ONE AND ONE

TOM NGO

FROM NOVEMBER 13TH TO DECEMBER 5TH
OPENING NOVEMBER 13TH, 2015 FROM 6-9PM

“Art is purposefully useless.” Richard Serra made this proclamation during a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose, commenting that architecture could never be considered art because it is inherently functional. Art, on the other hand, unbound by similar demands, need only to consider it’s own intentions in deriving form.

In One and One, Tom Ngo’s 3rd solo exhibition at LE gallery, he challenges the idea that art and architecture are mutually exclusive. In his new works he proposes a series of buildings that have been stripped of their essential functions, rendering them purposeless. These structures ask the viewer to consider not what occurs between the walls but whether the rooms can be appreciated spatially — does the shell of a house have artistic or sculptural merit Can architecture coexist with art’s freedom The resulting structures straddle both fields and subvert the notion that architecture must be purposeful.

Tom’s work has been exhibited in Canada and in New York and has been published in print and online media outlets. His recent work has been included in the exhibition TBD at the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art, Toronto, and in the publication Imagine Architecture: Artistic Visions of the Urban Realm by Gestalten. Tom is also a senior designer at Moriyama and Teshima Architects and an instructor of architectural representation at the Daniels Faculty of Landscape, Architecture, and Design at the University of Toronto.