David Hartt (Canadian, born 1967) is an artist interested in investigating the specificity of place and examining the cultural and social implications of the built environment. He is among a generation of artists who emphasize the elements that make architecture: the architectural details, or what defines one project or architect from another; our daily experience of a building, which is rarely a view of a building in its entirety; and how buildings are inhabited.

This exhibition is organized around Hartt’s recently acquired Seven Portraits (Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize, Pin-Up Fall Winter 2014/15 Supplement), a portfolio of photographs of seven iconic buildings designed by contemporary architects, including Seattle Library by OMA, the Fundação Iberê Camargo by Alvaro Siza, and 111 Lincoln Road by Herzog and de Meuron.

The installation juxtaposes Hartt’s photographs with drawings, renderings, and models produced during the design process of each building, revealing a dichotomy between the lived experience of a building’s inhabitants and the ideal intentions and objectives originally developed by the architect for the building.