The State of the Union: R & Company’s “Objects USA” Exhibition Rises Above the Fray
This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.
In early 2021, when vaccines were still new and pandemic lockdowns were fresh in our memories, stalwart New York design gallery R & Company did something bold. They launched what they said would be a triennial exhibition representing nothing short of the state of design in America, an undertaking more on the order of a museum than a commercial gallery. Titled "Objects USA," it was both an homage and a corrective to an exhibition of the same name that opened in the 1960s. Under the direction of curator Glenn Adamson, the R & Company show surveyed a broad range of one-off and small-edition collectible work by designers around the country—drawing from the gallery’s own roster and well beyond.
The show opens with a bang. A table that resembles something like a posing sea creature fossilized in metal anchors the opening room and gleams at passers by through the gallery windows. It’s actually a glass-and-steel construction by Misha Kahn called Windswept.
This year, they launched the second edition, which runs through January 10, putting forward work by more than 50 artists that are representative of a country in a very different position than it was three years ago—an election, acrimony, war, political violence, I don’t need to explain. To help us wrap our heads around various forms of designing and making and place them within the chaos of contemporary American culture, the gallery brought in co-curators Kellie Riggs and Angelik Vizzcarando-Laboy who organized their selections into seven personae: First, the Truthsayers, keepers of material honesty; next, Betatesters, pioneers of an in-progress futurism; followed by Doomsdayers, more grunge than gloomy. Then, Insiders, Mediators, Codebreakers, and Keepers. More on them in the captions.
Moving through the show, I thought of my friends the Codebreakers and the Mediators and recognized that I might be a Doomsdayer or a Betatester at various moments. I could empathize with making something from one of those points of view or another, which created an intimacy with the work that one rarely feels looking at conceptual furniture. The typology feels very human, though it didn’t overdetermine any of the pieces so much as offer a series of personified guides through the exhibition.
Of everything in the show, these are some of the works I liked best and that I hope represent the direction of design in the States, no matter where the rest of the country goes.
Also in the first gallery, a ceramic pillar by Roxanne Jackson offers a melange of vaguely allegorical animal shapes.
It’s a stela and an obscure fable, and it introduces an exhibition full of equally evocative objects.
Each category of designer is demarcated by a changing wall color—mixed by the gallery’s go-to paint brand Alkemis. Here, a group of Betatesters (yellow) bleeds into the Truthsayers (pink) and share space with a ceramic vessel by Keeper Anina Major (blue).
Minjae Kim, represented by two chairs, is among the first of the Truthsayers in the exhibition, designers whose work demonstrates a reverence for their materials.
I love an object that makes you say, Wait? What? This contortionist lamp by Vincent Pocsik extrudes a standing figure wearing a single shoe into a cartoonish art nouveau twist.
A domestic scene featuring felt-covered chairs by Liam Lee and a porcelain-framed mirror by Francesca DiMattio introduce the Insiders in the exhibition. That’s Insiders, as in indoors. All of the work tweaks ideas about interior design and the home.
Looking like someone turned molten porcelain plates with floral motifs into spray foam, the mirror’s melted Rococo crags reward exploration and provide homes for actual flowers.
On to the Doomsdayers and another mirror. This one titled, Geology Transition Mirror, is by Chen Chen & Kai Williams. It’s embedded with shards of stone, displayed like specimens of a changing Earth. It reflects Cammie Staros’s terra-cotta amphorae.
Here’s me staring at it if you’re curious about the scale. Doubled as if partially submerged in water, the work evokes a relic found after some kind of apocalyptic flood. It’s strung with cobwebs made from delicate silver chains. It’s quietly haunting.
A diaphanous textile work by Wally Dion, who is a member of the Yellow Quill First Nation, references Indigenous North American motifs and hangs above the gallery’s lower level.
Speaking of classical vessels, Hugh Hayden also created an oversized amphora. His conceals a plastic water cooler and connects the humble contemporary object to basket weaving traditions and elevates it to a monumental scale. It takes us from the Insiders to the Mediators, a group of go-betweens described by the curators as designers "who focus on identity, environment, and the interactions between person, space, and object."
A standout in the Keepers group—a category dedicated to designers whose work evokes storytelling, history, and memory—Nicole McLaughlin’s wall piece made from ceramic and hand-dyed threads nods to craft traditionally practiced by women. (For the record, I’m not staring into space here. I’m looking back up from the gallery’s lower floor to another work by Roxanne Jackson situated on the gallery’s stairs.)
Here it is prominently positioned on the marble stair.
The exhibition includes some very strong, very different jewelry designs, but the standout was Steven KP’s broaches made from wood and sterling silver.
My favorite work in the show was hands down this chaise by Kim Mupangilaï. A mix of teak, volcanic stone, and raffia, it’s a celebration of material and flex of craftsmanship that references the designer’s Congolese and Belgian heritage.
Published
Topics
Design NewsGet the Pro Newsletter
What’s new in the design world? Stay up to date with our essential dispatches for design professionals.