Aranda\Lasch

Artist

Aranda\Lasch · arandalasch.com ↗

Based

Benjamin Aranda (born 1973) and Chris Lasch; founded 2003. Lives and works in New York City and Tucson, Arizona.

Practice

The studio creates buildings, installations, furniture, and generative artworks by applying procedural methods, modular systems, and research into aperiodic structures such as quasicrystals.

Now

Works reside in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.

In the set

Primitives ↗ · 400 editions

Links

Full bibliography ↗

The studio's commitment to process driven design emerged from early experiments following their graduation from Columbia University. Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch met during their studies and established Aranda\Lasch to pursue self initiated projects that tested the capabilities of computational tools in architectural contexts.¹ Their approach treats algorithms not merely as efficiency aids but as means to reveal new formal and structural possibilities, often drawing parallels between digital simulations and physical material behaviors.

Over two decades the practice has scaled from small installations and objects to full buildings while maintaining a focus on discrete parts assembled into complex wholes. This methodology echoes natural and mathematical systems, particularly the aperiodic order found in quasicrystals, which the studio has explored extensively in both physical and digital realms.² Benjamin Aranda was born in 1973.⁴ The studio maintains offices in New York City and Tucson.⁵

From Physical Installations to Digital Generative Art

The integration of code and fabrication has defined key projects, including the 2008 Rules of Six installation at the Museum of Modern Art, which used simple recursive rules to generate snowflake like forms in physical materials.⁴ Collaborations with artisans, such as Tohono O odham basket weaver Terrol Dew Johnson, further blend traditional craft with algorithmic logic, resulting in hybrid objects acquired by major institutions.⁴

The turn toward blockchain based platforms represents a logical extension of their interest in decentralized systems and generative variability. In 2022, Aranda\Lasch released Primitives on Art Blocks Curated, a collection of 400 editions.³ Each work generates a unique three dimensional form inspired by the hatching techniques in Albrecht Dürer's Melencolia I engraving and the nonrepeating patterns of quasicrystals. Although presented as intricate two dimensional engravings with variable line weights, paper tones, and fragmentary elements, the underlying models are fully three dimensional and can be rotated or downloaded for fabrication.²

Primitives: Structure and Variability

The Primitives series employs procedural generation to simulate crystalline growth and fractal depth within a quasicrystalline lattice. Variability arises from parameters controlling hatching density, background inking, and compositional fragments drawn from Dürer's studies, producing a family of forms that feel both ancient and newly minted.² This project distills decades of studio research into a compact, editioned format accessible to collectors while preserving the interactive and material potential of the original computational models.

The six examples in the grid illustrate the range of outcomes within the 400 edition constraint, from dense linear patterns to more open lattice structures, each maintaining the signature tension between flat representation and implied spatial depth.

Live on Art Blocks: primitives-by-arandalasch ↗

Bibliography

The references cited in this essay are listed below. For the complete bibliography see the Aranda\Lasch links page ↗.