Objects: USA 2024

Objects: USA was a ground-breaking survey exhibition organised in 1969 by art dealer Lee Nordness and Paul J. Smith, then the director of the Museum of Contemporary Crafts (now the Museum of Arts and Design). The exhibition, which travelled to several venues, was notable in its scale, with nearly 500 objects on view, as well as for its success in raising the status of craft not only within the fields of contemporary art and design, but to the general public. In 2020, the New York City-based design gallery, R & Company, decided to revisit this landmark exhibition with one of their own, Objects USA 2020; Curated by Glenn Adamson, James Zemaitis, Abby Bangser and Evan Snyderman, Objects: USA 2020 brought together a diverse selection of contemporary American designers and makers and served as a platform to show the status and strength of American design in the early 21st century.

Four years later, the gallery opens Objects: USA 2024, featuring nearly 100 works by 55 artists, designers and studios from across the United States. Referred to now as a triennial, as the gallery intends to make this an ongoing event, Objects: USA 2024 offers an insightful look at the state of contemporary design in the country ­– from thematic and conceptual approaches to materials, trends and research. The exhibition features a mix of emerging, mid and late career artists, with ages ranging from their early 20s to their 80s, and shows a diversity of gender and cultural backgrounds.

Objects: USA 2024 is curated by Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, a New York based curator, writer and art historian, and Kellie Riggs, a curator, writer, lecturer and fine jeweller. They decided to diverge from the traditional curatorial path of organising an exhibition by medium, instead choosing to connect the work around concepts that engage with the maker’s intentions and interests, to reveal “more vibrant examination of creative approaches, material explorations, and innovative making processes.” While it is an exhibition in which pieces are for sale, the scale of the survey is comprehensive and rigorous. It is divided around broad conceptual categories referred to by the curators as “seven archetypes of objecthood.” Among these seven archetypes includes: Truthsayers, which includes artists who honour the nature of their materials, emphasise slow, hand-driven processes, and embrace the traditions of handmade arts; Doomsdayers, which features artists who engage with the dystopic angst and utopian optimism of our times; Insiders, showing work by artists who urge us to think about our domestic surroundings and how they affect human interiority–a dynamic further fuelled by the isolation of pandemic lockdowns and the loneliness exacerbated by our digitally mediated lives; and Mediators, featuring artists focused on identity, environment, and the interactions between person, space, and object. “After a long period of examining what we believe to be some of the most compelling work being made today, we took on the daunting but exciting task of finding the throughline between 55 unique practices. What emerged were seven archetypes that provide a dynamic way to explore object-making, not only within this group but also in the future. We look forward to leveraging these groupings to create a presentation that underscores the complexity of these artforms and offers fresh insight and opportunity to understand this work within our broader cultural landscape,” said Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy and Kellie Riggs.

The exhibition design features brightly coloured walls using the first wellness paint by Alkemis Paint, with a palette designed in collaboration with the gallery. An illustrated catalogue has been co-published with August Editions, with entries for all of the featured artists and insightful essays by leading thinkers on design traditions in the United States, past and present.

Zesty Meyers and Evan Snyderman, co-founders and Principals at R & Company, note: “The Objects: USA triennial offers a singular opportunity to examine the ongoing evolution of American object-making. This is a vital and exciting field of creation, and our vision is to share the depth and range of object-making across the country, to highlight the incredible diversity of makers engaging in these processes, and to advance scholarship and connect with audiences well beyond New York.”

Objects: USA 2024 opened on September 6th, 2024 and closes on January 10, 2025.

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