Analogue Sites by Jorge Otero-Pailos

Artist and architect Jorge Otero-Pailos presents new sculptures in New York, highlighting the historical importance and potential in diplomacy and cultural exchange of modernist U.S. Embassies.

The public art exhibition Analogue Sites by Jorge Otero-Pailos features three large steel sculptures forged from the fence of the former United States embassy in Oslo. Inspired by Cold War-era embassies as hubs of cultural exchange, the exhibition highlights the role of modern American art and architecture in cultural diplomacy and advocates for the preservation of these works modernist masters at this critical moment in which they are being sold and dismantled.

Jorge Otero Pailos

Jorge Otero-Pailos (Madrid, 1971) is an American-Spanish artist, architect, academic and educator recognized for being a pioneer in experimental preservation practices. In addition to his artistic practice, he is Director and Professor of Historic Preservation at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) at Columbia University, where he also directs the Columbia Preservation Technology Laboratory and where he founded the first doctoral program in Historic Preservation in the United States.

His works have been commissioned and exhibited at major heritage sites, museums, foundations and biennials, including the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2017), Artangel’s public art commission at the UK Parliament (2016), the V&A Museum (2015) and the Venice Biennale (2009). He has received a 2021-22 Visual Arts Residency from the American Academy in Rome.

As a conservation architect, Otero-Pailos collaborates in the creative restoration and interpretation of emblematic sites. Notably, he achieved an award-winning restoration of New Netherland Island in St. Petersburg, Russia, in partnership with WorkAC (2013) and the former US Embassy in Oslo, Norway, designed by Saarinen, with Langdalen Arkitektkontor, Atelier Oslo and Lund Hagem Architects (2023).