Museum Shows/ February
Thomas Florschuetz, Vitra Design Museum
February 1st – May 26th 2013, Weil am Rhein, Germany
Thomas Florschuetz became well-known through his large scale photographs of his own body and eventually images of buildings and everyday objects. The Vitra Design Museum’s exhibition on Florschuetz has chosen photographic subjects relating to architectural feats including two buildings by Louis Kahn, Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasilia, David Chipperfield’s Neues Museum and the Palast der Republik in Berlin. The exhibition explores Florschuetz’s interest in fragmentation of architecture and its physical and spatial presence in a picture and the tension between planar abstraction and spatial depth found in the photographs selected.
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Shoe Obsession, Museum at FIT
February 8th – April 13th 2013, New York, NY, USA
Shoe Obsession examines more than 150 examples of contemporary footwear that have made shoes central to fashion. Our culture has become ever fascinated with extravagant, lavish and extreme shoe styles. Expect to see labels such as Manolo Blahnik, Azzedine Alaïa, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Prada, Christian Louboutin and Salvatore Ferragamo. The exhibition highlights the exceptional creativity of contemporary shoe design and also includes a glimpse at shoe collections from notable style icons like Lynn Ban and Daphne Guinness.
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Blue-and-White, MFA Boston
February 20th – July 14th 2013, Boston, MA, USA
Mass production of blue-and-white porcelain began in the early fourteenth century in China, where it eventually spread to Europe and the Americas. It has its roots in both Asian and Islamic cultures and today’s artists have continued the story to confront contemporary ideas. At the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the exhibition New Blue-and-White explores how contemporary artists are working in ceramics – and other media such as fiber, furniture and glass – with the rich cultural tradition of blue-and-white porcelain. Tackling issues ranging from political and cultural exchange to families and memories, the exhibition features recent acquisitions by ceramic sculptor Chris Antemann and fashion designers Rodarte.
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Eileen Gray, Le Centre Pompidou
February 20th – May 20th 2013, Paris, France
Eileen Gray at Le Centre Pompidou marks the first time an institution hosts a retrospective on the artist that integrates both her work in decorative arts and architectural modernism. Usually the story is told in two parts but here the Centre Pompidou seeks to see the designer’s work as a whole with what she did in drawing, painting lacquering, interior decorating and photography. The exhibition takes the visitor on a tour through period rooms that have been reconstructed to resemble Gray’s past projects, including her own villa Tempe a Pailla.
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Petra Zimmerman, MAK Vienna
February 20th – June 23rd 2013, Vienna, Austria
Petra Zimmerman is a unique contemporary jewelry designer that takes serially-produced fashion jewelry from the twentieth century and casts it in resin to make ‘jewelry in jewelry’, creating new pieces. She not only creates new jewelry but also repurposes – rings turn to brooches, or brooches to rings, or belt buckles to arm rings. Zimmerman explores aesthetic and social themes that eventually emerge through her work. On display are roughly 100 pieces created between 1997 and 2012. Petra Zimmerman is represented by long-time Design Miami/ participant Ornamentum of Hudson, NY.
