Priya Auton
5 Jan 2026
A project-based reflection on translating 2D artworks into immersive 3D interiors, exploring how objects, atmosphere, movement, and spatial perception shape experiential design.
The Non-Picture Gallery explores how interior design can be used as a narrative tool, transforming two-dimensional artworks into inhabitable spaces. Rather than presenting paintings as isolated visual objects, the project interprets them spatially, allowing visitors to move through environments shaped by emotion, atmosphere, and lived experience.
Centred around the work of Arshile Gorky, the gallery is designed not as a chronological archive, but as a spatial retelling of his life. The sequence of rooms reflects shifts in tone, stability, and emotional intensity, using light, layout, and material choices to support storytelling through space.
Each gallery room is derived from a specific painting, with its colour palette, mood, and compositional qualities informing the interior design. The aim is not to replicate the artwork literally, but to extract its emotional and spatial qualities and reimagine them in three dimensions.
Objects, furniture, and architectural elements are used to extend the visual language of each painting into the room itself. In doing so, the visitor does not simply observe the artwork, but occupies an environment shaped by it, engaging with the work on a bodily as well as visual level. This approach acknowledges that paintings often communicate emotion more strongly than narrative detail, making them well-suited to spatial interpretation.
The layout of the gallery plays a central role in how the project is experienced. Rather than arranging paintings by date, the sequence is designed to reflect the emotional trajectory of Gorky’s life, moving from lighter, more hopeful spaces towards darker and more unsettling environments.
The first and second rooms benefit from skylights and windows, allowing natural light to enter and creating a sense of openness and optimism. These brighter conditions reflect periods of relative stability and warmth in Gorky’s life, reinforcing the emotional tone of the paintings housed within them.
As the gallery progresses, spaces become more enclosed, controlled, and emotionally intense. This gradual shift is not achieved through constant transitions, but through careful placement and contrast between rooms.
Where transitions do occur, they are intentional and symbolic. The most significant and physical of these is the descent via staircase into the basement space between the second and third paintings. This physical movement downward to "Still Life Composition No. 7" reflects a turning point in Gorky’s life, both literally and emotionally, as his experiences became increasingly difficult and his work darker in tone.
The staircase acts as a moment of pause and anticipation, allowing visitors to register a change in atmosphere before entering the next space. Rather than smoothing over the shift, the design allows discomfort and heaviness to emerge gradually.
The final transition occurs within the fourth room, which houses both "Fireplace in Virginia" and "Agony". Although created many years apart, these works are intentionally placed together to highlight contrast rather than continuity.
"Fireplace in Virginia" is interpreted as warm, colourful, and welcoming, with child-like qualities that suggest domestic comfort and optimism. Within the same room, this atmosphere shifts dramatically into the darker, more threatening environment of "Agony", reflecting the deterioration of Gorky’s personal life and relationships.
This progression mirrors Gorky’s experience within his mother-in-law’s house, the setting of both paintings, and allows the space itself to communicate emotional instability and tension. Rather than relying on separate rooms, the contrast is heightened by coexistence, reinforcing the unsettling nature of the transition. Here, objects, lighting, and material choices are used to intensify discomfort, making the emotional shift unavoidable and immersive.
Throughout the gallery, objects and furniture are not purely functional but act as emotional anchors. Their scale, placement, and materiality influence how visitors move, pause, or feel within each space.
Rather than directing experience explicitly, these elements subtly guide behaviour and perception, encouraging visitors to engage with each environment at their own pace. This allows for personal interpretation while maintaining a clear narrative structure.
Reflection
The Non-Picture Gallery demonstrates how interior design can translate emotional and narrative content into spatial experience. By turning 2D artworks into inhabitable environments, the project explores how sequence, contrast, and atmosphere can be used to tell a life story through space.
Rather than relying on chronology or instruction, the gallery allows visitors to feel shifts in tone and meaning as they move through it. In doing so, it highlights the potential of interior architecture to move beyond display and become an active medium for storytelling and emotional engagement.
More information, photos and videos can be seen in my portfolio.