Julia Christensen

Opening:  December 5th, 2008  5- 9 pm | Through: January 30th, 2009

When you move out of your house, there's usually someone eager to buy it from you and make it their own. But what if you're moving out of one giant 100,000 square foot room?
 
In her book Big Box Reuse, and accompanying photographic exhibition, Julia Christensen takes us on a road trip across America to look at what becomes of the spaces superstores leave behind when they move out.  These warehouse-like buildings have found their place in the built landscape since the first Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target stores opened in 1962. 
 
Since the spring of 2004, Christensen has driven over 75,000 miles, visiting converted "big boxes" and meeting the people who are transforming these massive shells into useful structures for their community. She has documented what happened to the structures, the parking lots, and the surrounding communities.  She has found out who wanted to reuse the buildings, why and how. What Christensen has discovered is that examining the big box building provides a wealth of information that will help us steer the future of our landscape with more informed decision-making processes. Among the things Big Box Reuse points out: despite the harmful construction of the big box, reuse is a powerful tool in the fight against the increasing dangers of sprawl. For every building that is reused, a new one does not go up; a monumental victory, as the National Trust for Historic Preservation recently indicated the energy used to destroy older buildings in addition to the energy used to build new ones could power the entire state of California for 10 years (LA Times, October 2008).
 
From churches, retail stores and charter schools to a courthouse, senior center and the Spam museum, Big Box Reuse shows the many practical reuses of buildings that initially seemed suited for one function. 

Bryce Hudson

Opening:  February 6th, 2009  5- 9 pm | Through: March 27th, 2009

The exhibition will open in conjunction with the release of Bryce’s new book, Bryce Hudson: Explorations in the Shadow of Pop Culture from Holland Brown Books. The artist will be present at the opening for discussion and book signing.

The Green Building Gallery is proud to present 25 exceptional works of contemporary art by Bryce Hudson. In October of 2008 Hudson was invited by NY Arts Magazine to be an artist in residence at their contemporary arts project space NY Arts Beijing in Beijing, China. There, he started work on his Holding Pattern series. Exhibiting along side this series is an on-going body of work titled Equilibrium (Deco), which Hudson started in early 2008. Hudson lives in Louisville and has an extensive exhibition history. His work is in many important private and corporate collections in the US, South America and China.

In the Holding Pattern Series Hudson’s subjects are young women in their mid 20s to late 30s. Superimposed upon their faces are chromatic decorative patterns, the combination of which brings to the surface ideas of symmetry, objects of decoration and femininity. Furthermore, the experience of being a young woman in modern society and the associated pressures are examined.

In the Equilibrium (Deco) Series Hudson has begun to juxtapose two movements in the history of art and design – Minimalism and Rococo – opening up each piece to the viewers’ own interpretations on the depths of decoration, pop art, trend and pattern. Hudson’s work frequently explores balance, symmetry and harmony and their relationship to contemporary society in a post-painterly minimalist style.