Materials & Applications

From 2015 to 2020, Jia Yi Gu served as Director and Curator of Materials & Applications in Los Angeles, where she developed the organization as a platform for experimental architecture, public programs, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her curatorial practice approached installations as tools for research and public discussion, often focusing on how architecture is shaped by social, political, and material systems. Programs such as Privacies Infrastructure (2018) explore the notions of privacy and privatization in the residential landscape of Los Angeles, while Staging Construction (2019) examined the labor, logistics, and staging behind building processes through live fabrication and public events. Additional projects  by Extents (2016) and stock-a-studio (2017) activated the M&A Storefront.

Much of the work occurred internally: in the establishment of better governing structures for the Board of Directors; cultivating institutional transparency and communications with our team and our audience; and launching an independent programming council comprised of young professionals.

A major achievement was to  decentralize M&A's programming from a single location, expanding exhibitions, programs, and audience reach beyond the organization's first home in Silverlake. She initiated the launch of two new project spaces for our exhibitions, including M&A Storefront, a small street-facing storefront space on Sunset Blvd. in Echo Park, and a new outdoor courtyard space in mid-Wilshire in partnership with Craft Contemporary.

In response to the pandemic, M&A launched two community programs: Heat Aid, an ongoing mutual aid project launched in 2020 to collect and distribute essential, life-saving resources like water and hygiene supplies to unhoused neighbors during extreme heat waves, and the terrestrial radio signal and station KGAP 96.7 with Lookout FM, which broadcast audio and sound-based programming to bring our audiences together.