Hidden cities, hidden longings

In the latest of our Art & Design Monograph series, American artist Nancy Wolf leads the reader through her life and her art, from her earliest work, when she first began commenting on architecture and society, to her most recent drawings, which pose compelling alternatives to the anonymous modern cityscape. Wolf vividly portrays the coldness and sterility of modernism, the superficiality of postmodernism, and the possibilities for change in deconstructivism. She has integrated her pointed critiques of these architectural movements with her own experiences - of alienation in a new urban renewal area in Washington, DC, of the urban devastation of New York in the 1970s and 80s, and of the warmth and intimacy of traditional communities in Africa and Asia. Wolf's message is clear: contemporary Western architecture and planning have lost sight of people. Cities, buildings and public spaces leave inhabitants disconnected from each other and from the places where they live and work.