the work of clara porset, lola álvarez bravo, anni albers, ruth asawa, cynthia sargent, and sheila hicks has never been shown together before. while some of these artists and designers knew one another and collaborated together, they are from different generations, and their individual work encompasses a range of media varying from furniture and interior design to sculpture, textiles, photography, and prints. they all, however, share one defining aspect: mexico, a country in which they all lived or worked between the 1940s and 1970s. during this period they all realized projects that breached disciplinary boundaries and national divides
this exhibition is the first to explore mexico’s impact on these visionary artists and designers. it takes its title from a quote by clara porset, a political exile from cuba who became one of mexico’s most prominent modern furniture designers. influenced by bauhaus ideas, she believed that design could reshape cities, elevate the quality of life, and solve large-scale social problems. this approach informed her 1952 exhibition art in daily life, in whose catalogue she wrote, “there is design in everything … in a cloud, in a wall, in a chair, in the sea, in the sand, in a pot,” encouraging us to look at both the natural and machine world for inspiration and ideas.
curated by zoë ryan, chair and curator of architecture and design, the art institute of chicago
stefan sagmeister is a leader in the field of visual communications. he has developed projects for clients as diverse as the rolling stones, hbo, and the solomon r. guggenheim museum. sagmeister explores how vast and illusive subjects like happiness or beauty connect to design and what that actually means to our everyday lives. a native of austria, sagmeister is a principal partner along with jessica walsh at the new york city design firm sagmeister & walsh. the firm creates brand identities, commercials, websites, apps, films, books, and objects for clients and is a full-service studio creating strategy and design across all platforms. sagmeister’s work is included in the permanent collection of the art institute of chicago.
venue > rubloff auditorium / use the entrance at 230 south columbus drive
presented in partnership with the architecture & design society and the school of the art institute of chicago
showcasing the art institute of chicago’s seminal twentieth and twenty-first century holdings of visionary architectural drawings, inventive furniture design, and powerful graphic and industrial designs, past forward: architecture and design at the art institute marks the grand opening of the museum’s newly reinstalled permanent collection. integrating architecture and design into the visitor experience, these galleries present the forward-looking history of modern and contemporary practice as a living social and cultural process driven by dialogue and exchange.
andrea trimarchi and simone farresin, together known as studio formafantasma, are an italian design duo based in amsterdam. since graduating from the design academy eindhoven in 2009, trimarchi and farresin have developed a body of work celebrated for its combination of research, craftsmanship, and experimentation. their botanica project, for example, investigates the possibilities of oil-free polymers and features objects with preindustrial organic compounds, such as resin made of sawdust and animal blood. pieces from this celebrated project are held in museum collections around the world, including the art institute of chicago’s.
trimarchi and farresin’s interests also drive them as teachers in the departments of well-being and contextual design at the design academy eindhoven and as heads of the made program in siracusa, italy, which focuses on the intersection of craft, design, and local culture. studio formafantasma has received numerous awards and was identified by critic alice rawsthorn as one of a handful of practices that would shape the future of design.
dana arnett is the ceo of the design firm vsa partners in chicago. under his guidance, vsa has collaborated with brands including ibm, facebook, converse, and cole haan.
he previously taught at the university of illinois at chicago and is currently on the board of the architecture & design society at the art institute of chicago. arnett is the winner of the 2014 aiga medal.
michael bierut is a graphic designer, critic, and educator. he is currently a senior critic in graphic design at the yale school of art and a partner with the design firm pentagram,
where he has worked on projects for benetton, mit media lab, walt disney, and the atlantic. he is the recipient of numerous design awards, including the 2006 aiga medal. he recently published
the book how to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world (thames & hudson, 2015).
michael will be signing and selling his book the evening of the lecture (post talk). his book is carried at the art institute book store, among other retailers.
introducing the first episode of this series of installations are co-curators alison fisher and karen kice. the modern chair focuses on a piece of furniture that has captivated the popular imagination like no other. beginning in the machine age with the promise of industrial production, chair design took off in new directions dynamically engaged with contemporary forms. furniture design moved out of the realms of the carpenter and the decorator as architects and industrial designers took on the chair as a problem of engineering, materials research, and the scientific study of the human body. with this new attitude, one of the most important drivers of modern chair design became new materials—from tubular steel in 1920s europe to the later largely american development of plywood and fiberglass chairs. this exhibition presents iconic examples from throughout the 20th century by makers including le corbusier and charlotte perriand, harry bertoia, and charles and ray eames, all of whose work contributed to the evolution of a new, modern ideal.
in the fall of 2017, the art institute of chicago will debut the museum’s first permanent installation dedicated to 20th- and 21st-century architecture and design. in the months leading up to this major display on the second floor of the modern wing, the space will feature a series of three mini-exhibitions showcasing different aspects of the museum’s design holdings—from an exploration of the modern chair to a look at different expressions of postmodernism to a celebration of typography in graphic design. tying the three installments together is an installation design by amir berbic for the galleries and the windows facing onto griffin court.
the exhibition is made possible by the generous support of the architecture & design society and john h. and neville bryan.
wilshire medical office side chair | rudolph schindler | 1943
below> lcw lounge chair | charles and raye eames | herman miller | 1946/49
below> red blue chair | gerrit rietveld | g.a. van de groenekan | c. 1955
paimio armchair 41 | alvar and aino aalto | artek | 1930/33
below> tulip side chair | ero saarinen | knoll | 1956
small diamond chair | harry bertoia | knoll | 1952
aqua tower | studio gang architects | c. 2005 | photo by butler v. adams | click > enlarge
The Architecture & Design Society will host the first Archi-Salon, Inside Out: Uncovering Possibilities from Within the Discipline in conjunction with our current exhibition Building: Inside Studio Gang Architects. This salon, led by Iker Gil and located within the Architecture and Design galleries, will use the exhibition as a platform to discuss critical issues in the field of contemporary architecture. [ details ]
[ abstract ]
The work of Studio Gang Architects “confronts pressing contemporary issues, acting as a lab for testing ideas on varying scales: from cities to environments to individual buildings’ unique material properties.” This Archi-Salon looks into the new possibilities generated by approaching and exploring aspects of the architectural discipline from new and uncompromised perspectives. The conversation will be focused around uncovering possibilities related to issues of context, materiality, space, and program in architecture.
[ Moderator ]
Iker Gil, Director, MAS Studio & Editor in Chief, MAS Context
[ Panelists ]
Jeanne Gang, Principal, Studio Gang Architects
Matthias Hollwich, Co-founder, Hollwich Kushner (HWKN) & Lecturer, PennDesign
Michel Rojkind, Founder, Rojkind Arquitecto
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