Tickets sold out but livestream, some public viewings available
MARFA — This coming weekend, April 4 through 6, a group of artists, architects, curators, writers, landscape architects and historians will gather in Marfa for Part I of a two-part symposium titled Art in Context: Art, Architecture, and the Middle Landscape. Since 1995, Chinati has organized six other symposia, including Art in the Landscape (1995) and Art and Architecture (1998), documenting each one in a publication with essays and edited transcripts of the lectures and conversations.
This seventh symposium, hosted collaboratively in two parts by The Chinati Foundation/La Fundación Chinati and Rice School of Architecture, is co-organized by Caitlin Murray, director of the Chinati Foundation; Stephen Martin, director of preservation and planning at the Chinati Foundation; and Troy Schaum, associate professor at Rice School of Architecture. As an architect, Schaum is engaged in ongoing preservation and restoration work at Chinati, including the recently completed restoration of the John Chamberlain Building in downtown Marfa.
Through a series of lectures, panels and talks, Part I participants will explore the relationship between art, architecture and land at Chinati by focusing on one of the most significant examples of their integration: the former artillery sheds that house Donald Judd’s 100 untitled works in mill aluminum (1982–1986). Considering the history of the buildings, one focus of the symposium will be on current efforts to restore the structures, preserve Judd’s architectural interventions, protect the art, and care for the surrounding landscape.
Keynote speakers include Carme Pigem, a member of the Pritzker Prize-winning architectural firm RCR Arquitectes; Alberto Kalach, the architect who designed the José Vasconcelos Library in Mexico City; and Tatiana Bilbao, who holds a recurring teaching position at Yale School of Architecture and, with her eponymous firm, collaborates on projects such as the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin. Additional participants include the artist Larry Bell, who presented the exhibition 6 x 6 An Improvisation at Chinati in 2014, and Christopher Wool, a former Chinati artist in residence whose presentation See Stop Run West Texas will be open for previews on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5, from 12 – 6 p.m. at the Brite Building in downtown Marfa.
Though the symposium is sold out, Chinati will provide access to a livestream of the program at chinati.org/symposium2025. Accompanying public events include free self-guided viewing of Donald Judd’s 100 untitled works in mill aluminum on Saturday, April 5 from 7:30 – 9:30 a.m. as well as an exhibition opening at the Locker Plant (130 East Oak Street) from 6 – 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 5. Also titled Art in Context, the exhibition brings together archival drawings and photographs of the former artillery sheds that house Donald Judd’s 100 untitled works in mill aluminum alongside models, drawings and construction details of restoration possibilities. It will remain open every Saturday in April (April 12, April 19, and April 26) from 1 to 5 p.m.
Generous support for the symposium has been provided by Lee and Mike Cohn and Lori and Alexandre Chemla as well as the City of Marfa. Part II will take place in Houston on November 14 and 15, 2025. The program will expand these conversations to address urgent challenges in contemporary art and architectural practice, coinciding with an exhibition, presented as part of
Exhibitions at Rice, on view in the Hines Family Gallery and the Casbarian-Appel Gallery within William T. Cannady Hall at the Rice School of Architecture from September 4 through December 2, 2025.
