Monumenta 2011: Leviathan

Anish Kapoor inflates a massive womb-like sculpture in Paris

The challenge of the annual art exhibit known as Monumenta is primarily a question of volume. Works created for the site-specific show must grapple with the 13,500 square-meter nave of the Grand Palais and the shimmering glass roof (the biggest in Europe), originally built for a late-1800s world’s fair in Paris. Every year the French Ministry for Culture invites a key figure of the artistic …

Julien Vallée

A young Canadian designer marries painstaking handcraft with digital finesse

The work of Québec-born graphic designer Julien Vallée practically leaps off the screen, and in some cases literally, as in a paper sculpture that he did for the 2008 Illustrative Zurich Festival. Spray from a can explodes through a stark black background into a thousand primary-colored shards, for a sculpture that is so dynamic, you can hardly believe it isn’t moving. In a move that’s …

Rafael Viñoly Architects

A half-century of work by an internationally acclaimed architect in a new monograph

Many of today’s up-and-coming architects are eager to design buildings with a surplus of modern bells and whistles, but even a quick study on the work of esteemed architect Rafael Viñoly shows how a true understanding of a structure’s relationship to the space surrounding it will ultimately lead to an impressive and elegant facade. As an international presence for over 45 years, Viñoly has a …