Informed by theories of materiality and objecthood, Claudia Weber’s work investigates the symbolic meanings that become embedded in architecture through societal value systems. In her Sunroom Project, Weber explores transitions between the interior of Glyndor House and the surrounding landscape while she considers the property’s contextual shift from privileged domicile to public garden and cultural institution. Weber’s project, which she developed during Wave Hill's 2011 Winter Workspace Program, takes its title from the name of the Victorian-style villa that originally stood on the site of the current Glyndor House. Nonesuch was built in the 1860s by Oliver Harriman, a New York financier, and its name connotes its peerless presence and ideal setting. However, the word could also imply “no such thing,” thus evoking the realm of the imaginary and fantastical.

Weber uses a mixed-media, site-specific approach to address the transformation of living, botanical matter into a wide spectrum of architectural and cultural representations, reaching from the idealized and exclusive, to the pragmatic and mundane. At the center of the Sunroom is a sculptural assemblage consisting of various materials, including glass, wood, paper and paint. The transparent layers of the sculpture both frame and integrate the objects while heightening awareness of the substance of the building’s interior and its surrounding gardens. On the north wall of the Sunroom is an enlarged photograph of a collection of materials that features a multi-colored set of architectural samples in the form of the acanthus leaf. This imported plant is present amongst the foliage in the Wave Hill grounds, while architectural elements inspired by the form of its leaves can be found inside Glyndor House. The acanthus leaf has been a mainstay in architectural decoration since it was used by the ancient Greeks on the capitals of columns from the Corinthian order, and through its prevalence has become both paradigmatic and abstracted to the point where the original source, the living plant, can itself be considered a “nonesuch.”

Weber received her MFA from the University of Fine and Applied Arts in Offenbach, Germany, where she studied painting and new media art. In 2009–10, she participated in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace Residency Program. She has had solo exhibitions in Berlin, Frankfurt and Vienna, as well as at Momenta Art in New York. In September she will be featured in a solo exhibition at Vox Populi, Philadelphia. Her work has been included in recent group shows at White Columns, New York; Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York; Croxhapox, Ghent, Belgium, and the Contemporary Art Center, Bretigny, France. Visit Claudia Weber’s website to learn more about her work.

Organized by Assistant Curator Gabriel de Guzman, the Sunroom Project Space provides an opportunity for New York’s emerging artists to develop a special project or create a new body of work to exhibit in a solo show. The artists exhibiting in the 2011 season are Meghan Gordon, Claudia Weber, The Friendly Falcons and Their Friend the Snake, Caitlin Parker, and Sreshta Rit Premnath.

Public Programs

Meet the Artist, SUN, June 19, 1:30pm