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Designwire Online Exclusive: Smart Art

Environmentally conscious artists and venues assume a place in the sun.

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 10/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Rick Strini built his first kiln at age 16 with recycled bricks and castoffs from a shuttered cannery. Some 40 years and a masters in environmental design later, his Hawaii-based Strini Art Glass uses only recycled cullet to create its custom fixtures, such as the Ta Ta chandelier. All can be wired to accept energy-efficient LEDs or low-wattage compact fluorescents.

Bannavis Andrew Sribyatta and Fabiana Godoy of Miami's PIE Studio scavenged their city for Hurricane Katrina debris to make the Wabi-Sabi chair. Held together by nontoxic glue, the design is meant to be as sharp and violent as the storm itself, so beware of sitting.

Pieces by Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright hardly leave a carbon footprint at the new $33-million home of the Burchfield-Penny Art Center, opening November 22 at Buffalo State College. Clad in zinc, manganese-glazed brick, and cast stone, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects's 84,000-square-foot facility expects to be the first LEED Silver–certified museum in New York.

If art is the ultimate cultural barometer, the meter is reading green. From the shores of Maui, Hawaii, to the streets of Buffalo, eco-artistry is coloring the current trend forecast.

Alexandre Arrechea, and his Mississippi Bucket in reclaimed sinker lumber, is among the 81 artists participating in the debut of "Prospect.1 New Orleans," running November 1 to January 18, 2009 in more than a dozen venues. Curator Dan Cameron conceived the biennial in an effort to help revitalize the storm-ravaged city.

Korean sculptor Kwang-Young Chun recycles mulberry paper from old books to yield room-size pieces like his 10-foot-high Aggregation 06-MY020 from 2006. See others like it in "Kwang-Young Chun: The Soul—Journey to America," running December 14 to May 31, 2009 at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

There's nary a flea on D.O.G. (Done Out of Garage), Brian Mock's 2008 sculpture of reclaimed industrial metal. Catch it at Chicago's 360See, Jordan Witkov's two-story gallery that specializes in eco-minded art and is a member of the Sustainable Furniture Council. The 1,300-square-foot space itself boasts salvaged marble floors, reclaimed wrought-iron banisters, and low-VOC paints and sealants.