Curated by Claire C. Carter

 Like Arcosanti, the “urban laboratory” he constructed in the arid highlands of Arizona and ran for almost half a century, Paolo Soleri could be described as off the grid. His desert headquarters has now been a pilgrimage site for generations of countercultural-leaning architects, and his signature philosophy of “arcology”—which fused architecture with ecology in an effort to secure an environmentally sustainable future for humankind—could hardly seem more prescient. Yet Soleri never quite entered the mainstream; he receives little more than a footnote in most histories of postwar architecture, and his work has not been surveyed in America since 1971. This exhibition will end that long drought, presenting a comprehensive collection of models and drawings alongside experiments in a range of media, from silk screen to cast bronze, that highlight Soleri’s engagement with art and craft. The accompanying catalogue will offer fresh interpretations of his work by an appropriately interdisciplinary assemblage of scholars, artists, and critics.

— Julian Rose