Cliff Garten Studio
There is a latent potential in every public place and situation to become more than the specific functions it appears to perform.
Public and private experiences are never distinct, but exchange places throughout the day.
My search for a place where desire intersects with our everyday activity is the search for sculptural forms which engage us in the poetry of our own actions and define our personal and social histories.
The necessary facts of our public infrastructure are cause for the possibility of a public expression through the conscious design and integration of art. Sculpture defines our interaction and movement by creating energy between things, generating interest in public activity, reframing our private lives and creating a sense of place within public and private realms.
Cliff Garten
Cliff Garten is an internationally recognized sculptor and founder of Cliff Garten Studio in Venice, California.
By connecting people to places and infrastructure through sculptural material, social history and ecology, Garten's work locates the latent potential in every public place and situation to become more than the specific functions it appears to perform. Sculpture and landscape, function and form, like public and private experiences are never distinct, but exchange places throughout the day. Sculpture defines our interaction and movement by creating energy between things, generating interest in public activity, reframing our private lives and creating a sense of place within public and private realms.
Garten received a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Landscape Architecture with Distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Molly Reid
A licensed architect in the state of California, as well as a LEED accredited professional, Molly Reid brings over 26 years of professional experience to Cliff Garten Studio. Prior to opening her practice in 1994 and before joining CGS, Reid worked in the offices of Lorcan O'Herlihy in Santa Monica, CA and Naomi Leff and Associates in New York, NY.
Reid holds a Masters of Architecture Degree from SCI-Arc, Southern California Institute of Architects, and a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College.
Sixto Cordero Maisonet
Sixto Cordero Maisonet is an architect, designer, and artist. Born in Puerto Rico, he obtained his M.Arch at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has worked for Zaha Hadid Architects, Matter Design, CPArchitects, ODB Engineering, the Norman Foster Foundation, and Selgascano.
Previously, his collaborative practice helloeverything (co-founded with two partners, Austin Smith, and Julian Ocampo) has exhibited work in the first Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Helloeverything also has produced built work, two educational facilities in Kenya and a prototype house which will be fabricated and sold by Revolution Pre-Crafted Properties.
Sixto’s work both in architecture and design employs digital technologies and attempts to coalesce these with social, environmental and cultural parameters. His work explores methods of geometric discretization as well as critical approaches to the social function of architecture.
Esther Sing-Yu Ho
Esther is an interdisciplinary designer with over five years of experience working at the intersection of architecture and art. Prior to joining Cliff Garten Studio, she was trained as an architect, leading research and design efforts for architectural facade systems through product design and in public art. She has designed, fabricated and installed several sustainable facade systems and poetic art pieces. At CGS, Esther is providing design support and leading marketing efforts.
She received a B.Arch from the University of Southern California and is working toward her Master's in Integrated Design, Business and Technology at the University of Southern California.
