Juan Araujo has created a site-specific installation for the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Weltzheimer/Johnson House that mines its multi-layered history and highlights features of its impeccably balanced mid-century design, which the artist finds imbued with a “sense of tranquility.” Born in Venezuela and now based in Portugal, Araujo has long been interested in modernist architecture and how it circulates in reproduction, approaching a classical painting practice through a conceptual framework.

Based on firsthand observation of the site (the first Wright home Araujo had ever experienced), interviews with docents, and visits to the collections of the Allen Memorial Art Museum and the Oberlin College Archives, the installation, titled Redwood after Wright’s material of choice, comprises a video and a cycle of paintings for the interior and exterior of the house.

This project was commissioned by FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art, and organized by Andrea Gyorody, Ellen Johnson ’33 Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. Redwood is presented by FRONT International: An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises with support from the Eric & Jane Nord Family Fund and the Nord Family Foundation. Juan Araujo is a FRONT artist-in-residence. The Madison Residencies are made possible with support from the Cleveland Foundation’s Creative Fusion program.

FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art is an exhibition comprising artist commissions, performances, films, and public programs launching, in its inaugural edition, in July of 2018. An American City: Eleven Cultural Exercises, in collaboration with museums, civic institutions, and alternative spaces across Cleveland, Akron, and Oberlin, showcases an ambitious roster of projects, including performance and theater throughout the landscape and built environment. With a roster of national, international, and area-based artists at all points in their careers, FRONT examines the ever-changing and politically urgent conditions of an American city.