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Infinity Walk

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Terry Berlier (b. 1972)Infinity Walk, 2014Balsa wood, wire, dowels, plywood, glue30 x 13 x 6 in.Courtesy of the artistPhoto by Paul Gallo Infinity Walk is interdisciplinary artist Terry Berlier’s audacious proposal for a suspended bridge-like structure that intertwines two redwoods on Montalvo’s grounds. This walkable sculpture was not intended for the fainthearted. To get to the platform in the shape of an infinity symbol, visitors would need to climb a ten-foot rope ladder. The work is intended to be a slow meditation on the concept of infinity. The act of traversing the platform becomes a contemplation of what it means to be unbounded or endless, to approach something with no beginning or end.   Berlier’s maquette offers a daring reimagination of Montalvo’s woodlands. The structure allows humans to temporarily inhabit a realm that…
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Grandfather’s Incline

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Lee Mingwei (b.1964)Grandfather’s Incline, 2009Bass wood41 x 25-1/2 x 39 in.Long-term loan from Stephan Freid Artist Lee Mingwei, in collaboration with architect Stephan Freid, conceived Grandfather’s Incline as a proposal for a permanent public artwork on the grounds of Montalvo Arts Center. Known for participatory installations that explore trust, intimacy, and self-awareness, Lee envisioned the project as both a contemplative space and a tribute to his grandfather.  The proposal emerged from Lee’s search for a site within Montalvo’s wooded landscape that recalled a mountain location in Taiwan where his grandfather would hike to meditate on the distant terrain. In response, Lee and Freid designed an elevated…
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T.House and T.Tree House

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Tony May (b. 1942)The Buildings in Winter, 2026Digital photograph (captured on iPhone 6s)Courtesy of the artist Follies, also known as “eyecatchers,” are ornamental architectural structures created to delight the eye and spark the imagination. Playful, idiosyncratic, and intentionally impractical, they celebrate architectural fantasy in contrast to architecture’s usual emphasis on function and efficiency.  Inspired by a trip to Japan in 1983, artist Tony May began constructing his own contemporary folly: the T.House, a structure rooted in curiosity and experimentation. Beginning as an addition to his garage, the project evolved over the course of a decade into a…
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La Casa de Todos | Everyone’s Home

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Edra Soto (b. 1971)La Casa de Todos | Everyone’s Home, 2024/reworked 2026Painted and laser cut sintra panels, aluminum rods8 x 8 ft. (each)Courtesy of the artistPhoto by Paul Gallo Edra Soto’s La Casa de Todos invites us to celebrate the concept of home. Composed of three large sculptural cubes, these spaces encourage gathering and celebration. The designs of each panel allude to Puerto Rican vernacular architecture with motifs of rejas (wrought iron screens) and quiebrasoles (decorative concrete blocks). The artwork forms a liminal space between inside and outside, belonging and othering, private and public. It mimics the distinctive marquesinas (porches) of working-class Puerto Rican residences, a space that bridges the intimacy of the home and the surrounding community.   To create this sculptural public space, Soto began with real-life photographs and…
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Walking the Earth: Oregon

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Rebeca Méndez (b. 1962)Walking the Earth: Oregon, 20252-channel videoCourtesy of the artist Rebeca Méndez’s immersive video is an intimate portrait of a human figure walking through all 9 ecoregions of Oregon, from the Willamette Valley to the Columbia Plateau. The work captures 54 vertical landscapes, each depicting a record of the artist walking the earth at the horizon line between dawn and dusk. Through her lens, the biodiversity of the landscape unfolds as an unbroken continuum. Walking the Earth: Oregon investigates walking as research, resulting in a meditation on nature, and a call for deeper collective thinking (and action)…
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Double Vision: Doorway

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Lead Pencil StudioDouble Vision: Doorway, 202660 yr epoxy finish on welded stainless-steel rods12 x 8 x 1 ftMontalvo Arts Center 2026 Marcus CommissionPhoto by Paul Gallo 2019 Lucas Artist Program Visual Arts Fellow, Lead Pencil Studio is the 2026 recipient of Montalvo Art Center’s Marcus Commissioning Prize. Annie Han (b. 1967) and Daniel Mihalyo (b. 1970), the artistic duo who founded Lead Pencil Studio, were selected for their proposal to create Double Vision: Doorway, a public sculpture that explores an architectural threshold and opening that is commonly encountered in two-dimensional doorways. This 12 foot…
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Wingspan: A Wearable Sanctuary

Featured in The Art & Architecture of Maybe Robin Lasser (b. 1956) + Adrienne Pao (b. 1975) and Sasha Vermel (b. 1980)Wingspan: A Wearable Sanctuary, 2026Structure: powder coated steel and fencing, aluminum cast dress formFabric: Sunbrella Icon Volt, Silkara nylon/ polyester, Ottertext nylon ripstop, Ottertex waterproof canvasSound: Arduino, amplifier, and speakers14 ft. (height) x 12 ft (diameter); 30 ft. (wingspan)Commissioned by Montalvo Arts Center’s Lucas Artists ProgramPhoto by Robin Lasser + Adrienne Pao with Erin De Jauregui  Situated within a garden inhabited by native plantings, Wingspan: A Wearable Sanctuary merges body, bird, architecture, and landscape in a temporary hybrid form. Drawing from the historic…
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Creation Playground, 2025

Featured in When the World is Beautifully Strange Timna Naim (b. 1995)Creation Playground, 2025Glazed ceramicDimension variesCourtesy of the artistPhoto by Airyka Rockefeller Creation Playground is an interactive installation of five ceramic forms that invites participants to co-create within sculptural environments designed for tactile exploration, improvisation, and collective wonder. In a world that often feels chaotic and fragmented, Naim’s work offers a space to slow down, play, and imagine new ways of relating.   Rooted in the aesthetics of Funk ceramics, Naim’s project resists rigid definitions of beauty, utility, or identity. Instead, it embraces the surreal and the humorous, honoring the overlooked, the…
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Pass safely through redolent woods, 2020

Featured in When the World is Beautifully Strange Linda Sormin (b. 1972)Pass safely through redolent woods, 2020Glazed ceramic, watercolor on paper, gold leaf, epoxy21-1/2 x 22 x 18 in.Courtesy of the artist and Patricia Sweetow Gallery Linda Sormin’s ceramic and mixed-media sculptures embody fragility, upheaval, and survival, offering a raw reflection of the human experience. Born in Bangkok and tracing her family’s ancestry to Thailand, China, and Indonesia, Sormin’s practice is a meditation on the diasporic condition. In conversations about her work, the word “architecture” is used. Like a temple or a home, Sormin’s works are a part of the artistic…
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Shout (I am a California artist, too), 2023; Color Face, 2013

Featured in When the World is Beautifully Strange Wanxin Zhang (b. 1961)Shout (I am a California artist, too), 2023High-fired clay with glaze36 x 22 x 18 in.Courtesy of the artist and Catharine Clark GalleryPhoto by Paul Gallo Wanxin Zhang’s Shout (I am a California artist, too) draws on his personal and artistic journey from Manchuria to California. Inspired by the Bay Area’s Funk movement, Zhang blends its rebellious energy with personal memories and social commentary. Over the past two decades, clay has become not just his medium, but a conduit for his emotions, ideas, and reflections on both personal and societal experiences. The exhibition’s title cheekily riffs on…
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