May 2012

Bauhaus: Art as Life
3 May 2012 – 12 August 2012
Venue: Barbican, London

The biggest Bauhaus exhibition in the UK in over 40 years presents the modern world’s most famous art school. From expressionist beginnings to a pioneering model uniting art and technology the Bauhaus’ utopian vision sought to change society in the aftermath of the First World War. Bauhaus: Art as Life explores the diverse artistic production that made up its turbulent fourteen-year history and delves into the subjects at the heart of the school: art, culture, life, politics and society, and the changing technology of the age.

Bauhaus: Art as Life will feature a rich array of painting, sculpture, design, architecture, film, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and installation. Exemplar works from such Bauhaus Masters as Josef and Anni Albers, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Hannes Meyer, László Moholy-Nagy, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Gunta Stölzl, will be presented alongside works by lesser-known artist Masters and Bauhaus students .

It will feature a host of workshops, talks, films and performances as well as a major Creative Learning initiative, the Bauhaus Summer School, an intensive two-week school held at the Barbican and led by leading practitioners from all artistic backgrounds.

A Barbican Art Gallery exhibition in co-operation with Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin / Museum für Gestaltung, Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

Designer Night: Graphic Design & Great Expectations
10 May, 7.30pm
Venue: Design Museum
Explore how typography and layout convey literary text in an evening of discussion, presentations and workshops.

Check out the speakers and book tickets at the Design Museum.

Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations
10 May – 19 August 2012
Venue: The Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, New York

Organised by The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art the exhibition sets out to explore the striking affinities between two Italian designers from very different eras, the surrealist Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada.

Inspired by Miguel Covarrubias’s “Impossible Interviews” for Vanity Fair in the 1930s, curators Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton will orchestrate conversations between these iconic women to suggest new readings of their most innovative work.

‘Given the role Surrealism and other art movements play in the designs of both Schiaparelli and Prada, it seems only fitting that their inventive creations be explored here at the Met,’ says Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the MET.

‘Schiaparelli’s collaborations with Dali and Cocteau as well as Prada’s Fondazione Prada push art and fashion ever closer, in a direct, synergistic, and culturally redefining relationship.’

museum’s website will feature the exhibition here.

 

Designers Plus Ten
Venues Design Museum Holon, Israel
Until 20 May 2012

For a taste of design in Israel and who to look out for on the creative scene head to Holon in April for Holon Design Week and Designers Plus Ten exhibition.

Holon Design week will comprise of an exhibition at Design Museum Holon, activities in the Museum forecourt, and exhibitions in the city’s galleries. 17 international design week directors will be attending Design Week Holon, giving lectures and holding meetings with Israeli designers.

The Designers Plus Ten exhibition at Design Museum Holon will give expression to Israeli designers working in Israel with the aim of exposing their work to both a national and international audience. It is the first time that the museum will curate an exhibition focused exclusively on Israeli design.

Designers Plus Ten will present 42 designers from textiles, fashion, accessories, jewellery, industrial design, and digital and visual communication. Two objects created a decade apart, from those who graduated between 2000 and 2002, will be presented. The exhibition will focus on the development of the designers themselves rather than the objects they exhibit.

Participants include Daniel Gassner and Ori Saidi (Ototo), Itamar Burstein, Alon Shoavi, Asaf Hanuka, Yaron shine, Shelly Satat and Elon Kombor (CoupleOf).

RIBA’s Last Tuesdays
Venue: RIBA HQ, London
Starting 24 April 2012

The RIBA has announced a new monthly night of events with the Last Tuesdays series. The Art Deco London headquarters will be open late on the last Tuesday of each month, offering a series of themed special events with a spotlight on architecture and design.

It will include debates and talks, exhibitions and events such as film screenings and book launches. Each Last Tuesday will celebrate a different theme with a range of special activities and events, as well as offering a chance to visit ongoing exhibitions.

Themes for the upcoming events are

29 May – Jubilee 2012
From castles and barracks to palaces and boulevards, throughout history the British monarch has been a great patron of architecture, but who did it best?

26 June – Play!
Theme of the London Festival of Architecture (23 June – 8 July)
This includes various exhibition including Design Stories: The Architecture Behind 2012 and After the Party: The Legacy of Celebration.

For more visit the RIBA.

Clerkenwell Design Week 2012
Venue: Clerkenwell, London
22 – 24 May 2012

Clerkenwell Design Week returns to London for its third year. Taking place across Clerkenwell, and sponsored for the second year running by Jaguar, the three-day festival brings a vibrant programme of events – spanning product launches, parties, auctions, debates, pop-ups, exhibitions, installations, open studios and workshops.

The Farmiloe Building (a former lead and glass merchants warehouse) and The House of Detention (a subterranean Victorian prison) will be showcasing the latest product and furniture innovations from both home grown and international manufacturers as well as a wealth of design and architecture talent.

The public installation this year is by UK based multi-disciplinary design studio Aberrant Architecture  which comes complete with a travelling theatre.

Read our review of the previous Clerkenwell Design Week.

Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary 

Venue: V&A, London
31 May – 30 September

The V&A is presenting the first major solo exhibition exploring the work of one of the most inventive and experimental design studios practising in Britain today. The exhibition will showcase the wide variety of projects conceived by British designer Thomas Heatherwick and his studio.

On display will be over 150 objects, from an original seed-tipped rod from the UK Pavilion Seed Cathedral at Shanghai World Expo (2010) to a detail of the new London double-decker bus at full-scale (2012).

The exhibition will examine two decades of projects, from examples of Thomas Heatherwick’s exploratory student work through to the architectural commissions which have earned the studio its international reputation and their most current projects to date. The exhibition is part of the London 2012 Festival.

June 2012

Urban Archives: Emilio Sanchez in the Bronx
Venue: The Brox Museum, NY, US
Until 17 June 2012

The Bronx Museum presents a group of works by Emilio Sanchez from the museum’s collection, together with related archival material and a special interpretive project by local artist Laura Napier.

All the works depict commercial buildings in the Hunts Point area of the South Bronx. With a colourful palette and rigorous architectural design, they depict the bodegas and auto shops of the Bronx in an almost idyllic style that makes a stark contrast with preconceived views of the borough.

Arline Fisch: Creatures from the Deep
June – September 2012 (exact dates TBC)
Venue: The Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, US

Come explore a beautiful world of shimmering wire jellyfish in Arline Fisch: Creatures from the Deep. Internationally acclaimed jewellery artist Arline Fish has brought her work to a grand scale in Creatures from the Deep. Using knitting and crocheting techniques to create larger-than-life sea creatures made of wire, Fisch’s work will transform our gallery into a tranquil underwater world, with floating jellyfish of different colours and shapes.

July 2012

Christian Louboutin
Venue: Design Museum, London
Until 1 July 2012

The Design Museum presents the first UK retrospective of iconic French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, celebrating a career which has pushed the boundaries of high fashion shoe design. This exhibition celebrates Louboutin’s career to date and showcases twenty years of designs and inspiration, revealing the artistry and theatricality of his shoe design from stilettos to lace-up boots, studded sneakers and bejewelled pumps. Louboutin’s shoes are the epitome of style, glamour, power, femininity and elegance.

At the core of the exhibition will be a unique exploration of Louboutin’s design process, taking the visitor through every stage of the design journey, revealing how a shoe is constructed, from the initial drawing and first prototype through to production in the factory. Looking beyond design and production the exhibition will also explore the company’s innovative store design.

Designs of the Year
Venue: Design Museum, London
Until 15 July 2012

The Design Awards showcases the most innovative and progressive designs from around the world, spanning seven categories: Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics and Transport and Product. A high profile judging panel will decide the best entries in each of the seven categories. Category award winners and the overall winner of the Design of the Year Award 2012 will be announced at an Awards event in April 2012.

This year’s winner was British designer Samuel Wilkinson and product designer Hulger for their unique Plumen light bulb 001 design. See our report on DT here.

Yohji Yamamoto
Venue: Design Museum Holon, Israel
July – October 2012

Maestro of avant-garde fashion, Yohji Yamamoto remains one of the world’s most influential and enigmatic designers and over the last forty years has made a vital contribution to fashion, challenging traditional norms of clothing with his style.

Curated by Galit Gaon, the exposition will challenge and re-conceptualise the way in which conventional fashion exhibitions are presented.  A series of site specific installations will be designed which embrace and respond to Ron Arad’s iconic building.

The exhibition will curate over 80 Yohji Yamamoto’s signature women and menswear silhouettes, exploring discussions between people, places, clothing and design. The expressive installation, designed by Masao Nihei, will cleverly bring together all the various indoor and outdoor spaces of the museum, including the two major galleries, lab space, garden and public areas.  The flow of objects through the private and public arenas will create a continuous stream of inspiration, inviting visitors to experience a journey of emotions, memories and design.

The lower gallery will recreate the vibrancy and heightened feeling of the world’s major metropolitan areas while the upper gallery will invite visitors to interact with an abstract installation.

August 2012

British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age
Venue: V&A, London
Until 12 August

The exhibition celebrate the best of British post-war art and design from the 1948 ‘austerity’ games to the
summer of 2012, highlighting significant moments in the history of British design and how the country continues to nurture artistic talent and be a world leader in creativity and design.

Included in the exhibition is Styrene by talented light designer Paul Cocksedge. To celebrate his first ten years in design, Cocksedge has returned to this 2002 graduation piece from the RCA. Made up of hundreds of heat-shrinked coffee cups, Styrene’s grand symmetry is broken up by a series of small apertures for stark light to escape, creating an intriguing shadow-play on surrounding surfaces.

Read our previous reports on Paul Cocksedge at the Milan fair last year here.

British Design 1948-2012
Until 12 August 2012
Venue: V&A Museum, London

The V&A’s major spring exhibition will showcase the best of British design and creative talent from the 1948 ‘Austerity Olympics’ to the summer of 2012. It will be the first comprehensive exhibition to examine the ways in which artists and designers who were born, trained or working in the UK have produced innovative and internationally acclaimed works from post-war to the present day. Ranging from the Morris Mini Minor (1959) to the newly commissioned model of Zaha Hadid’s London Aquatics Centre (2011), the objects on display will aim to reinforce Britain’s status as a global leader in design.

September 2012

Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space
17 – 16 September
Venue: Vitra Design Museum, Germany

Dutch architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld was one of the most important representatives of modernism. He created icons such as the Red Blue Chair and the Rietveld Schröder House, transferring the rigorous compositions of Piet Mondrian and other members of the De Stijl movement into objects and space. The exhibition wants to shed light on the life and work of the Dutch architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld.

New West Coast Design II
Postponed: TBC
Venue: The Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, US

As the sequel to the New West Coast Design: Contemporary Objects exhibit of 2008, the exhibition will follow on from the Pasadena Museum’s California Design series (1950-1970) and the DeYoung’s Designer Craftsmen of the West (1957), curated by Elizabeth Moses.

The 2008 collection featured popular California iconography such surfboards and motorcycles. The 2010 exhibit intends to highlight the finest in abstract and inventive furniture, jewellery, ceramics and fashion from dozens of avant-garde designers.

October 2012

Hollywood Costume

20 October – 27 January 2013
Venue: V&A Museum, London

Hollywood Costume, the V&A’s major autumn exhibition, will gather together over one hundred of the most iconic costumes designed for unforgettable cinema characters over a century of film-making.

2013 

Denmark by Design
Until 11 May 2013
Venue: The Danish Centre

Denmark by Design explores the development in Danish design from 1945 to 2010 and includes a new generation of designers and companies. Follow Danish design’s focus on the individual, the home,  workplace and public spaces in this comprehensive exhibition.