![]() These process-depicting photos illustrate various wooded scenes in North America they document the techniques, contexts, and labour that typically goes into fabricating the wood framing. The third-floor gallery features several structural scale models of historical wood-framed buildings-a round barn, a church, a suburban house, and a tiny doghouse-all reproduced by students at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Architecture (UIC), benches designed by local architect Ania Jaworska, and a series of photographs by visual artist Daniel Shea and photographer Chris Strong. The exhibition continues on the third floor, adjacent to the top of the stair, and is sandwiched between other simultaneously held exhibitions on the floors directly below and above. Installation view of American Framing at Wrightwood 659, 2022: the building typologies on show include a round barn, a church, and a suburban house Image: Michael Tropea, © 2022 Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago, Courtesy of Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago This ambiguous playfulness encourages us to think not merely about what meets the eye but what a typical house potentially could be if we were not as conservative when it comes to building a family house. And when you look down at it from the top of the stair it may seem as if you are looking up to the ceiling from the inside. ![]() Look up and you may think you are looking down on what could be a typical American house right before being covered by a mundane asphalt shingles roof. Lit from every direction, it appears to be airy and graceful, even though it is unpretentiously rough in how its parts are nailed together. A few pairs of Shaker-inspired chairs designed by Chicago-based design collective Norman Kelley and made from 2” x 4” (5 cm x 10 cm) wood studs with varying degrees of finish and assembly are congregated in corners and provide a welcoming repose for visitors and a chance to calmly inspect the frame from within. What looks like an unfinished single-room house can be entered through a wide portal. Installation view of American Framing at Wrightwood 659, 2022: the structure features an inverted gable roof Image: Michael Tropea, © 2022 Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago, Courtesy of Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago The frame is topped by an inverted gable roof that either did not fit in its traditionally upright position under the building’s own roof or intentionally was turned upside down to try something extraordinarily novel. The frame, a trapezoid in its plan, takes much of the perimeter of the gallery’s soaring three-story atrium formed between a gorgeous amber-colour brick window wall on one side and an object-like exposed concrete stair on the other. Right upon entering this Tadao Ando-designed private gallery in Lincoln Park, which since 2018 consistently has been staging the most photogenic exhibitions focused on architecture and socially engaged art, visitors are greeted by a full-scale exposed wood-frame structure made up of standard studs and beams. ![]() ![]() Installation view of American Framing at Wrightwood 659, 2022: a full-scale exposed wood-frame structure made up of standard studs and beams greets visitors Image: Michael Tropea, © 2022 Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago, Courtesy of Alphawood Exhibitions LLC, Chicago ![]()
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