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K-State Today

February 28, 2014

New exhibit by LA architect Rick Gooding opens March 3 at Chang Gallery

Submitted by Thom Jackson

Los Angeles architect Rick Gooding will open his exhibit "Subterranea" at Kansas State University's College of Architecture, Planning & Design with a gallery talk at 4 p.m. and reception at 5 p.m. Monday, March 3, in Seaton Hall's Chang Gallery.

Gooding's "Subterranea," a series of pencil drawings of underground realms, is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays March 3-21. Both the exhibit and reception are free.

For "Subterranea," Gooding created more than 30 meticulous pencil drawings, each depicting an imaginary underground realm. Winding tunnels and labyrinthine passageways are rendered by hand, resolving into dense, intricate patterns.

In an era of digital representation, Gooding celebrates the precise and beautiful craft of manual drafting. He works without rulers or measuring devices and carefully constructs his drawings using the most basic architectural drafting tools: a straight edge, a 314 pencil, an eraser and erasing shield. Gooding works exclusively in black and white. The simple palette occasionally produces Escher-esque qualities. Subversive flips of figure/ground and slips in optical logic confuse the readings of these rigorously constructed drawings.

These eerie illustrations inspire comparisons to Aldo Rossi's stark line work, as well as to surrealist painter Giorgio De Chirico' s forlorn cityscapes, in which the urban realm is inhabited as often by headless statuary as by human citizens. Gooding's imagery evokes engine works and machine constructs, echoing power plants architecture as much as maze-like buildings for human habitation. Yet, however provocative, Gooding's spaces are ultimately inaccessible.

Gooding is a principal of the award-winning firm CHU+GOODING Architects in Los Angeles. He focuses on projects for arts-related and higher education clients, including organizations such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Hammer Museum, the J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Southern California Public Radio and La Plaza de Culturas y Artes. He also has taught a various schools of architecture. Gooding received a Bachelor of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1984 and a master's degree in architecture and building design from Columbia University in 1985.

Gooding's drawings also have been included in The Architectural Review Folio, The Drawing Center Viewing Program, The Draftery and on numerous other websites. More information about his work is available at online.