The five projects and forty travel sketches featured in this exhibition offer succinct yet intensive insight into the breadth Álvaro Siza’s monumental body of work. Beginning in Portugal in the early 1950s and continuing today in full force on many continents, his work has garnered honor and distinction across disciplines. Siza’s approach to architecture is both erudite and intuitive. Infused with an affinity for vernacular Portuguese building and shaped by a profound comprehension of the contemporary canon, his works embody a visionary commitment to beauty and to function. No detail is left to chance. Siza’s buildings are eloquent and sculptural; his materials simple and pure. The structures themselves reveal the public aspect, the generosity, of Siza’s at. By displaying his original travel sketches, architectural drawings, and models alongside photographs of finished buildings, we hope to offer a more intimate perspective: a glimpse of Siza’s singular talent - giving form to the imaginary, and life to the concrete.

Álvaro Siza/Architect: Drawings, Models, Photographs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art; May 13 - August 19, 2006