Stanford University
Escondido Village Graduate Residences
Stanford, California
SLATE Art Consulting is honored to have worked with Stanford University to create a custom art program for the school’s new construction residential community. The Escondido Village Graduate Residences comprises four 10-story buildings that were designed to echo the university’s iconic architecture.
SLATE worked with a diverse team of local and Stanford-affiliated artists to create an original art program for the first floor common areas that engaged with Stanford’s four thematic pillars of Education, Research, Community, and Engagement Beyond. The result is a bespoke art collection featuring such unique materials as decommissioned books from the Stanford Library, instruments from the Stanford Marching Band, and photograms featuring flora and fauna collected on the Stanford campus.
NICK DONG, "The Brightness of Music," 2022, Decommissioned Stanford Marching Band instruments, wood veneer, acrylic mirrors, 96” x 96” x 2” | Photography by Henrik Kam
LORDY RODRIGUEZ, "Stanford’s World Map," 2022, UV direct aluminum print with pearl finish, 96 x 144 overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
MICHAEL AZGOUR, "Calibration," 2022, Acrylic on linen, 41.5” x 59” | Photography by Henrik Kam
SLATE STUDIOS + ONE HAT ONE HAND, "Come Join the Band," 2021, White oak, acrylic, 40” x 60” | Photography by Henrik Kam
RON MOULTRIE SAUNDERS, "The Secret Life of Plants," 2022, 12, Dye-sublimation prints of original photograms, printed on metal, 24 x 30 each, 102 x 94 overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
PANTEA KARIMI, "Sidereal Messenger," 2017-2022, Acrylic, ink, silkscreen, laser-cut and-etched wood, digital collage, and print on aluminum, Approximately 120 x 120 overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
RUTH TABANCAY, "What’s In You and On You: Normal Flora and Pathogens 2.0," 2022, 41 Fabric, embroidery floss, and glass Petri dishes, 44 x 56 each | Photography by Henrik Kam
RUTH TABANCAY, "What’s In You and On You: Normal Flora and Pathogens 2.0," 2022, 41 Fabric, embroidery floss, and glass Petri dishes, 44 x 56 | Photography by Henrik Kam
SUZANNE FRAZIER, "Separate + Together," 2022, 16 hand-painted acrylic paintings on redwood tree rings, Approx 20 diameter each, 96 x 96 overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
MIGUEL ARZABE, "El Infierno en el Farallón (Helen Clyff)," 2022, Woven archival inkjet prints on canvas, 90 x 60 | Photography by Henrik Kam
STANFORD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, Student Life Posters, Framed metal prints, 52” x 48” overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
STANFORD UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, Student Life Posters, Framed metal prints, 52” x 48” overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
ROB SNYDER, "Murmuration," 2021, Cast glass | Photography by Henrik Kam
ALEXANDRA BOWMAN, "A Search For Self," 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 92 x 120 | Photography by Henrik Kam
BRIAN SINGER, "Untitled," 2022, Mixed media featuring decommissioned books from the Stanford Library, 40” x 60” | Photography by Henrik Kam
KERITH LISI, "Ex Libris," 2021, Book covers, 40” x 60” | Photography by Henrik Kam
ALICE BEASLEY, "Food for Thought," 2022, Textile, 43" x 80"
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: Murmuration
Artist Rob Snyder | Cast glass
For this installation, Snyder has created 300 hand-casted glass birds, which form a “murmuration.” The work symbolizes the power of individuals working in harmony as a group. It is also a metaphor for Stanford’s students leaving campus to flying out into the future, where they will impact the larger world beyond.
Rob Snyder studied glass work in Portland and Seattle before going on to build a career as a successful studio artist. He has shown with galleries across the country and has placed dozens of works in both private and corporate collections.
IN HIS OWN WORDS: “Conceptually my art weaves stories relating to essence and matter, chaos and form, fragility of nature, and the developing human spirit. I see everything as a dance of life; everything in constant motion, transforming and evolving in a universal flow of upward movement. This is seen in both the natural world, and in human consciousness. Patterns in life will always collapse if they are not supported by an upward movement. Nature does this so eloquently; we as humans, a bit more clumsily. But nevertheless, we are constantly moving and evolving, manifesting from the unknown—bringing forth form out of the formless.
ROB SNYDER, "Murmuration," 2021, Cast glass | Photography by Henrik Kam
ROB SNYDER, "Murmuration," 2021, Cast glass | Photography by Henrik Kam
ROB SNYDER, "Murmuration," 2021, Cast glass | Photography by Henrik Kam
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: Separate + Together
Artist Suzanne Frazier | 16 hand-painted acrylic paintings on redwood tree rings, approx 20” diameter each, 96 x 96” overall
North Bay Artist Suzanne Frazier’s installation symbolizes the expansion of the human mind and spirit, with the redwood disc representing a platform to build upon. Growing from the center outward through education and self- discovery, each concentric layer represents time and progression of students’ evolution, similar to the rings on a tree. Frazier also notes: As every person is unique in their life experience and in the manner they learn, each circle is unique in its color arrangement, width and number of color bands.
Suzanne Frazier maintains both a painting studio in Sausalito and a printmaking studio in The Sea Ranch, California. The Marin Art Council has awarded her both a Career Grant and an Individual Artist Grant. Frazier has most recently exhibited at Gallery 16 (San Francisco, CA) and Rear Storefront Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), among others. She holds a degree in Biomedical Illustration, and her work is held in private collections nationally and abroad, including the corporate headquarters of Redwood Trust, Inc.
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: Stanford’s World Map
Artist Lordy Rodriguez | UV direct aluminum print with pearl finish, 96 x 144” overall
Artist Lordy Rodriguez (Stanford MFA ‘08) uses cartography and maps to reconfigure factual locations and explore political and cultural identity. This engaging artwork, based on repeated forms of Stanford residential buildings, illustrates a fictional “continent” that is a mash-up of the ten most innovative countries in the world, based on metrics that go beyond GDP. This Pangea-like map connects the innovative spirit of Stanford students from their university beginnings to their impact in the world after graduation.
A man of many origins, of Chinese, French, Spanish, and Filipino descent, Filipino-American artist Lordy Rodriguez uses cartography as an entry point for discussion about how the actions of a nation shape its character. Focusing on the United States, Rodriguez makes ink drawings of maps that physicalize history, culture, and global relationships. His work, which is based on both extensive research and on his personal experience, questions what it means to be a nation. Rodriguez has worked with cartography for over fifteen years and has had solo exhibitions in the Austin Museum of Art and the Nevada Art Museum.
Artist Lordy Rodriguez giving a talk to Stanford EVGR residents about his work.
Artist Lordy Rodriguez giving a talk to Stanford EVGR residents about his work.
Progress image of the commissioned artwork for Stanford.
Progress image of the commissioned artwork for Stanford.
Preview of the artwork panels at the print shop.
Preview of the artwork panels at the print shop.
Artwork installation
Artwork installation
Artist Lordy Rodriguez will his newly installed commission at Stanford EVGR.
LORDY RODRIGUEZ, "Stanford’s World Map," 2022, UV direct aluminum print with pearl finish, 96 x 144" overall | Photography by Henrik Kam
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: Sidereal Messenger
Artist Pantea Karimi | Acrylic, ink, silkscreen, laser-cut and-etched wood, digital collage, and print on aluminum, 120” x 120” overall
Artist Pantea Karimi explores the intersection of science, art, and history in her installation titled after Galileo’s 1610 astronomical treatise. The wooden circles reflect diagrams related to optics and astronomy by Kepler, Tusi, Hunain b. Ishaq, Copernicus, and Galileo among others. The aluminum pieces featuring the Dish, SLAC, and other landmarks, reference Stanford University’s historical role in the continuing advancement of scientific knowledge in the fields of astrophysics and cosmology.
Pantea Karimi is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in San Jose, California. Her art highlights personal narratives, political and societal issues, often through the lens of her native country Iran’s rich and historic art and visual culture. Karimi is fascinated with the history of knowledge, science and mathematics, and has traveled the world to personally investigate historic documents, manuscripts, and objects at major libraries and archives. She has had performed research and held artist residencies at the Malek Library in Tehran, at the British Library in London, The Institute and Special Collections at MIT in Cambridge, Marsh’s Library in Dublin Ireland, and at UCSF Library in San Francisco. Karimi has exhibited her work internationally across a range of solo, group, and traveling exhibitions in Iran, Algeria, Germany, Croatia, Mexico, the UK, and the US.
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: A Search for Self
Artist Alexandra Bowman | Acrylic on canvas, 92” x 120”
Alexandra Bowman is an Oakland-based painter, muralist, and illustrator whose work celebrates diversity, inclusion, and community. Her goal is to continue a dialogue about social inclusivity and the importance of being seen in a world where many feel invisible. This stylized version of the Stanford University library depicts diverse students studying and communicating with each other, surrounded by elements of the Stanford campus.
This piece of art has been lovingly painted in memory of Leon Cain. Leon served on the board of Stanford Black Law Students Association and as Editor-in-Chief of the Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance. The Leon Cain Scholarship Fund for Aspiring Black Law Students has been established in his legacy. More details available here >
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: The Brightness of Music
Artist Nick Dong | Decommissioned Stanford Marching Band instruments, wood veneer, acrylic mirrors, 96” x 96” x 24”
Artist Nick Dong creates experiential sculptures, objects, and installations based on light and pattern. In this one-of-a-kind mandala patterned-installation, Nick celebrates Stanford's community spirit while giving these band instruments a second life.
Based in Oakland, Nick Dong 董承濂 is a conceptual metalsmith, mixed-media sculptor, and socio-commodity engineer. From a multidisciplinary maker/craftsman practice he founded studioDONG, and leads a team to produce experiential sculptures, objects, and installations combine an advanced knowledge of materials and techniques with a goal of engaging an audience’s experience beyond the optical. As a Taiwanese-American, Dong identify himself as a 21st-century continuation of Wen-ren 文人, the Chinese cultural lineage of intellect-scholars, in which each work is a quest of self evolution, a vehicle of sharing philosophy. By carefully integrating scientific and handcrafted components, supernatural movements, light, sound, and various interactive or situational strategies, Nick's work produces a fully immersive event, only complete once a viewer steps into the space and an encounter is initiated.
STANFORD SOURCED MATERIALS: Book Arts
In the midst of the pandemic, Stanford University Libraries handed off stacks and stacks of decommissioned library books to SLATE Art Consulting. We, in turn, gave these precious loads to two talented book artists to take into their Bay Area studios and transform into custom commissioned artworks for the University's Escondido Village Graduate Residences. These are the results...
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: Ex Libris
Artist Kerith Lisi | Book covers, 40 x 60”
To make her mixed-media artwork, Kerith Lisi cut and re-assembled hard-back books, including several that were decommissioned from the Stanford University Library collection, lending them a new life. The artist invites viewers to take a moment to notice not only the titles and colors, but also the subtle textures and signs of age that chronicle a book’s own history of use over the years.
About the Artist: Kerith Lisi’s work has been exhibited at Marin MOCA, The Main Gallery in Redwood City, STUDIO Gallery in San Francisco, and SLATE contemporary in Oakland. She has a BA in international relations and also studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Kerith lives and works in San Carlos, CA, with her husband and two children.
COMMISSION SPOTLIGHT: Untitled
Artist Brian Singer | Mixed media featuring decommissioned books from the Stanford Library, 40 x 60
Artist Brian Singer’s process involves cutting thousands of book pages and organizing the edges of the pages into alternative views, thereby exposing geometric patterns and textures made entirely from the edges of paper sheets. By deconstructing books and reassembling them, he seeks to breathe new life into millions of hidden words, sentences, and stories.
About the Artist: Brian Singer, also known as “Someguy,” is a San Francisco-based artist whose projects have received international attention. His art ranges from intimate works with paper, to large scale participatory projects. In addition to being recognized with numerous awards and publications, he has served as the president of the San Francisco chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, and has taught at Academy of Art University.
