Architecture for Artists: The Hammersmith Studios on Thursday 10 November 2016

American Friends are invited to join the Patrons for Architecture for Artists: The Hammersmith Studios on Thursday 10 November 2016. Join architect MJ Long and artists Peter Blake, Paul Huxley and Ben Johnson for a tour of the Hammersmith Studios. In the early 90s, architectural artist Ben Johnson bought a defunct builder’s yard with fellow artists Paul Huxley and Peter Blake. With different priorities, budgets and styles of working, the artists commissioned the architect MJ Long to transform a once industrial space into three artist’s studios. Long described the process as a “magical mystery tour” and will share her experience of finding a solution for all three.

PETER BLAKE

Peter Blake was born in Kent in 1935. He initially studied at Gravesend Technical College, before completing a period of national service in the Royal Air Force. He went on to study at the Royal College of Art and later won the Leverhulme Research Award to study popular art throughout Europe. Blake is a pioneer of Pop Art, his style evolving from classical naturalistic oils to collaged works featuring images of movie stars and musicians.

PAUL HUXLEY

Paul Huxley studied at Harrow School of Art and later at the Royal Academy Schools. He has participated in many group and solo

exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. From painting to sculpture and ceramics, Huxley’s works are characterised by geometric and architectural shapes and bright hues. He taught at the Royal College of Art from 1976, becoming Professor of Painting there from 1986 until 1998, when he was appointed Professor Emeritus. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1987 and was Treasurer of the Royal Academy from 2000 – 2014.

BEN JOHNSON

Ben Johnson was born in Wales, in 1946. He studied at the Royal College of Art and has lived and worked in London since 1965. Perhaps best known for his large-scale, intricately detailed cityscape paintings of Hong Kong, Zürich, Jerusalem, Liverpool and London, Johnson has exhibited in galleries and museums across the world, as well as with Norman Foster at the first Venice Architecture Biennale in 1991 and again in 2012. Johnson is an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA, recognised for his contribution to the public’s understanding of contemporary architecture.

MJ LONG

MJ Long was born in the USA in 1939, and received her MArch from Yale in 1964. She moved to the UK in 1965, becoming director of Colin St John Wilson and later founder of Long & Kentish. Long has worked on a variety of projects from private homes to public spaces including the British Library, Durlston Castle in Swanage and the new wing of Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, as well as a number of university buildings, restaurants and conversions.