Event Recap: Museum of Arts and Design Preview of New Exhibitions @MADmuseum

YRB attended the Museum of Arts and Design Patron’s Preview on Thursday, May 20th offering new exhibitions and makers’ experiences.

Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe’s Tabernacles For Trying Times, a selection from MAD’s permanent collection called Craft Front & Center, and the remarkable Fisher Dollhouse: A Venetian Palazzo in Miniature. “Tonight is a wonderful celebration to kick-off the summer at MAD”, said Interim Director Terry Skoda.

“There’s no better time to share with New York City our exciting new exhibitions and our eclectic permanent collection. We invite everyone to visit.”

Guests included board member Marian C. Burke, MAD Chair Michele Cohen, MAD Luminaries Co-Chair Alexander Hankin, Chairman Emeritus Lewis Kruger, Chairman Emerita Barbara Tober, as well as Shaikha Paula Al-Sabah, Ambassador Gerard Araud, Michael Bolla, Joan Hardy Clark, Tiffany Dubin, Rina Dweck, Sharon King Hoge, Bryan Ludwig, Shantell Martin, Meredith Marks, Carrie Moyer, and Sheila Pepe, Christina Senia, Ted Taylor, Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, and Timo Weiland.

Craft Front & Center (on view until February 13, 2022) brings together more than 70 iconic and lesser-known works, assembled from the eclectic richness of the Museum’s permanent collection, to highlight key touchpoints in craft’s history that have led to the current moment.

The exhibition reinforces the Museum’s mission of championing contemporary makers across creative fields and presenting the work of artists, designers, and artisans who apply the highest level of ingenuity and skill.

Moyer and Pepe’s Tabernacles For Trying Times (on view until February 13, 2022), marks the first major museum survey of the painter and sculptor duo, whose abstract works, rich with color and materiality, explore themes of craft, feminism, and queer activism.

Highlighting the artists’ individual styles and techniques, collaborative works, and new directions through more than 25 works on view, the exhibition presents their most ambitious collaboration to date.

Another exhibition that caught our eye was Local Import by Anthony Olubunmi.

Akinbola’s layered and multifaceted compositions celebrate and reconcile the cultures that compose his identity as a first-generation American of Nigerian origin.

Local Import continues Akinbola’s exploration of the use of durags—fiber scarves used in the maintenance of black hair—as both a material for art-making and a commentary on larger issues of identity, respectability, and commodification of African American culture.

Guests were mesmerized by a new work conceived by the art collector and patron Joanna Fisher while in quarantine; The Fisher Dollhouse: A Venetian Palazzo in Miniature (on view until September 26, 2021).

Inspired by Venice’s glamorous Gritti Palace, the dollhouse boasts a fifteenth-century classical exterior and ten rooms filled with an eclectic range of historical and contemporary craft, art, and design. It displays an impressive collection of contemporary art created by more than ten international artists, many of whom are working in miniature for the first time, including Michele Oka Doner, Ryan McGinness, Antonio Pio Saracino, Hunt Slonem, Darren Waterston, and Dustin Yellin.

The Museum of Arts and Design is located at Two Columbus Circle in New York City and is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm.