The Architecture of Art: Works by William Cromar

Past Present: William Cromar Ten Years, a retrospective exhibition by architect and sculptor, William Cromar, will run Thursday May 15 thru Friday, July 11, 2008 at The Design Center at Philadelphia University.  Cromar’s sculptural and graphic explorations are most often viewed, one at a time, in a unique installation setting. Past Present will allow a rare glimpse into Cromar’s process and conceptual development over the past decade.

These works, described by the artist as “maps” or “experiments” informing his larger installation work, pose what art critic Libby Rosof has aptly described as “questions about space and architecture and their relationship to the body.”

A former architect, animator and musician, Cromar hybridizes his peculiar past into a unique body of installation art. Largely by exploring spatial psycho-perception, this work develops paradoxical manifestations of the human propensity for finding order, exploring the edge between the necessity and the futility of this fundamental impulse.

In 1983, Cromar was the co-recipient of a Silver Medal at the International Biennial of Architecture in Sofia, Bulgaria for the film order through geometry, produced with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1995 he was awarded an exhibition in the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial’s Challenge Exhibitions, a prestigious regional competition sponsored by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He was selected as a Finalist for the Pew Fellowships in the Arts in 2000.

Solo exhibitions include Halfwayhouse (2003), an installation at Nexus Foundation for Today’s Art sponsored by inLiquid.com, and Redrain (2005) at aFSe Gallery in Philadelphia. Current solo exhibitions include Gtmo (installed 2006) at Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site. In 2007, he participated in DesignPhiladelphia, collaborating in the production of 4/4 at Michelle Liao Collections. His most recent show was Hot Topic, an exhibition thematically tied to the issue of global warming, held at Germantown Academy Art Center in November 2007.

In addition to exhibiting work nationwide,  Cromar has taught and lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, acted as a visiting critic at Wesleyan University, and  is currently a professor in the School of Architecture at Philadelphia University.