Remake, Remodel
Unconventional house-turned-art studio RE Gallery launches with experimentalIlluminations
"77 IPAs" by Jared WhitePhoto courtesy of RE Gallery + Studio
RE Gallery + Studio owner Wanda Dye.Photo courtesy of RE Gallery + Studio
"In the Moon" by Sherry OwensPhoto courtesy of RE Gallery + Studio
Anderson Anderson ArchitecturePhoto courtesy of RE Gallery + Studio
TopcastPhoto courtesy of RE Studio + Gallery
Inspired by the principle of making art from reclaimed or repurposed materials and mediums, architecture professor Wanda Dye took the rather unusual move of opening a gallery in her home.
With the help of her landlord,Mark Martinek of Modern Construction, Dye spent the summer renovating a house on Gould Street made entirely of repurposed materials. The two front rooms will serve as the RE Gallery + Studio exhibit space.
Dye taught for 13 years at institutions such as Georgia Tech, Mississippi State and the University of Texas at Arlington, and she devised RE Gallery + Studio as an outgrowth of her architecture classes. Galleries such as the (now defunct) Max Protetch Gallery and Art and Architecture in New York influenced the focus.
Wanda Dye renovated a house on Gould Street made entirely of repurposed materials. The two front rooms will serve as the RE Gallery + Studio exhibit space.
“RE practices are something I’ve come up with,” she explains. “It can stand for reclaimed, reused, retrofit — it can go on and on. I’m trying to bridge teaching and practice, and I have a venue for artists and architects to display their work implementing these practices.”
For RE Gallery’s first show, Illuminations, which opened November 2, Dye curated 28 light sculptures from fabricators, architects, designers and artists from Austin, Dallas, New York and San Francisco, including A Gruppo Architects, William Baker, fieldoffice, LOT-EK and Topocast.
Most of the participants are her friends and colleagues, and the works range from an optic array of up-cycled can carriers from architect and artist Jared White to a campfire of light created by sculptor Sherry Owens.
The show can be viewed during the Cedars Open Studios reception Saturday, November 17, noon to 6 pm. After that, RE will be open by appointment through December 28, and Dye will host showings on Sunday nights featuring informal talks with the artists.
On the horizon: Dye is planning an exhibit of scrap material sculptures created by Portuguese artist Ricardo Paniagua in 2013.
