Evaluating the emotional impact of art

Many research projects in the humanities and social sciences result in creative and artistic outputs, but whilst a sprawling and contested industry has emerged to monitor and evaluate written research outputs, the impact of visual art is less well understood. Drawing on a study using Q Methodology to evaluate an art exhibition, Lesley Brook discusses … Continued

Kennedy Yanko’s Poetic Fusion of Metal and “Paint Skin”

Brooklyn-based artist Kennedy Yanko uses salvaged metal and blanket-like “paint skins” to create incredible artworks that challenge the definition of painting and perfectly balance a range of oppositions. Her current exhibition Humming on Life presents 10 new artworks on view at Jeffery Deitch in New York through April 22^nd.

Metal feels weightless, refuse becomes beautiful, and paint breaks free from canvas. The “paint skins” in Yanko’s work are literally just paint – first created flat and then draped over, between, and within the crushed metal. The fabric-like folds and crushed-metal dents echo each other while both feel organically matched – as if the two elements have somehow grown together.

These new 2023 works add a new layer to her process. On previous works, the color of the paint skins was inspired by an existing color on the found metal: perhaps a lime green from oxidized copper or a burgundy from a small patch of rust. But in these new works, Kennedy has introduced the act of painting onto the metal itself with more colors before pieces are fire-cut and additionally crushed. This process introduces more complex color interactions while maintaining a contrast of time and texture between the elements.

Besides the towering scale (some are over 7 feet wide or 8 feet tall), the play with gravity may be the most surprising element when viewing these in real life. Somehow the large metal chunks feel as if they’re levitating, even the sculptures on the floor feel like they’re about to lift off. Meanwhile the paint skins are fully engaged with gravity, finding their shape through their own weight and scaffolding of the metal. It all contributes a sense of wonder and curiosity.

Kennedy Yanko’s work is a beautiful dance of oppositions: a pairing of past and present, flexible and ridged, color and material, gravity and levitation.

If you want to hear Kennedy’s story in her own words and get a peak at her whole process in her studio, I highly recommend this 7-minute video segment from CBS Mornings. Then run to this current exhibition to be immersed in the magnetism of these works.

What: Kennedy Yanko: Humming on Life
Where: Jeffery Deitch, 18 Wooster Street, NYC
When: March 4 – April 22, 2023

Installation photographs by Genevieve Hanson. Courtesy of the artist and Jeffrey Deitch, New York.
Single artwork photographs by Martin Parsekian.
Detail photographs by author, David Behringer.

Experience Life in London Colorfully via Shanghai

Shanghai’s Fiu Gallery welcomes visitors to experience life in London – roughly 5,700 miles away. Contemporary British artist Peter Judson’s Wonder Around East London exhibition stays true to his playful, colorful, energetic style. Daily objects are transformed into “visual energy” that Judson uses to innovate and explore further, extending lightness, liveliness, and joy to visitors.

In Wonder Around East London, Judson hopes the audience can shift their focus from the functionality of the objects to the beauty of the artwork itself. “There are two things I want to express, and I also want the show to work on two levels. Firstly, to create an aesthetically punchy and interactive experience that can be enjoyed by all. Secondly, I wanted the show to act as a catalyst to a way of thinking,” shared Judson. “Observation is so profoundly linked with conscious and subconscious assumptions. I wanted to use color, abstraction, reduction, and scale as a way to break these assumptions and try to force the audience to view the world around us in a new context.”

The ultimate takeaway is quite simple: “I would love it if anyone leaving the show were to walk home and begin to see the city they live in in a new way. To spot some minute detail they may have normally not noticed and appreciate it regardless of context. To see the object in isolation and maybe find a new appreciation for the world that we live in.”

To learn more about Wonder Around East London, visit peterjudson.com.

OBJECT Is an Umbrella for Anna Bera’s Utility Objects

When creating the OBJECT collection, Polish artist and maker Anna Bera was searching. Searching for a place where an object suddenly appears without justification, but whose existence is indisputable. The series was on display during the 19th edition of Collect in London as part of the Collect Open exhibition, the international fair’s platform for pioneering, thought-provoking craft installations by individual artists.

At Collect Open, Bera debuted the latest addition to OBJECT: a 2.6-meter tall sculpture, hand-carved from sycamore wood with a mirror made of polished steel. Its design, like the rest of the collection’s utility objects – the form of which does not reveal the functionality – plays with form. OBJECT is full of sculptures that may perform the function of mirrors, but then again may not. You may view it as something else entirely. This curiosity of function doesn’t make the pieces any less legitimate, even if all they do is simply exist.

To learn more about Object, visit craftscouncil.org.uk.

Photos by Emilia Oksentowicz.

Felipe Pantone’s Kosmos Exhibition Explores Balance in Kinetic Art

Stop by CONTROL Gallery in Los Angeles before March 18, 2023 to see Felipe Pantone’s exploration of the space found between polarities: Kosmos. This marks the Argentinian-Spanish visual artist’s first exhibition in the city. “Given the history of art in Southern California, it’s only natural that Felipe’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles not only puts light and space at the forefront, but genuinely breathes fresh life into movement via his distinctly modern approaches,” shared Gallery Director Aurora Fisher.

Kosmos marks the debut of Pantone’s SUBTRACTIVE VARIABILITY KOSMOS series, featuring a collection of works that produce continuous motion for extended periods of time. With a monicker borrowed from the Greek word for order, the work in the collection creates balance from polar opposites where two extremes can exist at the same place and time.

“I kept thinking about how all forms are perfectly related to all other forms, in the sense that I can be happy or sad, things can be positive or negative, and yet everything is in perfect balance,” said Pantone. “That led me to be inspired by Calder, then George Rickey, and other artists that worked around the idea of perfect equilibrium. Kosmos is my exploration of that thought process.”

Pantone’s work pushes to expand the boundaries of kinetic art, and this collection lives somewhere at the intersection of technology and fine art. Each manipulatable artwork and painting pays homage to the digital age we live in while furthering the artist’s explorative body of transcendental art.

To learn more about Kosmos, visit control.gallery.

Marusela Granell + Manu Bañó Create Beauty With Raw Materials

La verdad de la materia is an exhibition presented in Mexico City during this year’s ZONA MACO, and will be public until March 15th. Marusela Granell and Manu Bañó’s works are linked by the simple yet powerful actions of cutting, folding, gluing, and ripping. The two artists share a deep desire to create beauty through manipulation of raw materials.

While Manu employs industrial materials in a mechanical process to produce sculptural and functional objects without drawing on references, Marusela deconstructs painting by highlighting the elements that make it up. She uses worn-out tubes of oil paint and pieces of paper as both artwork and models.

Manu Bañó’s latest collection delves into the unique qualities and limitations of copper. Crafted in Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacán, Mexico, a town renowned for its centuries-old goldsmithing heritage, the collection showcases the expertise of local artisans, who specialize in crafting small objects such as pots and vessels.

Comprising three distinct pieces – a chair, coffee table, and wall lamp – the collection is the result of a labor-intensive process involving the manual hammering of a thin copper sheet. This technique imbues the metal with both strength and a three-dimensional quality that distinguishes each piece.

Photos by Alejandro Ramírez Orozco.

Tekla Evelina Severin Drops Color-Blocking “Colour Vibes” at FORMEX

Working with the theme of “Colour Vibes,” color and design phenom Tekla Evelina Severin transformed a 250-square-meter (almost 2,700 square feet) empty space for the FORMEX interior fair last month. The project involved exhibition design, curation, and styling a series of rooms, which resemble either a beautifully staged set for a magazine photo shoot or a perfectly executed interior of a home. Taking inspiration from a labyrinth, hide-and-seek games, and a Rubik’s cube, Dimensions of Colour consists of multiple spaces placed in a zigzag formation, allowing for changes in perspective from every view. No matter the angle, new framed vignettes appear, as do ever-changing color palettes, making the space feel like it’s bouncing back and forth between realism and surrealism.

Immersed in Severin’s color-blocked world are a curated roster of 200 products sourced from 400 exhibitors, resulting in a broad mix of objects that feel like they belong.

Each space features black and white checkered floors with layers of rich, saturated wall colors. Topped off with furnishings – some that match and some that contrast – that give each room a purpose, whether it’s a living room, kitchen, bedroom, kid’s space, atrium, or living room.

Despite the use of so many colors, none of them feel out of place, as each works with the color beside it, across the room, or in the next space.

Photos by Fredrik Bengtsson and Tekla Evelina Severin.

DREAMHOUSES: Abstract Fantasy Homes Prompt Short Stories

With controversial AI creations around so many corners, it’s refreshing to see an analogue project like DREAMHOUSES come along. Thought up by Fort Makers and stemming from the idea of vivid pandemic-induced dreams, the project is an online exhibition of abstract fantasy homes. Six artists and designers created their own “dream house” before being paired up with writers, who then used the creations as a prompt for an accompanying text work. The catch was that participants could only use materials that were available in their actual homes. The result is a digital neighborhood that explores the idea of what a home is to the creators.

“The past few years have forced us to radically reconsider our relationships with our homes, coming to realize that it is where our imagination comes together with reality: we create spaces in our own image while making sure they also serve our quotidian needs,” says Fort Makers Co-Founder Nana Spears. “With this project, we wanted to see what would happen if the artist is free to eschew the practical part of this equation and create a space of pure fantasy,” adds Co-Founder Noah Spencer.

CHIAOZZA x Janelle Zara, “Parallel House”

“Parallel House,” created by the duo at CHIAOZZA, features a horseshoe-style layout of two houses. With an all-white exterior and interior full of brightly-colored objects, the design takes advantage of indoor/outdoor living spaces. Entirely modeled of construction paper, this modern piece of architecture is ready for the California desert.

Janelle Zara wrote “Imagining Life Inside CHIAOZZA’s Dreamhouse, Which I’m Sure Exists in LA” in response. “In my dream house, time is an illusion, a social construct; here adherence to time is 100 percent a choice. There are no clocks, no scheduled zoom meetings, only the movement of light and shadow as the sun traces its path along the sky. Throughout the year, from day to day, this movement is never fixed; the day stretches and contracts according to the seasons.” Read it in full here.

Harry Nuriev x Drew Zeiba, “Off The Road”

Harry Nuriev’s immersive work likes to blur the line between actual and virtual realities, so it makes sense that “Off The Road” would follow suit. The 3D rendering uses his signature cobalt blue to highlight a canopy bed set in a green meadow. Once the sky dims, an otherworldly light of its own turns on.

In “Sense Index Zero,” Drew Zeiba dives into what we feel like when alone in the comfort of our homes and the color blue. “One can feel blue; blue is not something one wants to feel. In Maggie Nelson’s obsessive catalogue of the color, Bluets, she writes, “Loneliness is solitude with a problem.” Soot lands on my tongue as a reminder that there are things I cannot control, that home is not the shape of a globe, that there is no edge. The world escapes. I am beneath a sky of my own making as words crystalize carbon gray against my teeth. I shed description: I become primary.” Read it in full here.

Laurie Simmons x Natasha Stagg, “Sparkle House”

Artist Laurie Simmons, explorer of nostalgia, gender, and consumerism, created “Sparkle House.” A sparsely furnished Victorian mansion of sorts, its personality comes from the patterned textiles used throughout its rooms – including the sparkling rugs that come to life when hit with light.

Undeniably a great setting, Natasha Stagg wrote “Nowhere to sit” in accompaniment. The short story tells of a group of roommates, their various personalities, and the dynamics that exist in such situations. “The couch was so unlike the image when it arrived. All of the roommates looked at it, delivered and out of the box, the first new piece of furniture they had bought as a group. It was supposed to be what brought the room together, a luxurious blue velvet thing. They should have known, they all thought, that cheap velvet would look it, giving away more than what their second-hand or inherited furniture did.” Read it in full here.

Noah Spencer x Philippa Snow, “Sunshine Daydream”

“Sunshine Daydream” was brought to life by Fort Makers Co-Founder, wood sculptor, and painter Noah Spencer. The tiny mixed-media hut features a single unfurnished room that can move across the accompanying desert landscape with you – almost like a pet.

Critic and essayist Philippa Snow wrote “Ithaca” in extension.
“Ithaca, whose name was actually Jane, had dropped out of her Creative Writing MFA to start a new life in the desert, where she’d planned to write a novel, drop some acid, and behave exactly like the kind of white girl who called things her ‘spirit animal.'” Read it in full here.

Marcel Alcalá x Whitney Mallett, “Corner Studio Girlies”

Populated with non-binary figures, Marcel Alcalá’s “Corner Studio Girlies” uses glazed ceramic figures against a cardboard city painted red to share alternative expressions of queerness. It was photographed in the corner of Alcalá’s studio, which is also the piece’s namesake.

Whitney Mallet explored the hectic, playful yet dark, “Corner Studio Girlies” and wrote #Justiceforglitter. The piece revolves around Mariah Carey, 9/11, and the movie Glitter. “And while I’m not suggesting that sabotaging the vehicle intended to catapult Carey into cinema stardom played a role in Al Qaeda’s attack schedule, it has been documented that Osama Bin Laden’s preferred five-octave-range songstress was Whitney Houston.” Read it in full here.

Sam Harvey x Tash Nikol, “From Here I’ve Seen Even More”

Like something out of a fairytale, ceramicist Sam Harvey created a single tower. Covered in light blue shingles and waving a flag reading “having no idea as to what it all meant he chose to stay home,” your imagination just might run wild.

Poet, writer, and curator Rash Nikol interpreted the tower into words, perhaps as a link to another world, in “Waiting Room for Spirits.” “the wise ones speak of the spirit house / here and there / our ancestors speak of a place there / a holding room for spirits / outside of skin / not far from clouds.” Read it in full here.

To learn more about DREAMHOUSES, visit dreamhouses.fortmakers.com.

Lee Broom Exhibits Within the “British Capsule” at Maison&Objet

This year, British designer Lee Broom had the honor of being invited by Maison&Objet to share his work in an exhibition that featured iconic pieces, fresh developments, and collaborations from some of Britain’s top designers. For the “British Capsule” Broom included his new Divine Inspiration collection of lighting, as well a selection of complementary furniture and decor.

“We are thrilled to be selected to join the British capsule at Maison&Objet. In the spirit of Maison’s theme ‘Take Care’, we are showing an edited selection of pieces that bring a sense of the comfort of the home combined with an element of spirituality and mysticism,” Broom declared.

Inspired by the light and shadows created by lancet windows found in church arches, the highlight of the exhibit is Broom’s four meter tall Hail light. The elongated aluminum elements and reeded glass lightbulbs are asymmetrically placed, while its impressive size adds to the drama.

Alongside Hail were the Vesper Duo lights. Dramatic in their own right, Vesper’s prolific design leans on the simple geometry of Brutalist sculpture and modernist cathedral lighting. (The shared inspiration between Hail and Vesper doesn’t go unnoticed.) Using extruded aluminum, the lighting’s rectangular cube-like shapes are joined together by illuminated spheres.

Broom’s portion of the exhibit resembles a dining room setup, using light greys and brushed silvers to create a modern calm. His round Musico Table and Musico Chairs make a statement with their hand-bent, twisted stainless-steel tubes. Two Fulcrum Candlesticks, made in Nero Marquina Marble, reside on each side of the booth. And reflecting it all back on the viewer is the Split Mirror hanging on the back wall. With a precisely cut vertical slice that’s shifted upward, it reveals an unexpected oak-trimmed view of the black frame.

Musico Table and Chairs

To learn more, visit leebroom.com.

Blue Unites Marc Newson’s Exhibit at the Gagosian

Renowned contemporary designer Marc Newson creates some truly groundbreaking work, including the limited-edition furniture that’s currently on exhibit at the Gagosian in Paris. Exploring form and medium, Newson tests what classic materials are capable of through the use of advanced fabrication. Through this experimentation, he brings together the past and present. In this exhibition, the uniting quality throughout is the color blue.

“Design is about improving things and about looking to the future, pushing the technology forward. For me, as a designer, it is a great opportunity to improve on what is already out there, to simplify, beautify, and technologically improve,” Newson said of his approach.

The exhibition at the Gagosian features five pieces of Newson’s work, the most impactful of which might be the “White and Blue Lounge” and the “Cloisonné White and Blue Chair” (both 2022). The two pieces of seating show off the designer’s masterful use of shape and surface, their copper structures decorated with white and blue cloisonné in Newson’s signature circle and molecular “orgone.” It’s exciting to see a technique traditionally used for smaller pieces taking on something of this scale. Artisans in Beijing apply cloisins to the forms, inlay the enamel, then fire each piece up to 12 times in custom-made kilns.

Solid cast glass makes up the seat and base of “Blue Glass Chair” (2017). Blue on top and uncolored on the bottom, the two quarter-spheres mirror each other in position. The uncolored base manages to absorb and reflect some of the blue that lives above it. With this chair Newson continues to push the material further, requiring a month-long process spent in a large glass oven to complete.

Newson’s “Extruded Ribbon Console” (2022) is carved from a single piece of Azul Macaubas stone. This approach highlights its striated azure tones, while also creating a pleasing amount of negative space. First conceived as a flat curvilinear shape, it’s been brought into three dimensions that further define its form.

Finally, there’s “Clear Surfboard” (2017), a prototype created for surfer Garrett McNamara. The aluminum design provides more stability than a conventional fiberglass board and features a light geometric pattern on its surface.

To learn more about Marc Newson’s exhibit at the Gagosian, visit gagosian.com.

An Exhibition Combining Minimalism + Well-Known Asian Artists

The Pierre Lorinet Collection: From Western Minimalism to Asian Political  Abstraction is an exhibition featuring pieces collected over a period of a decade. Curated by Edward Mitterand, the exhibition is part of Singapore Art Week, a ten-day celebration that will see over 700 artists and curators from Singapore and around the world present over 130 programs.

In this exhibition, a number of significant contemporary works are brought together for the first time. They were chosen to show the voluntary connection that the Pierre Lorinet Collection has made over the past ten years between the founders of Minimalism and some of the most well-known Asian artists of the twenty-first century. These artists’ practices are largely influenced by Asian political or philosophical ideas as well as the history of modernism.

Pierre Lorinet challenged his relationship with art by deciding to find and experience emotions inside radicalism when he started his collection in 2012 with an emphasis on Minimalism, one of the most influential and rigorous movements in the history of contemporary art. A few years later, the collection was moved to Singapore, making it accessible to Asian-born artists who are or have been influenced by minimalism in diverse ways.

Ai Weiwei, Chen Zhen, Nam June Paik, and Haegue Yang are just a few examples of artists who all have a strong background in art history and care deeply about their contributions to both modern art and their home nations. Their inclusion in the collection foreshadowed the purchase of works by subsequent generations of Asian artists, like Korakrit Arunanondchai, a Thai-American artist.

Photos by Colin Wan.

“Ray’s Hand” Illuminates Half of the Iconic Eames Partnership

If you’re a fan of Design Milk, you likely love the Eameses as much as we do or you’ve at the least heard of their brand. It’s nearly impossible to be part of the world of modern design and not know of the prolific husband and wife team – Charles and Ray – responsible for co-founding the Eames Office. As creators of so many iconic designs, they and their influence have been celebrated for decades.

Now, The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity has launched an exhibit – Ray’s Hand – that focuses solely on Ray, her talents, and the gender roles she worked against that were typical of the era. The exhibit opened on December 15, 2022 to mark what would have been her 110th birthday. Luckily for all of us, it’s free for everyone to explore and enjoy online.

Pulling from the Eame’s Institute’s collection – full of many things, including some that haven’t been seen since the Eames Office closed in 1988 – the exhibition highlights artifacts such as sketches, scraps, and tools that were integral parts of Ray’s creative process. Each item illustrates Ray’s contributions and talents, which can sometimes be seen as obscured. Meanwhile, Charles knew better, often saying “Anything I can do, she [Ray] can do better.” And he meant it. Ray’s Hand helps to shed light on the roadblocks she encountered, some of which women are still railing against today. A few of her many notable contributions to the Eameses’ iconic design portfolio include the House of Cards collection, the Time Life Stool, and the Sea Things Tray.

We had the opportunity to speak with Ray and Charles’ granddaughter, Llisa Demetrios, who is also the Chief Curator of the Eame’s Institute. She recalled, “When I would visit their office and see Ray and Charles working on projects at the office, there was always mutual respect. There is a quote by former Eames Office staffer Jeannine Oppewall in Pat Kirkham’s
book Charles and Ray Eames: Designers of the Twentieth Century that reads “…(the) method of working within relatively modest limits comes from the Eameses’ philosophy of ‘choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely, and to the best of your ability and that way you might change the world.”

Initially known for her work as a painter, Ray transformed her palette into the Eames’ world of furniture, graphics, film, showrooms, exhibitions, and architecture. “I think this (transformation) is shown in how their designs always evolved from their original hands on learning. The artifacts in this current online exhibit demonstrate Ray’s exploration of solving problems and iterating on the solutions… As they collaborated, they grounded and supported each other’s creative process. I felt when I saw them working on a project at the office that each had 51% of the say in the final vote,” Llisa said insightfully.

Behind the scenes, Ray was also a set decorator, stylist, colorist, material consultant, and host – all roles that were downplayed and misunderstood at the time as small roles given to women. When in fact, Ray was a trailblazer who deserves her share of the spotlight for doing things that are now each their own individual industries.

We couldn’t help but be curious as to whether Ray had a favorite piece, category, or project. Llisa said that there was no favorite as far as she was aware, but that “… in an oral history that our friends at Herman Miller recently shared with us, she talks about her fondness for the plywood screen and for the wire chair with the two-piece “bikini” pad. Her focus was always about identifying, extrapolating, and creating for the need of each situation, in both her personal life and professional life – from a bouquet for a photograph to an exhibit graphic to a toy to a picnic to a furniture prototype.” Life was art and art was life in Ray’s eyes, and that comes through in her design work.

“When I think of Ray, I always think of her hands in motion as she was creating something – writing a note, cutting a shape out in paper with scissors, looking through a magnifying glass, arranging a bouquet, photographing a leaf on the ground, looking up something in a book, arranging seashells on a shelf, or winding up a tin toy. She always took delight and pleasure in nature – which is evident in the way they cultivated an indoor-outdoor lifestyle at their house,” Llisa said of fwhat kept Ray’s interests piqued and her mind full of inspiration. “You see it in her photographs of things like eucalyptus leaves dropped on the pathway, or geraniums in pots lined up outside, or kelp and seaweed washed up on the beach. And I think of her smile when she looked at something that was well-crafted by human hands – like a bundt cake dusted with powdered sugar or a bowl of fresh strawberries or a beautiful bouquet of roses.”

Not even Llisa realized what a design force her grandmother was until one time in college when she took the train into New York City to see Ray give a talk to an auditorium of college students. “I remember how her voice commanded the room. Everyone was listening to her every word. After the talk, we were supposed to go out to dinner – but before we could leave she was swarmed by students, professors, journalists, and old friends and acquaintances. Before that night, I just thought I was going out to dinner with my grandmother, but then I realized that if all these people wanted to hear what she had to say she must be pretty important.”

Ray’s love of functional design even spilled over into her own wardrobe. Llisa shared that Ray designed her own skirts and dresses to include lots of pockets “to hold a few coins, her wallet, a magnifying glass, pens, scissors in a sheath, little notepads, a calendar, safety pins, keys, hair pins, paper clips, a handkerchief with lace edge, grosgrain ribbons, paper color samples, business cards, a Polaroid camera – and even, on occasion, a present like a tiny Steiff bear that she gave me.” Those many pockets provided space to store, investigate, and take advantage of the world around her. “When I was little, I saw a lot of these objects as everyday, well-worn and functional… Today as a curator, I see them also as a set of powerful, well-crafted, often beautiful tools that helped her be effective in her work… Basically, she wore a fashionable toolkit.”

The world of design – and that available toolkit – has changed immeasurably since the heyday of the Eames, and we wonder how Ray would have approached all things digital when coupled with her trusty analogue tools.

“Every drawer from the Graphics Room spilled over with colorful papers from around the world, pieces of chalk in sawdust, crayons, colored pencils, paints, rubber stamps, silver/gold foils, tissue paper, and marbleized paper,” Llisa shared. The visuals she paints of the Eames Office are eye-bogglingly good. “On the tables, there were scissors, X-acto knives, paint brushes, magnifying glasses, and rulers. She was always working directly within the constraints of the materials and testing out ideas to see what worked best in 3D models.I would love to have seen what Ray would continue to do physically and what she would switch to digitally. In today’s time, I would have liked to hear her voice identifying important issues like sustainability, education, and conservation, and then talk about how to address these challenges that we are facing today.”

“The goal for both she (and Charles) to strive for was to let the design evolve from the learning. They developed a design process to address needs and solve the problems of their day. We’re continually inspired by the fact that so many of those challenges still resonate with those that we face today. Their boundless curiosity and relentless pursuit of solving problems inspired us to include “infinite curiosity” in the name of the institute.”

If only Ray could see the mark she left on designers and the industry, and it should go without saying that she influenced her granddaughter as well. “My grandmother helped shape my outlook on design. I saw from her how design was a powerful tool to assess and solve problems. I learned from Ray and Charles about how an object can become so well designed that you forget that it was ever designed in the first place – like a top or a kite. When an object like a toy has been honed for generations, its form has been slowly perfected over time with trial and error. Also, I like seeing how similar examples of an object might have evolved differently in different parts of the world.”

Ray’s Hand aims to realign how the relationship between Ray and Charles is viewed in regards to their work. In doing so, it demonstrates Ray’s contributions to what we now view as iconic designs. The larger hope is that the exhibition will continue to broaden conversations around giving women their due credit, historically and today.

To experience “Ray’s Hand” for yourself, visit eamesinstitute.org.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!