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Joseph Biondo, architect for Lafayette’s Williams Visual Arts Building, will return to his Easton masterpiece to exhibit “Material, Process, Product,” a history of his work, and lead a creative project for the public.
On display in the Visual Arts Building’s Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery Oct. 19-Nov. 30, the exhibit will include a history of Biondo’s commercial and residential work. It will feature images and models as well as drawings and thumbnails of realized and conceptualized projects.
The artist will present a slide lecture 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, in room 108 of the Williams Center for the Arts. The presentation will cover his architectural methodology and the development of his style. At 7 p.m., Biondo will lead an informal discussion and audience participation project at the Grossman Gallery. The project will pull floor panels from an old elevator shaft in the gallery to create a dry stacked wall of concrete block that rises from the subsurface.
In addition, the Grossman Gallery will host a public reception for the artist 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1.
The 23,500-square-foot Williams Visual Arts Building is one of the leading high-tech facilities for art education and exhibitions in the nation. It includes sculpture and painting studios, a community-based teaching studio, Grossman Gallery, a flexible studio area with movable walls for honors and independent study students, seminar room, conference room, five faculty studios and offices, and a spacious lobby.
The building, which was dedicated in April 2001 in a day-long community celebration of the arts, is home to Lafayette’s studio art program. Located on North Third Street, at the main gateway to the campus, the building underscores Lafayette’s commitment to play a prominent role in the revitalization of downtown Easton. The facility offers local and regional artists and area school students more direct access to one of the College’s premier educational strengths.
A native of Bethlehem, Biondo gained practical experience in construction prior to attending earning a bachelor’s of architecture in 1987 from Kansas State University, where he later returned to lecture. In 1996, after several years with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, he established his own practice in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and started designing a range of distinctive buildings.
The firm’s award-winning work has been publicized in Japan, Europe, and the United States and has been exhibited throughout the country. Biondo has been a visiting critic at Syracuse University, Carnegie Mellon, University of Tennessee, and California College of Arts and Crafts. Last fall, he was the topic of a lecture “Ten Emerging Architects in the United States,” given by Reed Kroloff, editor in chief of Architecture Magazine.