Nana Last
nana@nanalast.net
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Ph.D. in History, Theory and Criticism of Art, Architecture and Urban Form
Dissertation: "Images of Entanglement: Wittgensteinian Spatial Practices Between Architecture and Philosophy"
Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Master in Architecture
Carnegie-Mellon University
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Art Criticism with honors
Teaching
present Associate Professor in Practice, Rice University,
School of Architecture
1998 Fall Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Virginia,
Department of Architecture
1997 Instructor, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Department of Landscape Architecture
Curatorial Practice
2004 - 2007 "Paradox and Practice: Architecture in the Wake of Conceptualism", exhibition at the University Art Gallery, University of California Irvine , Irvine, CA with Juli Carson, exhibition opening January 9, 2007.
Selected Publications:
Books
May 2008 "Wittgenstein's House: Language, Space and Architecture", (New York: Fordham University Press, 2008)
2007 "Paradox and Practice: Architecture in the Wake of Conceptualism", exhibition catalogue with Juli Carson, (Irvine, CA: University of California Irvine, University Art Gallery,)
forthcoming "When Art Meets Architecture: Disciplinarity and Practice at the Start of the Twenty First Century" (manuscript in progress, under review winter 2008/9)
Articles
Forthcoming: "Reimagining the Urban", in Visual Resources, (Oxfordshire, UK: Routledge) vol. xxvi, no .1, March 2010
"Thomas Struth's Urban Matrix", in James Lingwood, ed. Writings on Thomas Struth, (Munich: Schirmer/Mosel) 2009
"The Publicness of Thesis", in Carleton Folio, #7, Ottawa, Canada, 2009.
2009 "Katharina Grosse: Atoms Inside Balloons", in Katharina Grosse (Chicago, IL: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 2009) pp. 228-239.
Jorge Pardo, Exhibition Preview, in Artforum, vol. XLVII no. 5, January 2009, p. 136.
"Nana Last on: Political Justice" (interview) in Manifold, no. 3, Spring 2009
2008 "From Exclusion to Incorporation: Formalism's New Limits", in Thresholds #33, (Cambridge, MA), 2008, pp.43-48.
Exhibition Previews, in Artforum, vol. XLVI no.10, Summer 2008, 175, 187.
"Allison Hunter: Slower Still", Catalog essay, (Austin, TX, Women & Their Work, May 2008)
2007 "Des règles et des frontières : les pratiques spatiales de Wittgenstein entre architecture et philosophie", in Celine Poisson, ed, Penser, Dessiner, Construire: Wittgenstein et l'Architecture, ( Paris: Editions de l'eclat:2007) pp. 135-150.
"Nana Last on: Political Justice" (interview) in Manifold, no. 1, Spring 2007, pp. 39-46.
2006 urg/uleistu, Overlap/Gap, Advisory Board Member, Atopia Projects, Providence/Edinburgh.
2005 "Systematic Inexhaustion", Art Journal, winter 2005. pp. 110-121.
"Thomas Struth: From Image to Archive to Matrix",
Praxis 7: Untitled Number Seven, (Cambridge, MA) pp. 78-87.
2004 "Function and Field: Demarcating Conceptual Practices", in Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985, eds. Zoya Kocur and Simon Leung (Cambridge: Blackwell), June, pp. 318 - 330.
"Conceptualism's (Con) quests: On Reconceiving Art and Architecture", Harvard Design Magazine Number 19, Fall 2003/Winter 2004, pp. 14-21.
"Systematic Inexhaustion", Atopia No. 2.66 (Edinburgh), January.
2002 "Yeah/No: Demarcating Conceptual Practices", proceedings ACSA National Conference, New Orleans, pp. 497-502.
2000 "Transgressions and Inhabitations: Wittgensteinian Spatial Practices Between Architecture and Philosophy", in Architecture , Language, Critique: Around Paul Engelmann, eds. J. Bakacsy, A.V. Munch and A.L. Sommer (Amsterdam - Atlanta: Rodopi Press). pp. 112-127.
"/", Assemblage 41, (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press), April, p. 39.
1999 "Of", Assemblage 39, (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press), August, pp. 106-117.
"Anaesthetics of Architecture", book review, CAA Reviews Online, October.
1998 "Transgressions and Inhabitations: Wittgensteinian Spatial Practices Between Architecture and Philosophy", Assemblage 35, (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press), April, pp. 36-47.
1996 "White Walls, Designer Dresses", book review, ANY Journal No. 16.
1992 "Foundationless Architecture", Thresholds 3, (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press).
Selected Publications of Architectural Design Work
2006 "A Wall of Persistent Acknowledgment", in Robert A.M. Stern and Jacob Tilove, New York 2000, (New York: The Monacelli Press)pp. 306-309.
1996 "New Generation of Architecture: Nana Last & Lester Yuen",
SPACE Journal, vol. 339, Korea.
1994 "Claiming A Potent Piece of Urban Turf", Herbert Muschamp,
New York Times, March 13, p. 38 (African American Burial Grounds design review).
"A Wall of Persistent Acknowledgment", in Edward Kaufman, ed., Reclaiming our Past, Honoring our Ancestors: New York's 18th Century African Burial Ground & The Memorial Competition, (New York: The African Burial Ground Competition Coalition)
"On Hallowed Ground", Kira Gould,
Competitions Journal, (African American Burial Grounds competition first award).
Fellowships & Awards
2009 Graham Foundation Research and Development Grant
2004 Getty Library Research Grant,
"Logics of Incorporation",
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.
1998 Arthur W. Wheelwright Fellowship,
" Cartesian Grounds: The Extended Planes of Modernism",
Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Cambridge, MA
1995 Schlossman Research Fellowship,
travel and study of the Wittgenstein House in Vienna. Austria
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1994 First Award,
design competition for the African American Burial Grounds Memorial, New York.
Municipal Arts Society, New York, NY
Honorable Mention,
design competition: Public Space in the New American City for the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.