Tyte Gallery presented Architecture of Awareness, a solo exhibition by New York-based artist and architect Seth Howe, curated by Sharon Bates. Bringing together sculpture, works on paper, and video, the exhibition centered on a distinctive body of work that Howe described as “instruments for seeing”—objects expressly designed to encourage viewers to become more aware of the act of perception itself.

Drawing deeply from architecture, phenomenology, and metaphysical inquiry, Howe approaches seeing not as passive observation, but as an active process through which meaning is constructed. Rather than functioning as mere representations of the world, his geometric constructions from the Stack Series operate as advanced seeing devices. Through carefully calibrated relationships of form, color, scale, and space, these works encourage a heightened awareness of how vision actively structures our experience.

What distinguishes Howe’s work from other contemporary geometric abstractions is that his forms are never an end in themselves. Instead, the geometry works entirely in service of perception. As the title Architecture of Awareness suggested, the exhibition asserted that consciousness itself could be structured or built, much as architecture structures physical experience. Expanding on this deliberate intent, essayist Michael Wilson observed: “At first look, Howe’s work can seem austere, even cold, in its precisely tooled materiality and graphic precision. Yet it is this outward formal control that allows the viewer to consider the work’s varied contexts with clarity.”

Alongside the sculptures, the exhibition featured several series of works on paper that distilled these same conceptual concerns, extending the physical language of Howe’s sculptures into two dimensions. Further expanding this exploration of awareness was Hexagon Origins, a video work that animated the negative spaces generated by the sculptures. By digitally activating these voids, the video revealed latent dimensions within the physical forms that might otherwise have remained unseen.

About the Artist

Seth Howe is a New York-based artist and architect whose interdisciplinary practice investigates perception, consciousness, and the relationship between body and environment. Through sculpture, drawing, digital media, and architecture, he creates works that function as tools for heightened awareness, encouraging direct engagement with space, form, and experience.

About the Curator

Sharon Bates is a visual artist, independent curator, and founding director of the Albany International Airport Art & Culture Program, which has become a national model for public art. In 2025, she established Millbrook Arts Project, a collaborative initiative between Millbrook Arts Group and Millbrook Library dedicated to providing exhibition opportunities for contemporary artists and enriching public engagement with visual art. Bates’ multidisciplinary work has been exhibited throughout the Northeast, Los Angeles, and Miami.