The Bright Golden Haze exhibition designer on building for people

A figure in a blue dress points to an art print depicting a night sky

Architect and exhibition designer Annie Chu with Vija Celmin's Untitled (Large Night Sky), on view in Oklahoma Contemporary's delayed Bright Golden Haze.

How do you create an experience that changes someone's perspective? LA-based architect and exhibition designer Annie Chu has a few thoughts on the subject. Championing the emerging discipline of interior architecture, she helps institutions like Oklahoma Contemporary design spaces with human interaction in mind.

Alongside the painstaking work of the exhibitions team and the singular visions of the artists themselves, exhibition designers like Chu are an essential piece to the art-going experience. She likens her work to sequencing a meal, developing flavors and crafting an experience from amuse-bouche to dessert. “The exhibit experience is moving from course to course,” she said.

With that sequence in mind, Chu and her firm’s director of interiors (Karena Auseth) worked closely with Oklahoma Contemporary’s exhibitions team to craft a one-of-a-kind experience in Bright Golden Haze. During their final consultation before our delayed grand opening, Chu sat down to talk about her work and the challenges and rewards of designing the optimal space for our inaugural exhibition.

Images: 

Annie Chu in front of Golden (Odyssey) by Teresita Fernández. Collection of Allison and Larry Berg. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul.

Annie Chu gestures at Untitled (Large Night Sky) by Vija Celmins. Courtesy the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery. 

Photos by Dennis Spielman.

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design interior architecture Exhibitions curator Annie Chu Chu + Gooding Architects Bright Golden Haze Illuminations