SUPERFRONT

MITCH MCEWEN, Director and Founder of SUPERFRONT, is an urban designer, curator, educator, and unlicensed architect. Her design work has been published in Architectural Record and her writings in African-American studies have been published in Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society (IRAAS, Columbia University, 2007, 2010). After receiving the M.Arch degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning (GSAPP) in 2006, she was invited to join the adjunct faculty of GSAPP as Adjunct Assistant Professor to create a new cross-disciplinary course for urban planners and urban designers. Since founding SUPERFRONT in January 2008, she has curated more than a dozen exhibits and published 4 architectural catalogs, working with artists, historians, and architects from New York, Los Angeles, Venice, Berlin, San Juan, Beijing and elsewhere. She holds an M. Arch from Columbia GSAPP and A.B. from Harvard.

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Photo by Shirelle T. White.  Founder + Director Mitch McEwen (c) with founding Board Members Sarah Millsaps (l) and Nili Gilbert (r).

SUPERFRONT BOARD

MONSTAH BLACK, Board Member and co-curator of the Archeography Project, is a performance artist and choreographer based in New York since 1999. MonstaH has received support and commissions from various arts organizations, including Blackout Arts Collective, Topaz Arts, The Field and Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center.  He has taught dance and choreography at George Washington University, with a focus on site-specificity and improvisation.

MARK GARDNER, AIA, NOMA, LEED AP, Board Members and Business Development Chair, is a practicing Architect in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Senior Associate at Stephan Jaklitsch Architects.  Mark currently teaches as a Lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania.  He takes a serious interest in the nexus of architecture and art, a nexus of longstanding importance both to his professional practice and to his writings.  Mark was a contributor to Johanna Saleh Dickson’s Pamphlet Architecture 23 Move/Sites of Trauma (Princeton Architectural Press, 2002) and co-author of Stephan Jaklitsch, Habits Patterns Algorithms (ORO, 2009).  He is committed to practicing architecture as a socially beneficial art form.  Mark is an Executive Committee Chair for NYCOBA, the New York Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA).  Mark received his Masters of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania School Of Design and his Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

LEE PING KWAN, Board Member, practices architecture at the New York City office of Kohn Pedersen Fox, where he has an active role in designing and coordinating furniture, skyscrapers, master plans, documentary videos, renderings, and discussion groups. His personal work has appeared in publications by organizations including the Centre Pompidou and Archis; newspapers including the New York Times; websites such as YouTube and ArchDaily; and galleries including LessThanThree and SUPERFRONT.  He is also an avid cyclist, cook, and world traveler.

SARAH MILLSAPS, Board Chair and Secretary, is a practicing structural design engineer in new construction, renovation, adaptive reuse, and preservation with Robert Silman Associates. She is an active member of the Structural Engineers Association of New York City and NYCares. Sarah is a decorated combat veteran and holds her M.S.E./B.S.E. from Johns Hopkins University.

SHINIQUE SMITH, Board Member, received her BFA and MFA from The Maryland Institute College of Art. Selected exhibitions include; Freeway Balconies at The Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Unmonumental: The Object in the 21st Century at The New Museum (2007-08), RECOGNIZE! at The National Portrait Gallery/ Smithsonian (2008), All Purpose at Moti Hasson Gallery, NY (2007), Altered, Stitched and Gathered at PS 1 Contemporary Arts Center (2006), Frequency at The Studio Museum in Harlem (2005), and FULL ON! at The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (2005). Smith’s work has been reviewed in such international publications as Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, frieze and The New York Times and she has received grants and residency awards from The Headlands Center for the Arts, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Federation for the Arts, and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture among others. She is represented by Yvon Lambert Paris/NY/London. Shinique Smith lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

HELEN VAROLA, Board Member, is an independent curator who has worked on projects with artists David Goldblatt, Christian Jankowski, Keith Tyson, and Mark Wallinger. She currently serves as Curator for the Cohen Design Centers in which she is leading a mission to merge art and design worlds. Her past curatorial work includes exhibitions she has organized at the Site Gallery, Sheffield and the World Economic Forum. She has worked at New York galleries Paula Cooper, Peter Blum and Houk Friedman. She has published articles in Forum International, Trans> and Neue Bildende Kunst and is currently writing an essay for an exhibition catalogue for the Hayward Gallery, London. Varola studied art history as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago where she received her Master’s degree. She lives in New York and Italy with her husband, a magician.

SUPERFRONT ADVISORY BOARD

NILI GILBERT, Advisory Board Member, is a Senior Director in Research of an investment fund that manages over $35 billion in assets globally. She holds an MBA in Finance and Economics from Columbia Business School, and an AB in a Special Concentration in Social Studies and Economics from Harvard University. Nili began her career in 1999 as an Institutional Development Associate at Synergos. In 2002, while completing her graduate degree, she worked in Institutional Equities at Morgan Stanley. Nili’s early experiences working in fundraising led her to find her passion in translating between the “values”-based conversations of social change and the “value”-based conversations of capital allocation.

JUSTIN G. MOORE, Advisory Board Member, is an urban designer and city planner for the City of New York where he is involved in the redevelopment of the city’s waterfront and high-density areas. He received degrees in both architecture and urban design from Columbia University where he was awarded advanced placement, an Honor Award for Excellence in Design, and the Lowenfish Prize. His work has also been recognized internationally through several competitions, exhibitions, and publications. He continues to work in academic and research fields through his involvement as a founding associate of the Urban Research Group and as a studio critic and lecturer at undergraduate and graduate design programs in New York. His work and interests have focused on the delineation and design of public space, infrastructure and environments in relation to private, individual, and cultural controls.

SUPERFRONT RESIDENCY

PAWEL NIEDZWIECKI, Architect-in-Residence Summer/Fall 2009, uses his technical skills as a designer and craftsmen to produce large-scale artwork in mixed media.  Exploring digital lazer cutting technology, as well as hand-crafted wood work, Pawel’s creative practice is grounded by his rigorous and beautiful hand-drawings.  Most pieces begin as sketches.  Themes include ornate patterning and detailed continuous lines, such that Pawel’s work often evokes tattoos or musical scores.  As Projects Intern at SUPERFRONT in 2008, Pawel managed the construction process for large-scale exhibits and installations.  Pawel holds a Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts in Architecture, as well as a Masters of Architecture, both from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

FRANCISCA BENITEZ, Architect-in-Residence Summer/Fall 2009, has been a New York based artist since 1998.  Her work investigates and comments on the ways individuals, groups and society inhabit space. She has no particular attachment to any medium, and chooses medium according to each specific project, including video, photography, drawing and performance. She graduated as an architect from the Universidad de Chile in 1998 and later studied art at Hunter College CUNY, where she completed her MFA in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in the Americas, Europe and Asia, most recently at the Instituto Cervantes in Beijing, China; Lokal.int in Biel-Bern, Switzerland; CCCB in Barcelona, Spain; Jersey City Museum in New Jersey, US; Itaú Cultural in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Smack Mellon and Exit Art in New York, US. She has been awarded an independent project grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, a Lambent fellowship from the TIDES foundation, and a FONDART grant from the Chilean Government.

SUPERFRONT FREELANCERS

ELIZABETH BUENO, Events Coordinator, has returned to New York after attending Middlebury College in Vermont. Elizabeth grew up in an Event Planning family business in Queens and has coordinated various events including fundraisers for organizations such as The Susan G. Komen Foundation, Lupus Foundation of America and The Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. She has been involved with SUPERFRONT since its founding in January 2008.

MIKE DEREIX, Freelance Designer, has worked on renovations of the SUPERFRONT space, including the build-out of the residency studios, as well as managing the construction process for large-scale exhibits. Mike holds a Bachelors of Interior Design from the University of Cincinnati and has lived on three different continents.

JACKIE KOENIG, Freelance Curator, is currently working towards her BA in non-western Art History and Architecture at Barnard College. She has curated exhibits at Postcrypt Art Gallery, the undergraduate student-run gallery of Columbia University, SUPERHERO, an exhibition featuring the work of Jimenez Lai, and has interned at several galleries and artsy non-profits around New York.

ANOUCK LEMARQUIS, Freelance Curator, graduated with a degree in Architecture in 2007 from Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Architecture de Grenoble, France. She studied at the School of Architecture, University of McGill in 2006. She worked the past 2 years in Montreal as an architect and collaborator of artist/architect Melvin Charney, and as a researcher at medialbAU – Universite de Montreal.