Recently, every window of the Louis Vuitton store in New York City was filled with polka dots and a life-size wax figurine of Yayoi Kusama. Polka dot Princess, psychopath, resurgent Queen of the Japanese art world, precursor of the pop art, Queen of the Hippies, minimalist, even her fans call her “Weird Grandma”, all these labels can’t complete describe Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生)’s complicated and legendary life.

Her art work is often considered controversial. Some people distaste her work, think it is abnormal, creepy, or even can cause trypophobia. But more people admire her work, like me. I love her dense patterns of polka dots and nets, her bold usage of collision color and her strong personality: No one has better talent, and the work never feels old.

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As design constantly evolves to include not just artifacts and their designers, but processes, ideas and relationships, planning and executing an exhibition that traces a narrative of design history spanning a hundred years is no small task. Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000, opened to both child and adult audiences alike this fall at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Drawing on a hundred years of child-centered design, the exhibition was curated by Juliet Kinchin and Aidan O’Connor of the Department of Architecture and Design at MoMa. It borrowed heavily from Ellen Key’s writing in 1900 on what the role of progressive design would be in a child’s education and experience of a swiftly changing world in the coming century.  (more…)

Michael Schuurman

Just thinking about graphic design, and everything that it encompasses, can sometimes make your head spin. To tackle it in its entirety is a daunting task, which is the reason why so few curators and museums have even attempted this tricky venture. Graphic design can be seen as both a process, tool and discipline. The Graphic Design: Now in Production exhibition, which was open to the public this summer in Building 110 on Governors Island and curated by Andrew Blauvelt of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Ellen Lupton of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum attempted to give a broad overview of design production in the past decade.

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The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) has explored the intersection of traditional or unusual materials and techniques as viewed through the lens of contemporary art and design in a series of exhibitions that include Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting; Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary; Slash: Paper Under the Knife; Dead or Alive: Nature Becomes Art; and Otherworldly: Optical Delusions and Small Realities.

The next investigation into unusual mediums features an international group of artists whose major materials are dust, ashes, dirt, and sand. Swept Away: Dust, Ashes, and Dirt in Contemporary Art and Design will highlight works that deal with issues such as the ephemeral nature of art and life, the quality and content of memory, issues of loss and disintegration, and the detritus of human existence. Sculptures made from ash by Chinese artist Zhang Huan, life-size sculptures of unfired dirt by American artist James Croak, and works created from city smog by American artist Kim Abeles, among others, illustrate the transformative potential of humble, overlooked, and discarded materials.

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The James Gallery is pleased to present the work Common Assembly by Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency, a design group and residency program founded by Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal, and Eyal Weizman in Beit Sahour, Palestine. For their first exhibition in New York, Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency will produce a large-scale installation in the James Gallery based on their research on the Palestinian Parliament building in Abu-Dis, located on the periphery of Jerusalem. Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency conducts research, collective learning and public meetings, and makes critical design from its research on existing architecture and infrastructure. Their projects articulate the potential of architecture to open an “arena of speculation” that incorporates varied cultural aesthetic and political perspectives. Works, whether in the form of large or small-scale models, video, maps, photographs, interviews, or discussions, have been exhibited at Nottingham Contemporary (2012); Neuchâtel, Switzerland (2011); Red Cat, LA (2010); NGBK, Berlin (2010); the Istanbul Biennale (2009). The group was awarded the Prince Claus Prize for Architecture in 2010. (more…)

With Denise Gonzales Crisp I co-curated the exhibition “Deep Surface: Contemporary Ornament and Pattern”, which opened September 23 and runs until January 2, 2012 at the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. We selected an international roster of 42 designers, drawn from all disciplines of design, which we broke into six thematic sections. (more…)