Artist Tom Patti to Receive Rowena Reed Kostellow Award

NEW YORK, Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Patti, industrial designer and artist, will be awarded the Rowena Reed Kostellow Award on January 28, 2010 at the Knoll Showroom, 76 9th Avenue, NYC.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100108/NE34886 )

The Award recognizes people who advance the principals of design that Rowena Reed Kostellow developed and rewards those who have excelled with the application of those ideas. "The committee selected Tom because of his multidisciplinary innovations and the beauty of his work," says Tucker Viemeister, Rowena Fund Chair.

"Miss Reed was both my teacher and mentor," says Patti. "In the 1960s Pratt's Industrial Design theory was about maximizing creative potential. All the design problems were about defining a method of think/work and developing a cognitive pathway to understanding. In a conversation we had during a critique, I asked her why our work 'never seemed to get resolved.' She commented – 'Tom, your work is a process not a product.' Miss Reed tirelessly gave of herself to foster in me all the conceptual design skills I would need then and now as an artist. Her memory still inspires my work."

Tom's body of work includes sculptural works, visionary architectural systems, product designs and large architectural art commissions. Published and exhibited throughout the world, his work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and numerous others. While at Pratt, Tom experimented with inflatable plastics, embracing the relationships between art, engineering and architecture, seeking and developing solutions for global housing issues. Patti became interested in glass for its form potential. His work reflects a multidisciplinary spirit - encompassing an interest in architecture, design education, engineering, science, and the power of creativity.

Tom Patti joins the other champions of the abstract principals of visual relationships who have received the award, including: Gina Caspi, Ivan Rigby, Eva Zeisel, Gerald Gulotta, William Fogler, Eugene Grossman, Ralph Appelbaum, James Fulton, Louis Nelson, Judy Collins, Bruce Hannah, Ted Muehling, and Lucia N. DeRespinis. These teachers, entrepreneurs and designers embody the mission of the fund: to encourage and guide a systematic educational approach to all forms of visual expression.

The Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund at Pratt Institute was organized after her death in 1988 to help continue her teachings by supporting scholarships, publishing and programs. Rowena, with her husband Alexander Kostellow and Donald Dohner, created Pratt Institute's Industrial Design program based on abstract design applied to form, function, and industry. Their objective was to develop an educational system through analysis of abstract visual relationships that would be valid for all forms of expression: architecture, graphic design, and art. For over 50 years, she taught three-dimensional design at Pratt Institute where she told her students: "If you can't make it more beautiful, what's the point?"

Patti has created a magnificent table, for the Rowena Reed Kostellow Fund. Titled ROTATED RECTANGLE (IN MEMORY OF ROWENA REED), the table is the artist's original and will be available for private purchase and at auction at the Knoll Showroom on January 28th 2010. All proceeds from the sale of the table will go to support the Rowena Reed Fund and the teachings, scholarships and programs it provides.

SOURCE Tom Patti Studios