Running For: Council

Biography

Julian LaVerdiere is an artist and production designer born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He received a BFA from The Cooper Union School of Art in 1993, where he graduated with honors and received the Ruth Gutman Epstein Memorial Prize for Sculpture. LaVerdiere received an MFA from Yale Graduate School of Art – Sculpture Program in 1995, where he was a scholarship student, was awarded the F.B. Pardee prize for excellence in sculpture, and graduated with honors.

Since 1995, LaVerdiere has exhibited his art publicly in galleries and museums. Solo exhibitions have been held at Andrew Kreps Gallery, Deitch Projects, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, No Limits Gallery – Milan, EverGreen Gallery Geneva, PS1/MOMA, MOCA Miami, MOCA Cleveland, and the Schick Gallery at Skidmore College. He has exhibited in group exhibitions at MOCA Tucson, the Tang Museum, Queens Museum, Musée de l’Elysée Lausanne, the National Museum Of Natural History & Science Lisbon, The Library of Congress Washington D.C., and The United Nations General Assembly building in New York City.

To conceive and engineer elaborate environments, sets, and special effects for print advertising, public art events,  broadcast advertising and feature film, LaVerdiere co-founded public art and production design collective BIGROOM LLC. in 1996.LaVerdiere Design, Ltd., founded in 2007, is membered with IATSE United Scenic Artists Local 829 and commercially represented by ICM PARTNERS in Los Angeles.

Recent art direction and design projects include the Cold War television show The Americans, and feature films The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and The Dictator (2012) for Paramount Pictures and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Commercial clients include Loréal, Cadillac, Maserati, Nike, and Apple.

In September, 2001, LaVerdiere and fellow artist Paul Myoda collaborated with a team of architects, along with public art organizations Creative Time and The Municipal Arts Society, as well as The New York City Mayor’s Office, to create The Tribute in Light for the victims of the World Trade Center collapse. The 9/11 Memorial Museum now maintains this annual tribute as a permanent public art work. To mark ten years since the tragic event, TIME published a commerorative issue of their magazine, featuring a cover designed by LaVerdiere. In 2010, LaVerdiere was invited by the National Capital Planning Commission to peak at the Smithsonian Museum of Art about global approaches to public art and national memorials. LaVerdiere was honored to receive the Cooper Union Urban Visionary Award in 2002, and was subsequently inducted into the Cooper Union Alumni Hall of Fame for his contribution to the Advancement of Science and Art. In 2014, LaVerdiere received Cooper Union’s prestigious Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for Professional Achievement in Art. LaVerdiere continues a committed involvement to his alma mater, including serving as a panel member on Monuments, Myth & Meaning, a discussion held in the Great Hall in 2017, and various presentations on his involvement with the Tribute in Light. Since 2010, LaVerdiere has been delighted to serve as an alumni council representative of The Cooper Union’s School of Art Curriculum Committee to advise on the school’s pedagogy and protocol. For more info, visit: www.julianlaverdiere.com