96-05-30 Mark Robbins Wins Rome Prize

OHIO STATE ARCHITECTURE PROFESSOR WINS ROME PRIZE

     COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Mark Robbins of COLUMBUS (43215), an 
assistant professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture of  
The Ohio State University, has won a Rome Prize Fellowship to 
pursue independent research at the American Academy in Rome.

     Robbins, the curator of architecture at the Wexner Center 
for the Arts, will spend six months interacting with a community 
of scholars at the academy, atop the Janiculum, the highest hill 
within the walls of Rome.  Founded in 1894, the academy was 
chartered by an act of Congress as a private institution in 1905 
in recognition of its contribution to America's cultural and 
intellectual life.

     Each year, the Academy awards Rome Prize fellowships in 
architecture, design arts, landscape architecture, conservation 
and historic preservation, literature, musical composition, 
visual arts, classical studies, archaeology, history of art, 
modern Italian studies and post-classical humanistic studies.  
Jurors choose the winners through an open competition that 
annually attracts 1,000 or more applicants.

     The fellowships provide each Rome Prize winner with a 
stipend, travel funds, room and board, and a study or studio in 
which to pursue independent work for six months to two years.

     Robbins' installations and constructions explore the 
architectural frame and the use of design as a medium for social 
critique.  His projects have been exhibited in many galleries, 
including the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, Japan; the 
Clocktower Gallery of the Institute for Contemporary Art in New 
York; and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus.  In March, 
Robbins exhibited a commissioned site-specific installation, 
reflecting the intersection of architectural form and gender 
identity, at the Adelaide Festival in Australia.

     Angles of Incidence, a monograph on Robbins' projects, was 
published by Princeton Architectural Press in 1993.  Articles on 
his work have been published in numerous periodicals worldwide.  
Robbins has received awards from The National Endowment for the 
Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Graham 
Foundation, and the state arts councils of Ohio and New York.  He 
was a MacDowell Fellow and has had residencies at The Ragdale 
Foundation and the Chicago Institute for Architecture and 
Urbanism.
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Contact:  William Prince, curatorial assistant at the Wexner 
Center, (614) 292-9598.
Written by Tom Spring, (614) 292-8309.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Thu, 30 May 1996 16:40:03 -0400]
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