Storefront suggests shape of art to come

The Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, N.Y., launched its 2015 season by hosting a unique showcase that asks artists to reveal something about the genesis of their art. The first BLUEPRINT exhibit in 1999 brought together the work of young, ambitious artists, introducing them through their “blueprints” for their futures. For its third BLUEPRINT event, the Storefront gave its building a facelift that symbolized the mysterious emergence of art.

The white storefront façade was designed by Florian Idenburg and Max Hart Nibbrig of SO–IL (Solid Objectives–Idenburg Liu), a Brooklyn, N.Y., architecture firm. The gallery wanted to open up the building while protecting it from the elements and changing its look. Atlantic Shrink Wrapping Inc., Pasadena, Md., was brought in to encase the entire storefront, including relief features such as windows, with 2,400 square feet of 12-mil-thick flame-retardant polyethylene shrunk with a propane-powered heat gun. The gallery’s interior track lighting and the material’s tension play up the unusual shapes of the building’s features, making them look as if they were trying to push through the façade. The evanescent white shapes stretching or retreating from the white surface suggest creative forces coming to life—and an invitation to gallery visitors to go inside and see it happening.