THE CODY CENTER
THE CODY CENTER
ART GALLERY BRAND IDENTITY
SOUPISET DESIGN AND H. E. BUTT FOUNDATION
The Cody Center
The Cody Center is where my design work for Laity Lodge often moved closest to art-making itself. Working alongside guest curators and in close collaboration with longtime creative partners Gate Davis, Wendi Poole, and others, we designed, wrote, and produced gallery guides, exhibition graphics, short films, event materials, and other interpretive pieces for a remarkable succession of artists.
Jimmy Abegg’s Obscured by Clouds and Michael Wilson’s Shirt for a Ghost were the first two exhibitions to launch after the Lodge reopened. It was then we landed on the format of the gallery guide and established an adaptable exhibition title-wall format that the Cody Center continues to use. Dana Tanamachi’s month-long residency, I Liked What I Saw, took the collaboration further: working on-site to build a site-specific installation, assisting Dana in the making itself, and gathering interviews for Box Canyon Journal carried the experience beyond the gallery. Curators Ginger Geyer and Meaghan Mitts, and guest curator Joshua Welker helped guests enter the work without getting between the art and its audience.
Other high points included Ordinary Saints—featuring Bruce Herman, Malcolm Guite, and J.A.C. Redford—and exhibition materials for Matt Kleberg, Daniel Domig, and Bruce Herman’s Glory in Ruins. Working at times directly with artists, curators, and the art itself remains one of the great privileges of my years designing for the Lodge.
PROJECT CREDITS
Creative Direction: Paul Soupiset and Gate Davis for Laity Lodge
Copywriting: Ginger Geyer, Meaghan Mitts, Joshua Welker, Gate Davis, and others
Art Direction and Design: Paul Soupiset and Gate Davis
Additional Graphic Design on Tanamachi, Holley: Hilary Commer
Photography: Wendi Poole, Kyle Isenhower, Paul Soupiset
Ordinary Saints Film Directed by Stephen Henderson
Shot by Stephen Henderson and Hayden Hyde / Audio by Kyle Isenhower
Dana Tanamachi Film Directed and Shot by Hayden Hyde
Over a couple of days at the Cody Center, several of the Foundation’s artists joined Dana Tanamachi and guest curator Josh Welker to bring I Liked What I Saw into place. We helped hang the exhibition, and assisted Dana with the final stencil weeding on Desert to Garden, the large central piece tracing her family’s journey from an Arizona internment camp to a South Texas farm. I made a small cut-paper installation that appeared to overflow a sink, and we helped Hayden Hyde interview and film Dana for the exhibition video. It was a rare chance to contribute to the final making of what, for Dana, was a deeply personal show.
The Cody Center is a vibrant space for music as well as art. When Claire Holley came to Laity Lodge as an artist in residence, she recorded what became Every Hour there with a group of musician and producer friends. We photographed the sessions as they unfolded, and my colleague Hilary Commer and I worked with Claire to develop the album package. Hilary’s digital illustration became the cover. It was part of what’s been an ongoing creative collaboration with Claire; other album packages I’ve designed for her will appear elsewhere in this portfolio.
