New West Innovating at the Intersection

NEW WEST: Innovating at the Intersection

No evolution of a geographical region was more rapid and transformative than that of the American West at Mid-Century. NEW WEST explores the innovations that shaped this unique architectural landscape, through the vibrant, compelling images of the color-saturated, highly-textured, early social media art form of the Mid-Century Linen Post Card.

Collision, eruption, and erosion are the formative forces that account for the raw vitality and breathtaking beauty of the American West. While it has taken 4.5 billion years to write the complex geological and hydrological history embedded in this region, it has taken less than 200 years to write the story of its modern transformation into an interdependent network of landscape, infrastructure, architecture, and entertainment. NEW WEST draws from over 400 Mid-Century Linen Post Card images of the Wagener-Erganian Collection, to explore the changes that four waves of innovation - steam, steel, oil, and information - have wrought upon the land.

Wolfgang Wagener is an international architect and real estate development adviser. He graduated with a PhD in Engineering from RWTH Aachen University in Germany and obtained an Advanced Management Degree in Real Estate from Harvard University. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Urban Land Institute, and is a lifetime member of the Society of Architectural Historians, Southern California Chapter, having followed his passion for mid-century modernism from Western Europe to the western coast of California.

Leslie Erganian is an American artist and writer. Her hand-colored photographs are in the permanent collections of the California Museum of Photography and the Xerox Corporation. She contributed her design talents to the production of feature film projects for MGM, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., and Showtime. She has been a writer and television correspondent for NBC, Discovery, and Hallmark. She graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Art and Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and obtained a Master of Fine Arts in film production from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her undergraduate studies under New Topographics photographer Joe Deal cultivated an egalitarian eye and a twin interest in the practice and history of photography. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild.