Materials & Applications

Materials & Applications is a Los Angeles-based art and architecture exhibition space. Their exhibitions typically take the form of outdoor, public installations and one-to-one architecture. The organization is one of dozens of small non-profit artist run spaces that have been called "feral" in their relationship to larger, more established organizations and museums in Los Angeles. Jeremy Rosenberg, a Los Angeles based writer, has likened it to other "feral" artist-run organizations such as The Museum of Jurassic Technology, Center for Land Use Interpretation, and Echo Park Film Center.

Overview

Materials & Applications is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing new ideas in art and architecture into public space and public dialogue. The organization is currently directed by Jia Gu. Materials & Application's mission is "to advance new and critical ideas in architecture through exhibitions and public programs, in order to investigate the visible and invisible role architecture plays in our world today."

The organization was founded in 2003 by artists Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess in the front yard of their Silver Lake home. In 2018, Materials & Applications moved out of its Silver Lake home and relocated its offices to Chinatown. In lieu of their permanent exhibition space, M&A has expanded their programming into various neighborhoods throughout the Los Angeles area with temporary projects and multi-sited exhibitions. These exhibitions are free to the public. As executive director Jia Gu explains: “In a way we are trying to bridge two worlds that don’t intersect very often—public audiences and experimental architecture. We use the term “to build a public culture” quite literally—we are about producing built projects that can contribute to expanding and provoking public conversations around architecture. To a certain extent, M&A’s history has always been to resist the “gallerification” of architecture by producing projects that exist outdoors, in open air, and in the public—whether this space is publicly or privately owned.”

Materials & Applications past artists include Benjamin Ball, Layers LA, Judy Chicago, Gail Borden, Doris Sung, Jimenez Lai, Marcelo Spina, and Warren Techentin. The organization's work has been exhibited in shows at the Cal State Long Beach University Art Museum and in the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. It is run by a Board of Directors with a young leadership council called the Contemporary Council. The organization has received funding by the Pasadena Arts Alliance and the Graham Foundation.

Programs

Uncube Magazine called it "part architecture gallery, part public art display, and part workshop for experimentation and learning, the venue provides an outdoor exhibition space for new architectural ideas, while inviting the public to participate in creating its installations."

A key aspect of their work is to allow artists and architects to test new ideas and new construction methods. "Places like M&A provide architects with the opportunity to fail. I mean that in the best possible way," said Benjamin Ball of Ball-Nogues, whose works are now in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Not many clients will support a trial-and-error process on an untested structure. M&A is a place where you can do that."

The organization organizes public programs or hands-on building activities for the local community and participating artists. Past programs include Zoning & Its Applications, Can A Building Own Itself?, New Forensics: Scenarios and Simulated Environments, and Staging Construction, an open call for projects. Past installations include a golden vortex (Maximilian's Shell), a mini-golf course (TURF: A Mini-Gold Project), an igloo (Light Frames), a dissolving ice performance, a rotating room (Phalunstary Module) and a large white bird-cage (Le Cage aux Folles).