Pitt getting close to MIT star
BRAD Pitt is spending time with an acclaimed architect, award-winning artist and superstar MIT professor Neri Oxman. A source confirms exclusively to Page Six that architecture and design aficionado Pitt recently met accomplished Oxman through an MIT architecture project and they have since become friends. Pitt was referred to Oxman to collaborate on an architectural project he was working on, we’re told. As first revealed on “Page Six TV,” a source told us, “Brad and Neri instantly hit it off because they share the same passion for architecture, design and art. This is best described as a professional friendship.” But the source added, “Their friendship has not turned into romance . . . as both are cautious and this is, again, more of a professional friendship. But Brad is very interested in spending more time with Neri. She is fascinating.” American-Israeli architect and designer Oxman (left) was married to Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov, whom she has said had an “incredible influence” on her work. Pitt is still finalizing his divorce from Angelina Jolie. A rep for Pitt, 54, declined to comment, but a friend added, “You are correct that they are just friends and she is very impressive.” Oxman is currently traveling and could not be immediately reached. Oxman, 42, is a professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she founded and directs the Mediated Matter group, which conducts research into bonding design and architecture with natural and biological environments. Her team has also been building 3-D printers capable of printing biological matter and glass. A number of Oxman’s works are created by animals or natural processes: One of her most wellknown is “The Silk Pavilion,” an installation from 2013 featuring 6,500 silkworms weaving a giant dome. Her work is included in collections at MoMA, Paris’ Centre Pompidou, Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Museum of Science. If that weren’t impressive enough, in a 2016 Surface Magazine profile of Oxman, MoMA’s Paola Antonelli called her “a person ahead of her time, not of her time.” Meanwhile, Pitt’s Make It Right foundation, which builds affordable houses for people in need, with a focus on environmentally sustainable development, has been working with architects to build homes in locations including New Orleans and Kansas City, Mo. Pitt has also been working on furniture design with Frank Pollaro, and he told GQ Style last year he was being mentored by sculptor Thomas Houseago. “I’ve literally been squatting in [Houseago’s studio] for a month now . . . I’m making everything.” But Pitt may have a challenge on his hands: Multiple other sources confirm Oxman has been dating billionaire activist investor Bill Ackman, 51, for about seven months.