Narrative

Stephen Powers and Francoise Nielly

A young ambitious art dealer wants to run a modern art gallery that exhibits mostly street art, which is very bold and he has chose a site in Newtown because he finds the atmosphere of Newtown would embrace a street art gallery. He feels it is important that there is good lighting for Stephen Powers work because a lot of his work would usually be viewed outside in the direct sun. Francoise Nielly’s work is more suited to dark walls and dark lighting, directed onto the painting, which means artificial lighting would be the best, because the paintings are very bold and bright. The dark background will allow the paintings to stand out. The courtyard will exhibit large walls covered in graffiti art, which can be viewed from the ground or from the bridge, which is reflective of the different levels which Stephen Powers work can usually be viewed from, such as the elevated train in Philadelphia. The dealer wants double height ceilings to create larger canvases from which to display the art canvases. He also finds it important that the workshop can viewed from the general public and that the kitchen and living room are also accessible by the general public.

Concept Development

Final Drawings

Floor Plans
Section and Perspectives

Site Analysis

Precedent Study

Rendered Room showing art display system

Final Model

Site - Newtown Site 1

Site 1 is very long but not as wide as the other two sites. At the front of the site on King Street, it is sandwiched between two buildings that are about the same height, which was estimated to be about 8 metres. At the back there is a more narrow street and the site is sandwiched between the same building on the right but there is a parking lot on the left. Across the street there is a memorial park. The height of the surrounding buildings does not vary much - the height of the tallest building is probably at most 2 metres taller than the samlelst building.


The facades of the neighbouring buildings are all quite different in style, but the buildings are rely on a horizontal arcade type roof that runs along the street front. This is how the shops are identified. It could be interesting breaking this horizontal element with a vertical wall, which would stand out.

Artists

Stephen (Steve) Powers

Steve Powers is a street artist from New York City, but he has also done a lot of work in Philedelphia. He originally worked under the name ESPO creating graffiti art around New York. He covered storefront grates aorund the city and told people, "I'm with Exterior Surface Painting Outreach, and I'm cleaning up this gate." In 2000, Powers decided to become a studio artist, where he still creates artwork to express something. Recently, Powers was involved in a Philedelphia project called "A Love Letter For You," in which he created 50 different murals on buildings around the elevated train, which are all about relationships. He was also involved in a travelling art exhibition, which was in Europe last year. The art exhibition called "Beautiful Losers" exhibited quite a few current street artists. It could be interesting for the art gallery to have a wall Powers to create graffiti artwork on that could be constantly changed. The space inside will need to be flexible to allow for the different mediums that Powers works with.

'I Love You Necklace' from A Love Letter For You

'Home Now' from A Love Letter For You

'Knocked On Your Door' from A Love Letter For You

Book Cover of Powers' book on graffiti
Interior of Stephen Power's installation for the 'Beautiful Losers' exhibition

Francoise Nielly

Franch contemporary artist that works with oil on canvas with a palette knife technique. She uses vivid colour to mostly create sensual portraits that express different emotions. Although these portraits are not street art, they relate to the artwork that Steve Powers creates because of the vividness of the colour and the expressiveness of the paintings. The paintings are usually quite large ranging from at least 1 square metre to 2 or more square metres, which means that the space needs to be quite large and with dark walls so that the colour contrasts with the wall and appears even brighter. These paintings will sell well in the urban environment found in Newtown because they are very bold and bohemian.
www.francoise-nielly.com

Untilted 550

Grace

Untilted 523

Untilted 552