Press Room

Following a successful spring schedule of exhibitions centered around the theme of the personal as political, MAD's fall season asks, "What is the future of craft?"

MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1
September 6, 2018 – March 31, 2019

The Burke Prize 2018: The Future of Craft Part 2
October 3, 2018 – March 17, 2019

Liz Collins: Rays (1ST SITE)
September 20, 2018 – March 17, 2019

Sterling Ruby: Ceramics
October 3, 2018 – March 17, 2019

Fake News and True Love: Fourteen Stories by Robert Baines
October 16, 2018 – March 3, 2019

the eye's level by Anne Lindberg
October 16, 2018 – March 3, 2019

New York, NY (June 21, 2018)

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) is proud to announce its program of exhibitions for the fall 2018 season. Featuring Sterling Ruby's first New York museum show and a pair of exhibitions showcasing MAD's recent acquisitions and the finalists for the inaugural Burke Prize, this fall's programming aims to redefine the future of craft while introducing visitors to dynamic concepts within the mediums of art and design.
                                                              
"MAD is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of art and design while mounting exhibitions that speak to our current sociocultural moment," said Shannon R. Stratton, the Museum's William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator. "From Sterling Ruby's innovative ceramics and Robert Baines' politically relevant studio art jewelry to works by the stellar group of Burke Prize finalists, the upcoming season continues our commitment to engaging in discourse that expands our notions of craft."

FALL 2018 EXHIBITIONS

MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1
September 6, 2018 to March 31, 2019

MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1 frames MAD's collecting mission and recent acquisitions by positioning works by David Harper, Bayne Peterson, Cauleen Smith, and other artists within the context of the Museum's current collections plan. In addition to presenting the history of MAD's collection, the exhibition features statements by artists, critics, and other major figures in the field speculating about the future of craft.

MAD Collects: The Future of Craft Part 1 is curated by MAD's William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator Shannon R. Stratton and Assistant Curators Samantha De Tillio and Barbara Paris Gifford, with support from Assistant Manager of Curatorial Affairs Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy and Curatorial Assistant Alida Jekabson.

The Burke Prize 2018: The Future of Craft Part 2
October 3, 2018 to March 17, 2019

The Burke Prize 2018: The Future of Craft Part 2 celebrates the inaugural year of the Burke Prize, an annual award that reinforces MAD's commitment to championing the next generation of artists working in and advancing the disciplines that shaped the American studio craft movement. The exhibition will feature a selection of works by the winner and finalists of the prize, whose emergent voices are pushing the field forward in dynamic ways and providing a glimpse into the expansive future of contemporary craft. Although each artist's practice is grounded in one of the core materials of the studio craft movement —glass, fiber, clay, metal, or wood —in today's interdisciplinary environment they are expanding the field by incorporating unexpected materials and creating conceptual dimension through performance and digital media. Their work is conscious of and engages with space and can be used as a tool of protest and sociopolitical commentary.

The Burke Prize 2018: The Future of Craft Part 2 is curated by MAD's Assistant Curator Samantha De Tillio and Assistant Manager of Curatorial Affairs Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, with support from Curatorial Assistant Alida Jekabson.

Liz Collins: Rays
1ST SITE
September 20, 2018 to March 17, 2019

Launched in spring 2018 and located in MAD's reception area, 1ST SITE is a project space dedicated to works that interact with and interpret the interior architecture and ambiance of the entry. This fall, the space will house an installation by Liz Collins, an artist included in the Museum's permanent collection. The installation is drawn from Collins' "Rays" wallpaper series, the design of which she completed during her 2015 residency in the MAD Artist Studios Program.

Sterling Ruby: Ceramics
October 3, 2018 to March 17, 2019

Sterling Ruby: Ceramics is the first museum exhibition to focus on the ceramic works of the Los Angeles –based artist Sterling Ruby. Process and materiality are paramount to Ruby's practice. He rolls, punches, assembles, and manipulates clay by hand and machine to arrive at basins or vessel-like containers, which often hold the debris of previous kiln misfires. Like a reverse archaeologist, he records the results of his experiments in clay within the final art object.

Sterling Ruby: Ceramics will be on view at the Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, through September 9, 2018. The Museum of Arts and Design is its second venue. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue. Its showing at MAD marks Ruby's first museum exhibition in New York.

Sterling Ruby: Ceramics is curated by Jeff Fleming, Director of the Des Moines Art Center. It was organized for the Museum of Arts and Design by William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator Shannon R. Stratton with support from Assistant Manager of Curatorial Affairs Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy.

Fake News and True Love: Fourteen Stories by Robert Baines
October 16, 2018 to March 3, 2019

On view in MAD's Tiffany & Co. Foundation Jewelry Gallery, Fake News and True Love: Fourteen Stories by Robert Baines is a cleverexamination of jewelry as a document of popular cultural history. The artist's fanciful rings, parures, neckpieces, and bracelets and accompanying "evidence" encourage belief in the fourteen stories he presents, spanning from B.C.E. to the present day and encompassing a wide range of topics, including migration, conspiracy, forgery, celebrity, and politics. Through satire and humor, he cautions that linear narrative can be confused with myth, riddle, puzzle, and possible subversions of history. Is the story true or fake?

Fake News and True Love: Fourteen Stories by Robert Baines is curated by MAD's Assistant Curator Barbara Paris Gifford with support from Windgate Curatorial Intern Sasha Nixon. Previous iterations were shown at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, as part of the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award exhibition, 2006; Designmuseo, Helsinki, 2008; Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, 2008 –2009; and Handwerkskammer für München und Oberbayern, Munich, 2010.

the eye's level by Anne Lindberg
October 16, 2018 to March 3, 2019

Anne Lindberg works with thread to create interventions into architectural space that are part spatial Color Field painting, part drawing. In a process the artist describes as "stitching in the walls," she moves thousands of threads across space, held in tension to create a luminous cast of color that appears to hover in midair. Lindberg is designing a new color field specific to the light and space conditions of MAD's second-floor gallery, engaging the north and west walls.

the eye's level by Anne Lindberg is curated by MAD's William and Mildred Lasdon Chief Curator Shannon R. Stratton with support from Assistant Manager of Curatorial Affairs Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy.

ABOUT THE MUSEUM OF ARTS AND DESIGN

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.