Building 180 is a full-service art production and consulting agency. We produce, curate, and manage unique and complex art installations from conception to completion. We collaborate with inspirational and innovative artists, working across industries with architects, marketing companies, city planners, designers, developers, event producers, museum curators, and more to make stories come to life.
Paint the Void was created at the onset of the 2020 pandemic to help keep artists engaged and paid as guardians of hope and beauty in a time of fear and uncertainty. The project is fiscally sponsored by the 501(c)(3) organization Intersection for the Arts and made possible through private donations and city grants. Paint The Void commissions local Bay Area artists to create uplifting murals on boarded storefronts of local businesses, turning bleak plywood into public art. The process keeps artists at work, beautifies neighborhoods across the San Francisco Bay Area, and gives small-business owners a new lease of hope. The local community is pivotal to its success and is encouraged to participate.
To preserve the project’s history Paint the Void is releasing an Art Book, Painting the Void: The Impact of Art in the San Francisco Bay Area Amidst a Global Pandemic. This photo book is made to commemorate and archive the story of our ongoing project, other adjacent local initiatives, and the San Francisco Bay Area during the global pandemic. Pre-order your copy and help preserve the Bay Area’s history as a place that even amidst deeply challenging times continues to value the importance of artists.
Constellation by Christopher Schardt is a star-shaped canopy of 5,400 LED modules. 26x27; in diameter and hanging from a single point, it can be installed indoors or outdoors. Typically, it is installed with four speakers to play classical music that syncs with the visuals.
Building 180 worked with Coursera's Workplace Development Team to curate a list of artists to paint murals at their Mountain View HQ in California. This bleak entranceway was the artery of the building and we wanted to transform the space into a welcoming place for visitors and employees. Artist Strider Patton took this a step further and added an interactive element to his mural by adding sound-reactive LED lighting to the mural. These lights reacted as people went up and down the stairs the throughout the hallway.
Entwined is a grove of five Africa-inspired trees with raised root tangles to climb and nestle into and a canopy of light cubes with interactive programming. With QR codes placed on the sculptures bring viewers to a webpage to be the ones responsible for the different color lights and strobing effects. Giving people the power to play with the sculpture and feel like they are creating the art they see by controlling the lights. Entwined is a place to gather under shade during the day and to play at night. Entwined is purposely large and welcoming, with intentional space to support many people gathering together. These trees are explicitly meant to be climbed upon, creating a direct physical interaction with the piece of art. It is a place for meeting, gathering, talking, and interacting.
Building 180 and our community arm, Paint the Void, were proud to assist and support the India Basin Shoreline Park project. Hypecourt is a colorful, graphic mural installed on the surface of the park’s recently resurfaced basketball court. The local artist behind the mural is Nina Fabunmi, who is a part of the Hunters Point Shipyard Artists community. Fabunmi led a cohort of five local youths from Bayview-Hunters Point (BVHP) to create several designs that reflected themselves. The final design was chosen by the community.
Curated and produced by Building 180, Camila Magrane created Transmigrations, the largest augmented reality mural of its kind. Transmigrations is composed of (2) 75x100’ digital murals that can be seen from 112 of the hotel’s guest rooms in the Gallery Tower. A custom continuation of Magrane’s “Virtual Mutations” series, augmented reality technology is utilized to create an interactive experience. Using Virtual Mutations, a proprietary app created by Magrane for her own works. The mural is positioned for guests to be able to view and interact with the augmented reality features of the artwork just outside of their hotel room window with an iPad. Simultaneously at the same property, Josef Kristofoletti hand-painted a 5,000 square ft. mural on the hotel’s exterior mechanical building dubbed Slat City, a reference to the thousands of louvered pieces on the building. Working almost primarily overnight to avoid the blazing Las Vegas heat, Josef and his assistant worked tirelessly over the course of 2-months to paint the vibrant and striking mural.
In the fall of 2022 Building 180 and Paint the Void played an integral part in curating and producing murals for The Golden Mile Project. The Golden Mile Project, located in the heart of San Francisco’s majestic Golden Gate Park, is a 1.5-mile stretch of road that has been transformed into an urban oasis bursting with art, music, and joy. Previously one of San Francisco’s most dangerous roads for pedestrians and bikers, the community now has a safe place to gather and view art. The road enjoyed a complete transformation over three months beginning in the fall of 2022. More than a dozen massive murals are painted directly upon the former roadway.