This Brooklyn artist’s studio is an is industrial house reimagined for up to date artwork

Glenn Ligon’s studio is tucked away in certainly one of Brooklyn’s inconspicuous industrial hubs. Set throughout the Navy Yards, the house feels open, spacious and uncooked – but quietly refined and unmistakably up to date. Its architect, Ravi Raj’s objective was to craft an inside that may be practical and applicable for artwork manufacturing: ‘sturdy and versatile.’ But on the similar time, this artist’s studio provides moments of wealthy materiality and excessive craftsmanship, that are additionally absolutely in tune with its proprietor’s inventive spirit.

Discover Glenn Ligon’s studio with its architect, Ravi Raj

Raj designed the studio inside round a central ‘frequent room’. Off it, a sequence of areas fan out in a pinwheel configuration, masking all levels of creating, preparation, storage, documentation, and archiving of Ligon’s paintings.

Raj says: ‘For this artist’s studio, on the web site of a totally uncooked, industrial house, we wished to orchestrate a particular circulate and program that was aligned with Ligon’s creative follow, the place the bodily house may facilitate the inventive course of. Pre-existing supplies that comprised the house, like concrete and metal, impressed us to lean into using hyper-industrial supplies that may complement and improve the present palette, reconfiguring the studio’s areas with a package of its personal components.’

A sequence of freestanding partitions loosely outline the completely different areas, gently sufficient however pragmatically, whereas additionally offering clean wall floor for artwork show, pin-up boards, library shelving and a studio pantry.

A cloth palette made up predominantly of galvanized sheet metallic panels and prefinished maple plywood echoes the commercial constructing’s present material; the metallic hue matches the uncovered ductwork, and the wooden colouring options in customized rolling tables and storage techniques, softening the utilitarian really feel of the house.

Materials surfaces are at locations polished and at others left tough and uncovered, including to the general inside’s inventive steadiness and identification, whereas establishing a ‘visible continuity rooted in craft and trade,’ the architect writes.

He continues: ‘The end result is a strong but versatile workspace that displays Ligon’s follow — disciplined, materially aware, and deeply engaged with each course of and presentation.’