson's Earthwork through Time and Place (2017); it won the 15 Bytes Book Award for Art Book in 2018 and was a finalist for the Utah State Historical Society Best Book Award. Loe additionally writes for Southwest Contemporary, Hyperallergic, and 15 Bytes. As a seasoned educator, she is currently teaching art history as a part-time instructor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she holds Graduate College status. hikmetsidneyloe.com
Anne G. Mooney, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP, was educated at the University of Utah, Columbia University in New York, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles and Ticino, Switzerland. She is a founding partner of Sparano + Mooney Architecture and her award-winning designs have been featured in over 35 national and international publications and exhibitions. She has served on the AIA Utah Board of Directors and was named one of the Top Women in Architecture by Mountain Living magazine. Mooney is recognized as a committed educator and mentor for students, and emerging architects and design professionals. She holds an appointment as Professor of Architecture at the University of Utah School of Architecture where she teaches. sparanomooney.com
John P. Sparano, FAIA, is a founding partner of Sparano + Mooney Architecture. He was educated at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and the Architectural Association in London, England. He was recognized with the 2019 Silver Medal from the AIA Western Mountain Region, the highest award given to an architect in this region of the United States. Under his leadership, Sparano + Mooney Architecture’s design process accentuates collaboration, research and experimentation, and has resulted in a diverse, award-winning portfolio of work. He has lectured and exhibited widely. sparanomooney.com
Aurora Tang is a curator and researcher based in Los Angeles. She has worked with The Center for Land Use Interpretation since 2009, and currently serves as program director. From 2011–15 she was managing director of High Desert Test Sites. Previously she worked at non-profit art and research organizations including the Getty Research Institute and Getty Conservation Institute. She has taught at schools including Otis College of Art and Design and the University of Southern California. She is a Fall 2020 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Research Fellow. auroratang.net
Hannah Vaughn, AIA, is an architect, educator, and cofounder of VY Architecture. Vaughn holds an M.Arch from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of New Mexico. She teaches design studio at the University of Utah School of Architecture as adjunct faculty, regularly serves on design juries, and is active in the creative and design communities of Utah and the Mountain West region. As part of her practice, Vaughn frequently engages in peri-practical studies that explore the connection to place [the desert/mountain west], the intuitive and learned manipulation of materials, and the physics and techne of details. These studies culminate in the form of installations, organized discussions, remote performance installations, and various other permutations of inquiry. vyarch.com
Amy Jorgensen is the Executive Director, Chief Curator, and cofounder of Granary Arts. With the vision of supporting long-term engagement between artists and communities, she has curated over seventy-five exhibitions of artists working in contemporary art. In addition to developing a spectrum of cultural and educational programming, she launched the Granary Arts Fellows program, Film Feast, and the initiative Critical Ground which explores the impact of art criticism hierarchies and the democratization of art critique. In 2019 she spear-headed the publishing of the portfolio and exhibition of DE|MARCATION, the first comprehensive look at the state of contemporary photography in Utah. Jorgensen is an Associate Professor at Snow College where she is Chair of Visual Arts, and she is an appointed member of the Utah Arts Council Board of Directors. amyjorgensen.com
This event is free and open to the public. RSVP to attend.