The Gallery

The pinkcomma gallery opened at a time of shifting design sensibilities in Boston. No longer exclusively clad in brick, a few recent institutional buildings in the city indicate an acceptance of fresh and adventurous architecture—reminiscent of the late modernist period when Boston’s new structures were a part of the international vanguard. Yet the work produced in the local establishment is often far from inventive or original. This gallery aims to foster and recognize a more creative and experimental scene that has grown out of one of the world’s most significant capitals of architectural education. For all the city’s stodginess, Boston’s six architecture schools and their instructors have unleashed some of the most provocative figures on the world scene. Why hasn’t this culture permeated the city’s own architectural sense of itself?

It seems clear to us that such a culture is on the rise, yet continues to need independent venues to foster its growth. pinkcomma showcases Boston’s new architectural underground—in a space that is literally subterranean. We hope to encourage broader popular support for this underground sensibility. At the same time, pinkcomma is a place for the exchange and expansion of ideas within Boston’s larger design scene, not just in terms of architecture, but also in the disciplines of landscape, graphics, urbanism, interiors, and industrial design, among many other fields.

pinkcomma strives to make design more pivotal in the city’s political and cultural discourses. The gallery’s role is often activist in nature, promoting works that may be at times politically unpalatable or financially untenable, unpopular or unacknowledged. The gallery highlights innovative thinkers of diverse interests who call Boston home. Their works offer us a window into the city’s design underground.

Chris Grimley, Mark Pasnik, Michael Kubo, Directors

pinkcomma is a division of over,under.

Previous Exhibitions

Rethinking Boston City Hall (September 2007); Design Nearby: Prints Charming (December 2007); Urban Housing Atlas (February 2008); Parti Wall, Hanging Green (May 2008); Close Encounters (October 2008); Design Nearby: Cloth, Paper, Scissors (December 2008); Public Works: Unsolicited Small Projects for the Big Dig (February 2009); A Few Zines: Dispatches from the Edge of Architectural Production (March 2009); Concrete Toronto (May 2009); Double Feature: HEROIC and Publishing Practices (September 2009); Welcome Hometta (October 2009); Design Nearby: Big Print, Lil Print (December 2009); Design Biennial Boston (April 2010); Newsstand (November 2010); Design Nearby: Ladies Only! (December 2010); HEROIC TALK: Jane Thompson on BEN (February 2011); Tailoring Form (April-May 2011); Projections (September 2011); Design Nearby: Command-P (December 2011).

Current

Join us for the launch of Boston's newest design gallery, BSA Space, on February 9, 2012 with the opening of the the three-part exhibition IN FORM.

Details of the IN FORM exhibition and opening event will be made public in early 2012. The exhibition is curated by pinkcomma's three directors and will appear in the Boston Society of Architects' new public gallery in Atlantic Wharf. Activities at pinkcomma will resume later in the spring.

News

Mark Pasnik participated in an event dedicated to Boston's High Spine sponsored by the Boston Preservation Alliance on November 10 at the Boston Architectural College. Panelists included Ed Glaeser, Henry Moss, Anthony Pangaro, Jean Carroon, David Hacin, Tunny Lee, and Tad Stahl.

A version of pinkcomma's Projections exhibition appeared in the WUHO gallery in Los Angeles in October and November.

The curatorial team published an article on galleries as a medium of dissemination in the Winter 2011 issue of ArchitectureBoston.

The pinkcomma curatorial team was selected to design the first exhibition at the Boston Society of Architects' new BSA Space in Atlantic Wharf.

Michael Kubo participated in a discussion at the Community College of Rhode Island on Thursday, April 14 as part of the Knight Campus Art Gallery's "We Talk About Architecture, Architecture Talks Back" event. The panel examined the Knight Campus building, a concrete megastructure completed in 1972 by the architect Howard Juster. Details are available here.

Chris Grimley, Mark Pasnik, and Michael Kubo presented research from the Heroic Project at Boston University on April 8. The discussion was the opener for the "Architecture + Philosophy" conference hosted by BU's philosophy department.

Chris Grimley published a review of the book Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes in the February 2011 issue of ArchitectureBoston

Two articles the gallery's curators (“Tough Love” and “Concrete Ideology”) as well as drawings and photography from the Heroic Project appeared in the Pyramide Insert of Celeste Magazine in the Fall of 2010.

On September 17, 2010, Chris Grimley and Mark Pasnik joined Praxis editors Amanda Reeser Lawrence and Ashley Schafer as part of MIT's BOS lecture series. The discussion was entitled "On Curating."

Andrea Leers published a review of the Design Biennial Boston 2010 in the fall issue of ArchitectureBoston.

Michael Kubo and Mark Pasnik presented the work of the gallery at PechaKucha 18.

The Heroic exhibition curators published an essay in the April 2010 issue of Architect Magazine commenting on the value of the buildings from the exhibition.

Gallery curators Michael Kubo and Chris Grimley are featured in the Spring 2010 issue Boston Home, highlighting the next generation of design in the city.

"In praise of ugly buildings" by Sarah Schweitzer appeared in the January 24 issue of the Boston Globe, covering the content of the "Heroic" exhibition.

Architecture critic Robert Campbell wrote his January 3, 2010 column in the Boston Globe on the Heroic exhibition.

The gallery and over,under were profiled in the December 2009/January 2010 issue of Art New England.

Issue 22 of the journal Volume includes the Publishing Practices research and graphics by Michael Kubo and Chris Grimley, first created and exhibited at pinkcomma in September 2009.

The gallery and Welcome Hometta exhibition were the subjects of a Dwell blog entry entitled "Pinkcomma Gallery Welcomes Hometta" in November 2009. Welcome Hometta was also profiled in a Boston Globe article entitled "McMansions, be gone" in October 2009.

The double feature Heroic and Publishing Practices appeared in the Architect's Newspaper blog in October 2009.

In October 2009, Publishing Practices was reviewed on the Dwell blog website and ArchDaily presented an interview with guest curator Michael Kubo.

Historian and author Douglass Shand-Tucci's September 2009 blog on the Back Bay Historical website focused on the topic "I M Pei's Noble Boston" in conjunction with pinkcomma's Heroic exhibition.

The pinkcomma gallery was selected as the readers' pick for best art gallery by the Weekly Dig as part of its 2008 Dig This Awards.

The pinkcomma gallery appears in the March and April 2008 issues of The Architect and the May issue of Architectural Record.