MADI Art Museum and Gallery

". . . I would like to propose a building, which speaks for and by itself. A building which forces us into contemplation, which surprises, captivates, and amuses us and leaves us with a sudden and fixed idea: I must live here, I must work here. The sight of the edifice should provide the viewer with a feeling of well-being and lead to an instinctive certainty: Here, my interior life will be enriched."

-- Volf Roitman, MADI artist

Building Overview

What was once a two-story, 16,564 square-foot storefront building designed and built during the 1970s is now the Kilgore Law Center - a building that is a unique work of art on the canvas of an Uptown neighborhood. The building's artistic style - known as MADI - is appropriate for the new Kilgore Law Center, located at 3109 Carlisle, which is also home to the first MADI Museum and Gallery. This is the first time that MADI has been used in the U.S. as an architectural form on this scale.

Designed by MADI artist and architect Volf Roitman, the building radiates the MADI philosophy of whimsy and joie de vivre combined with complexity and interesting geometrics. The result is a building that moves away from what Roitman calls the "dismal greyness gnawing at the walls of our cities" to a building that "forces us into contemplation, which surprises, captivates and amuses us."

But it is not only Roitman who has an appreciation for MADI. Prominent Austin architect Bill Martin, consultant for the building's exterior, has many years of experience to his name, both in designing buildings and in appreciation of MADI's dynamic and graphically pleasing aspects. "This is the first time we've ever created a building of this type," Martin says. "This is a fantastic concept, and one that adds a unique perspective to this area."

Roitman, who has employed innovative laser techniques on brightly colored metal panels in order to create exquisite MADI art forms, used this same technique to create abstract pieces with cut-out geometric shapes floating on freeform, colorful backgrounds. These panels were then hooked onto the exteriors of the building, which had been already prepared with metal studs. The entryways themselves are more than doors - rather, they are portals through which imagination runs free.

Roitman is very aware that more people - walking and in vehicles - will see the exterior of the highly visible building than will go inside. He would like to invite others to consider the positive impact the outside of buildings can have on the neighborhood. The goal here, according to Roitman, is to convert a typically ordinary building into one that is a work of art, one that can help "transform a whole street into a living sculpture, a neighborhood into a state of perpetual creation." And, quite possibly make people smile.