“Gordon’s eye for the convergence of art, architecture and commerce is unerring.”
-Publishers Weekly
Alastair Gordon’s drawings are reflections on time, memory, patience and what William Gibson called “pattern recognition”, simple markings and scratchings, layered over rudimentary grid substrates. He draws with powdered pigments bound with gum Arabic and black ink made from fermented carbon and pine-tree resin. The process is slow and repetitive, in the trance-like spirit of Henri Michaux’s mescaline drawings from the 1950s and 1960s, works that began as written texts but turned into abstract émergences. Alastair is also an author and critic. His books are about art, utopia, the built environment, and what Gaston Bachelard called the poetics of space. Both his art and his writing intersect and overlap as fields of observation and duration.
EXHIBITIONS
• “Stories: A Small-Works Show”, Springs Library, East Hampton, NY
• “Markings: Selected Works on Paper, Alastair Gordon”, Steele Gallery, East Hampton, NY
• “Pattern Recognition #2,” one-person exhibition, works on paper + written works: Mildred Art Complex(ity)Gallery, Narrowsburg, NY, May 22 – August 6, 2023
• “Pattern Recognition #1,” one-person exhibition, works on paper, Sussex College Art Gallery, Newton, NJ, January 28 – March 8, 2019
• Viridian Gallery, New York City, NY: “Wall Works (Bendigo Series),” a collection of 24 small paintings on paper, 2007
• “Works on Paper, Alastair Gordon,” the Drawing Room Gallery, East Hampton, NY, 2005
• “Works on Paper, Alastair Gordon,” Youngblood Gallery, Sag Harbor, NY, 2003
• “12 Wall Sculptures, Alastair Gordon,” Lhasa Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1983
• “Alastair Gordon”, Sarah Y. Rentschler Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY, 1983
• “Sleep Drawings: Alastair Gordon”, Gallerie Annemarie de Kruijff, Paris, France, small works on paper, 1981
• “Turn Back: Contained / Uncontained”, Gallerie Annemarie de Kruijff, Paris, France, 2 large-scale installation works in concrete & silt from the River Seine, 1980
• “Including-Excluding: Alastair Gordon,” MFA Thesis Show, Yale School of Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, (large-scale installation pieces in cast concrete), 1978
• “Quipu: Alastair Gordon,” BFA Thesis Exhibition, Hampshire College Gallery, Amherst, MA, 8 floor and wall installations, 1975
• “Off the Wall: Works by Alastair Gordon,” one-person exhibition, Centrum Gallery, Amherst, MA, wall and floor installations, 1974
BOOKS BY ALASTAIR JAMES GORDON
Author: Island Follies, Rizzoli, NYC< 2022
Author: Assembled in Light, Rizzoli/Gordon de Vries Studio, NYC, 2021
Author: Theater of Shopping, Rizzoli / Gordon de Vries Studio, NYC, 2020
Author: Lessons from the Sun: Arquitectonica: Rizzoli, NYC, 2019
Co-Author: “Conflagration: Fire as a Medium for Artistic Expression”, Amy Yoes: Hot Corners, MASS MoCA Publication, North Adams, MA, 2024
Author: “A Sense of Continuity”, Contemporary Gardens of the Hamptons, LaGuardia Design Group 1990-2020, Monacelli Press, New York, NY, 2021
Author: Unfolded: How Architecture Saved My Life, Oro/Gordon de Vries Studio: NYC, 2016
Author: Wandering Forms: Wendell Castle, Works from 1959-1979, Gregory Miller Inc., NYC, 2013
Author: Qualities of Duration, Metropolis/Gordon de Vries Studio, NYC, 2012
Author: Spaced Out, Radical Environments of the Psychedelic Sixties, Rizzoli, NYC, 2008
Author: Naked Airport, A Cultural History of the World’s Most Revolutionary Structure, U. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008 / Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, 2NYC, 004
Author: Romantic Modernist: The Life and Work of Norman Jaffe, Architect, Monacelli Press, NYC/Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, 2005
Author: Andrew Geller: Beach Houses, Princeton Architectural Press, NYC, 2003
Author: Weekend Utopia, Modern Living in the Hamptons, Princeton Architectural Press, NYC, 2001
Co-Author: American Dream: The Houses at Sagaponack (with Richard Meier), Rizzoli, 2NYC, 003
Co-Author/Editor/Publisher: Fire Island Modernist, Gordon de Vries Studio, NYC, 2014
Co-Author: Quik Build, ABC of Container Architecture, Bibliothéque McLean, NYC, 2008
Co-Author: Miami: Blueprint of an Eden (Michele Oka Doner/Mitchell Wolfson,) Feierabend Books, 2005
Co-Author: Costantino Nivola in Springs, (Micaela Martegani,) Ilisso Books, Vicenza, Italy.2003
Author: Convergence: Hamptons Since Pollock, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY, 2000
Author: Long Island Modern, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY 1987
For a complete list of Alastair’s published works go to: https://alastairgordonwalltowall.com/books-by-alastair-gordon/
EDUCATION
1976-79: Yale University, School of Art & Architecture, MFA (studied under David Von Schlegel, Richard Serra, Al Held, Vincent Scully, Robert Herbert, George Kubler)
1973-75: Princeton University, Visual Arts Program, (studied under Richard Serra, Barry Le Va, Mel Bochner, Tony Smith, Lynda Benglis, Robert Ryman)
1971-1974 Hampshire College, BA / BFA
1971: L’École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France
1970-71: University of Grenoble, France, Foreign Studies Program
1965-70: The Lawrenceville School