Dirt and Light Arts is a husband-wife team of artists where her work is in ceramics and his focuses on undersea photography.
Bush Wang was brought on board to design a ceramics studio to meet the needs of her creation process, a gallery with the versatility to display pedestal-based ceramics exhibitions, wall-hung photography shows, plus other media that they may showcase, and a kitchen that could function both for day-to-day use and as a catering kitchen and servery for events.
Flexibility of use for the gallery was key in the project design. A unique but neutral end-grain would floor was installed, as well as a fully backlit museum-quality ceiling and independently operable lighting tracks. The entry corridor for the gallery features a serrated ceiling that steps up from door to gallery as part of the entry sequence, and the demarcation point between corridor, gallery, and kitchen is an existing column with an oversized stainless steel tube de avion column surround.
On the studio side, Bush Wang sought to create a warm, bright space that the artist would be happy to spend hours in, while still referencing the industrial history of the building. Durability and cleanability of materials was essential, as the sculpture creation process is quite physical - and, at times, quite messy.
