Exhibition
Craft Front & Center: Conversation Pieces explores craft’s collaborative approach to learning and working by placing pioneering twentieth-century craft artists into dialogue with twenty-first century artists who are rethinking craft techniques and materials. Showcasing MAD’s permanent collection, the exhibition brings together more than sixty historic, recently acquired, and commissioned works in a range of artistic media; most prominently, the central craft materials of ceramic, glass, and fiber.
“While all art hinges on the exchange of ideas, craft-based art is particularly dependent on the relationships between artists,” said Alexandra Schwartz, MAD’s Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Design & Craft. “Techniques such as weaving, blowing glass, or throwing pots are skills that must be taught. As a result, artists who use craft techniques tend to be especially attuned to craft traditions—and invested in upending them.”
ARTISTS ON VIEW (ALPHABETICAL)
Anni Albers; AYDO Studio (A young Yu and Nicholas Oh); André Azevedo; Eve Biddle; Dale Chihuly; Katherine Choy; Rachelle Dang; Kira Dominguez Hultgren; Ruth Duckworth; Marguerite Friedländer-Wildenhain; Françoise Grossen; Maija Grotell; Trude Guermonprez; Marie Herwald Hermann; Sheila Hicks; Tony Jojola; Jun Kaneko; Liliana Ovalle & Colectivo 1050º; Harvey Littleton; Gertrud Natzler; Otto Natzler; Pedro Barrail & Artisans of Pai Tavytera; Anders Herwald Ruhwald; Kay Sekimachi; Toshiko Takaezu; Peter Ting; Vadis Turner; Mary Ann Unger; Peter Voulkos; Claire Zeisler.
Claire Zeisler, Red Wednesday, 1967. Photo: Eva Hyed.
Kira Dominguez Hultgren, To Carry Every Name but Your Own, 2022. Photo: Shaun Roberts.
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) champions contemporary makers across creative fields and presents the work of artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill. Since the Museum’s founding in 1956 by philanthropist and visionary Aileen Osborn Webb, MAD has celebrated all facets of making and the creative processes by which materials are transformed, from traditional techniques to cutting-edge technologies. Today, the Museum’s curatorial program builds upon a rich history of exhibitions that emphasize a cross-disciplinary approach to art and design, and reveals the workmanship behind the objects and environments that shape our everyday lives. MAD provides an international platform for practitioners who are influencing the direction of cultural production and driving twenty-first-century innovation, and fosters a participatory setting for visitors to have direct encounters with skilled making and compelling works of art and design. For more information, visit madmuseum.org.