Works of Art + Function

The Art Shed is an art gallery, artwork storage, and studio for abstract artist Kathleen Jacobs, located in Great Barrington. Jacobs’ work has been exhibited at TurnPark Art Space and The Mount in the Berkshires. She takes raw canvas and wraps it around living trees for months or years, then brings them to her studio to rework the surfaces with oil and pigments. The shape of her studio, designed by Grigori Fateyev, is intentional, a nod to vernacular agricultural shed roof types. The windows frame the functions contained in the building, while the building itself brackets the artist’s practice. This is one example of work in The Design of Artists’ Studios by Grigori Fateyev, an exhibition through July 19 in Chesterwood’s Woodshed Gallery. The show is a display of drawings, models, and photos of three artists’ studios, as well as studies and drawings for the proposed Wood Thrush Art Complex, an expansion of the Chesterwood campus to accommodate three interdisciplinary residencies. In addition to the Art Shed shown in the Chesterwood exhibition, there are also Hudson Studios, a purpose-built studio and residence with living and working spaces for a painter- and-sculptor couple, and Levity Studio, a planned studio and residence in two overlapping volumes for multidisciplinary artist Anton Ginzburg in the Hudson Valley. All designs were created after a thorough process that includes “getting to know the artist, getting to know their process, and interviewing them as far as what they would be looking for,”says Fatayev. chesterwood.org, aformsa.com — Anastasia Stanmeyer