In/On Construction: An SC Conversation Between Leslie Hewitt and Leah Meisterlin

Artist Leslie Hewitt and urbanist Leah Meisterlin will engage in an intimate conversation on space, site, and images on the occasion of Collective Stance, Hewitt's solo exhibition at SculptureCenter. Subtly echoing a process of image construction and selection that has informed parts of Hewitt's work, Hewitt and Meisterlin will respond together to an array of images drawn from a variety of sources, including art and film history, cartographic archives, and footage from Untitled (Structures) (2012), Hewitt's collaboration with cinematographer Bradford Young (currently on view). Hewitt and Meisterlin's distinct yet parallel discussion will reflect a range of formal and methodological approaches to understanding representations of landscape and architectural or geographical space, as well as the political implications of these image-making strategies.

Leslie Hewitt (born in Saint Albans, NY in 1977) received her BFA from The Cooper Union, studied Africana/Cultural Studies at New York University and graduated with an MFA from Yale University. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2014); Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York (2013); the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2012); Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (2012); The Menil Collection, Houston (2012); Artpace, San Antonio, TX (2012); The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2010); The Kitchen, New York (2010); the Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (2009); and LA><ART, Los Angeles (2006). She has participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions internationally including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2014); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2013); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012). Hewitt has also participated in several biennials including the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Sweden (2015) and the 2008 Whitney Biennial, New York. Leslie Hewitt lives and works in New York City.

Leah Meisterlin is an urbanist, architect, and planner; a data alchemist, GIS methodologist, and educator. Currently, she is CEO and Cofounder of Office:MG and a term Assistant Professor of Architecture at Barnard & Columbia. Her research is primarily focused on concurrent issues of spatial justice, informational ethics, and the effects of infrastructural networks on the construction of social and political space, specializing in novel approaches to spatial systems research. Previously, Meisterlin was the Director of Research at Special Project Office and cofounded PRE-Office, a design and research studio that investigated the organizational structures behind design processes in the wake of the US foreclosure crisis. Additionally, Meisterlin has held research positions at Columbia University's Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture and New York Univeristy's Center for Latino Adolescent and Family Health. Her work has been featured in print and in exhibition, including Foreclosed: Rehousing the American Dream at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Meistelrin holds a Masters of Architecture and an MS in Urban Planning (both from Columbia University) and a BA in Art: Architecture and Urbanism (from Smith College).