Renowned artist Jorge Pardo visits campus

Renowned artist and MacArthur Fellow Jorge Pardo joins The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture for a week-long workshop with interior design students as part of a five-year initiative exploring the role of craft and artisanship in interior environments. During the visit, Pardo will give a public lecture in Jessen Auditorium highlighting his works, followed by a conversation with Igor Siddiqui, Program Director for Interior Design. The lecture will take place at 5:00 p.m. (CT) on Wednesday, March 29, and is free and open to the public.

With works that explore the intersection of contemporary painting, design, sculpture, and architecture, Jorge Pardo embraces the fluidity between genres and the dissolution of borders between disciplines. Known for his use of vibrant colors, eclectic patterns, and natural and industrial materials, Pardo’s output ranges from paintings, sculptures, and murals to lamps and furniture, interiors, and even buildings.

This multifaceted, post-medium approach to art has resulted in an oeuvre that stands out for its originality and works that eschew easy categorization. Pardo often transforms familiar objects into artworks with multiple meanings, purposes, and contexts, like a set of lamps that doubles as freestanding sculptures or a sailboat exhibited as both a utilitarian vessel and a striking obelisk. Working on small and monumental scales, Pardo also treats entire public spaces as vast canvases, such as his seminal 1998 work 4166 Sea View Lane and recent projects like Folly, an architectural installation currently on view at the University of Houston campus.

“Pardo’s practice inspires the kind of optimism and sense of possibility that I hope our students will carry into the world,” Siddiqui said. “His work takes us to a place of not only looser creative boundaries but also a more fluid relationship between art and life.” 

During his week-long workshop, Pardo will engage interior design students in an intimate, hands-on setting as they learn directly from the artist about his approach to craft and his perspective on the relationship between art, design, and architecture.

Pardo’s workshop is the second such experience afforded interior design students, thanks to a five-year initiative funded by the Dallas-based interior designer Emily Summers. The Emily Summers Fund for Craft & Artisanship in Interior Design aims to provide students with ongoing opportunities to explore, understand, and celebrate the role of craft in interior design by bringing leaders in the fields of applied arts and design to campus for workshops, lectures, and other hands-on engagements.

The five-year initiative launched last spring with a workshop and public lecture led by Lonneke Gordjin of Studio DRIFT and will continue for at least the next three years. The program supports and expands the UT Austin Interior Design program’s vision of interior design as a truly interdisciplinary and hands-on creative practice. By embedding other craft-related arts like furniture design, installation, textiles, and lighting into the educational experience; supporting travel to visit ateliers, workshops, and factories; and funding workshops, lectures, and collaborations with internationally renowned experts in the field, the program will provide each cohort of undergraduate and graduate interior design students with a diverse understanding of the expansiveness of interior design as a discipline.

For more information about Pardo’s public lecture visit the School of Architecture’s events calendar.