RON THOM AND THE ALLIED ARTS

Working with renowned architectural critic and writer Adele Weder, this travelling national exhibition was designed to profile the work of architect, Ron Thom. It highlights Thom's relationship to the arts and architecture, featuring works such as his mid-century west coast homes alongside his well-known institutional work for the University of Toronto's Massey College and Trent University in Peterborough. Custom-built furniture is juxtaposed with paintings, ceramics and other allied arts to explore gesamtkunstwerk – the “total work of art.”

Client: Adele Weder, Independant Curator
Locations: West Vancouver Museum, West Vancouver; Gardiner Museum, Toronto; Trent University, Peterborough; Beaverbrook Gallery, Fredericton; Nickel Gallery, Calgary
Architect: PUBLIC
Scope: Interpretive planning, exhibition design

Working with modular plywood cases and a simple palette of colour, typography and forms derived from Thom's signature diamond grid, the show was formed and reformed to respond to a wide variety of galleries. Settings ranged from the renovated craftsman-style house of the West Vancouver Museum to the white boxes of the Gardiner and Beaverbrook Galleries, to a Ron Thom designed home at Trent University's Alumni House. The work closed in it's final and largest installation at the Nickle Galleries at the University of Calgary.

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