Paul Johnson, who established Johnson Trading Gallery in 2007, welcomed Design Watch Members for a look into the gallery’s mix of vintage and contemporary pieces by emerging designers. Highlights included Max Lamb’s hand-molded wax and nanocrystalline copper chairs; Kwangho Lee’s customized electric cables hand-woven and fashioned into lamps; Ricky Clifton’s Egyptian-styled furniture and...
Design Watch Members enjoyed a special evening with Cooper-Hewitt trustee Richard Meier at the opening of Art in Architecture: Selected Works by Richard Meier in Brooklyn. This exhibition is hosted in Richard Meier’s own architectural project, Richard Meier on Prospect Park. Meier’s collages and sculptures complement his architecture in various, unexpected ways. In contrast to...
The materials want to be something, they are waiting. Each material has its own function and potential. -Shigeru Ban Earlier this week, Cooper-Hewitt’s Design Watch Members had the special privilege of visiting Metal Shutter Houses, Shigeru Ban’s first condominium project in the United States, with Dean Maltz, Partner at Shigeru Ban Architects, and developer...
A small group of Cooper-Hewitt Members had the special privilege of going on an installation tour of Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay. In the galleries, geometric prints popped with color and movement. Members previewed gorgeous gouache on paper and finished fashion pieces—embroidered swimsuits and a coat made for silent film star Gloria...
Moorhead & Moorhead, brothers Granger and Robert, welcomed Cooper-Hewitt Members to their studio last evening. Their work explores issues of function and materiality, at scales ranging from furniture to architecture. An exploration of elasticity, the Rubber Lamp is a flexible silicone shell that flips up or down. Tape Wound Borne, featured in Design Life Now:...
Design is about people, not things… Not just a catchphrase, it’s the key to Smart Design’s success. Over 90% of their designs have been brought to market, an impressive statistic for any industry. Their formula is simple: understanding the differing needs of people results in design that is truly universal. Cooper-Hewitt Members enjoyed a ‘fireside...
SIMS Municipal Recycling Facility in Brooklyn. Image courtesy of Selldorf Architects. Selldorf Architects, located at Manhattan’s Union Square, recently opened their studio to Cooper-Hewitt’s Design Watch Members. The firm has acquired an international reputation for work that is sensitive to context and program, thoughtful in execution and timeless. The firm has worked on public and...
Design Watch Members from across the nation – Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, New York, and Miami – gathered for an action-packed week of design in Miami. Joined by Cooper-Hewitt’s Caroline Baumann, Associate Director, and Matilda McQuaid, Deputy Curatorial Director, we explored the Design Miami/, Art Basel Miami Beach, and surrounding fairs; made new...
Another day with Design Watch Members in Miami…. First stop: 1111 Lincoln Road with architect Nils Sanderson from Swiss architects’ Herzog & de Mueron’s office. Nils started the tour in front of this just completed parking garage (but this is no ordinary parking garage) that anchors the western end of the pedestrian Lincoln Road. Starting...
First stop: Moorhead & Moorhead’s Design Miami/ tent exterior. The Cooper-Hewitt group was greeted by brothers, Robert (industrial designer) and Granger (architect), to talk about the dynamic canopied entrance to the design show – a bris soleil of hand cut, twisted vinyl strips that perform a dance of shadows on the ground. Taking a...
Members were treated to a “Curator’s Breakfast” – a preview of the IFPDA Print Fair – with Cooper-Hewitt’s Dr. Gail Davidson, Curator and Head of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design Department. Among the many stops, the group visited Carl Solway Gallery with printed works by John Cage, Gallerie St. Etienne for wood-cut prints, The...
Jake Barton of Local Projects, National Design Award Finalist in 2010 and 2006, warmly welcomed Cooper-Hewitt Members for a behind-the-scenes look at his media-design firm. A great story teller himself, Jake spoke of the clever uses of information design, media production, interactivity, and social media to both solicit and tell stories. Local Projects was the...
Cooper-Hewitt Members enjoyed a private tour of the International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show with Sarah Coffin, Curator of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-century Decorative Arts and Head of Product Design and Decorative Arts. Highlights of the tour included MALLET, Primavera Gallery, Lillian Nassau, Jason Jacques Gallery, H. Blairman & Sons, James Robinson, Apler-Fredericks, Hancocks &...
Designed by Patrick Jouin (French, born 1967), Manufactured by Materialise NV, Leuven, Belgium, 2004, Epoxy resin, Museum purchase from the Members’ Acquisitions Fund of Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2009-8-1, Photo: Matt Flynn As part of Cooper-Hewitt’s efforts to explore and document outstanding examples of innovative design, the Museum has begun to collect objects produced...
James Carpenter Design Associates opened their studio doors to Cooper-Hewitt Members on October 6. Members were captivated by the ‘show and tell’ of prismatic effects of transmitted and reflected light. JCDA seeks to bring light into our lives in a way we recognize, translating its abundance or rareness, and always its richness. Masters of...
