Marvimon

Los Angeles Nelson acquired and transformed a long-abandoned automobile showroom near Chinatown into a hybrid domestic, social and performative environment. Roughly one third of the roof was removed to create an internal courtyard; existing industrial fabric was retained and recombined with glass, salvaged materials, furniture, landscape and custom architectural interventions. Originally conceived as a real-estate project that might finance an art career, Marvimon instead became both an inhabitable sculpture and the generative setting for a sustained sequence of dinners, performances, films, installations and collaborations. The original building was sold in 2015, after a decade in which the distinction between artwork, home, venue and production apparatus steadily dissolved.