By Design: Looking at Living

Charles and Ray Eames, Dining Chair

This exhibition considers our relationship to design using objects from the permanent collection. The included works demonstrate how technological advances and proximity to materials help shape modern and contemporary design. Much of the work in the exhibition has never been on view. The show features chairs created from textiles, seatbelts, and molded plywood; wood tables and bowls made and decorated in Munising, Michigan; Vases – both mold-made glass and hand-crafted alabaster; sculptural stainless steel cutlery and loom-made wall hangings. Designers created all of these works with our use and taste in mind. At the same time, photographs by Christine Saari document how we engage with objects. The exhibition asks us to appreciate and consider the familiar objects and things we may overlook in our everyday lives.

The exhibition features artists and designers, including Alvar Aalto, Nuttapong Charoenkitivarakorn, Darryl Curran, Ray and Charles Eames, Kaj Franck, Frank Gehry, Alexander Girard, Andy Gregg, Igarashi Takenobu, Max Krimmel, Thomas Lamb, Gunnel Nyman, Glenn Polinsky, F.A. “Butzi” Porsche, Sue Robishaw, Christine Saari, Eero Saarinen, Richard Sapper, Bonnie Schiffman, Steve Schmeck, Dennis Sotala, Momoyo Torimitsu, Dorothy Tracy, Dale Wedig, Tapio Wikkala, and firms Munising Woodenware Co. and Sitcom Furniture.