EAST SUSSEX.- On the cusp of its 75th anniversary year, the De La Warr Pavilion, a building of unique design and purpose, presents two exhibitions that celebrate the architecture idea of form and function. Gallery 1 looks at eight significant buildings of the past and present and Gallery 2 presents a contemporary artist’s utopian view of architecture of the future.

Gallery 1
Mind into Matter
Eight exemplary buildings, 1834 -2009
Celebrating 175 years of British architecture and RIBA (the Royal Institute of British Architecture) this exhibition focuses on eight important buildings which reflect the social and political ideologies of their time and considers their impact on the development of architectural ideas. Curated by architectural historian Alan Powers, each building –designed and built at approximately 25 year intervals – has an intriguing story of patronage and function, revealing the motives that have caused exceptional buildings to come into being for symbolic as well as practical reasons. In each case the architects have held a passionate commitment to a particular way of designing and building that was very much of its time.

Using original drawings, specially commissioned new photography, contextual objects and addition materials the exhibition will take a fresh look at British architecture in its social and historical context. It was initiated by Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) South East.

The exemplary buildings are:

• The Reform Club, Pall Mall, London, architect Sir Charles Barry, 1841

• The Oxford Museum, architects Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward, 1854-60

• Clouds House, East Knoyle, Wiltshire, architect Philip Webb, 1881-86

• St Mary, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, architect Sir Ninian Comper, 1906-1936

• De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, architects Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, 1934-5

• The Economist Plaza, St James’s Street, London, architects Alison and Peter Smithson, 1959-64

• Royal Mail Mechanised Letter Office, Hemel Hempstead, architects Peter Aldington, John Craig and Paul Collinge, 1983-86

• The British Embassy, Warsaw, architect Tony Fretton, second project 2006-09

Gallery 2
Matthew Houlding
Sons of Pioneers
Houlding's new sculptures are a homage to the utopian zeal of modern architecture.

Drawing on Structuralist and Formalist ideas of architectural design and the relationships between intersecting materials and planes, the contrasting geometry of these sculptures are framed by bold, primary coloured Perspex, which casts a
Californian sunny glow over split level condo-like exteriors and interiors. The juxtaposition of materials – from cardboard boxes to garden fencing and kitchen work tops - suggest a human endeavour and optimism, yet these buildings are people free. They are miniature-sized dwellings of the future, for occupation only by imagination.

Matthew Houlding
Matthew Houlding was one of a number of artists who were invited to submit their “first thoughts” in response to the architecture of the De La Warr Pavilion for the exhibition It Starts from Here, 2007.

In 2009 Matthew Houlding has exhibited in Home Truths: Artists' Images of Where We Live, Harewood House, Leeds, 4th April - 5th July 2009; Welcome to Paradise, ArtGene, Cumbria, Kurt Schmidt (1901-1991) und andere, Avantgard Kunstler als Erben des Bauhauses, Kunstsammlung Gera – Orangerie; Strange Days and Some Flowers, Storey Gallery, Lancaster. Solo exhibitions include Sons of Pioneers at Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool 2009, Amaryllis, Cube Gallery, Manchester 2008 and We Watched the Sun go Down, Buro Fur Kunst , Dresden, 2007 and participated in numerous group shows including New London Kicks, New York, The Future Can Wait, London and Maquettes en Modellen...hedendaagse kunst op schaal , Stedelijk Museum, Aalst, Belgium. Houlding was also in the touring British Art Show, 2006.