The Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) is pleased to present OBJECTS: USA, on view September 5, 2026 through January 17, 2027. Organized in partnership with R & Company, a leading New York design gallery, the exhibition revisits one of the most influential craft exhibitions ever staged. It examines its enduring impact on American craft, material culture, and contemporary design around the world.
In 1969, the Smithsonian debuted OBJECTS: USA, a landmark exhibition that brought unprecedented attention to American studio craft. Featuring artists working across clay, fiber, glass, metal, wood, enamel, and mosaic, the exhibition traveled widely and helped establish the studio craft movement as a vital force within American culture. Building on this legacy, the current iteration of OBJECTS: USA reimagines the original exhibition for a new generation, bringing historic and contemporary works by leading artists and designers into dialogue.
Jolie Ngo, Table Lamp in Forced Perspective (detail). Stoneware, glaze, epoxy, wire, luster, and PLA plastic.
Photograph courtesy of R & Company.
The 2026 presentation at MCD will feature over 70 works by pioneering figures, including Wendell Castle, Kay Sekimachi, George Nakashima, and Art Smith, alongside contemporary makers such as the Haas Brothers, Kim Mupangilalai, Jolie Ngo, Roberto Lugo, Tanya Aguiñiga, and Nicole Cherubini. Through works in furniture, fiber, sculpture, jewelry, and experimental design, OBJECTS: USA highlights artists who challenge conventional boundaries between art, craft, and utility while expanding the possibilities of material expression.
Presented during the nation’s 250th anniversary and as part of Craft in America’s Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026 initiative, OBJECTS: USA considers how makers have shaped and reflected American culture across generations. The exhibition offers an expansive view of American making, one grounded in artistry, grit, and imaginative independence.
The exhibition of OBJECTS: USA at the Museum of Craft and Design carries particular resonance in California, and especially in the Bay Area, which was central to the development of American studio craft and fostered generations of artists who challenged the prevailing hierarchies of their time. When the original exhibition opened in 1969, craft offered many artists working outside the dominant structures of the postwar art world a space of artistic freedom and cultural breadth, making room for voices often marginalized within the fine-art canon.
“OBJECTS: USA arrives at a moment when competing expressions of power and taste are shaping the nation’s self-image in especially visible ways,” said Masha Berek, Executive Director of the Museum of Craft and Design. “Humans make objects, and objects make us human. They open a way into our relationships with beauty, tools, labor, and the body. The objects we choose to value reveal what kind of culture we are building.”
Together, the historic and contemporary works in OBJECTS: USA trace a changing yet continuous story of American craft, from the rise of the studio craft movement to the expanded field of contemporary object-making today. Across generations, the exhibition frames craft as a dynamic language for invention and cultural imagination.
Featured Artists:
1969 OBJECTS: USA ARTISTS: JB Blunk, Art Carpenter, Wendell Castle, Wharton Esherick, Arline Fisch, Trude Guermonprez, Jun Kaneko, Howard Kottler, Doyle Lane, Sam Maloof, Richard Marquis, George Nakashima, Michele Oka Doner, Marilyn Pappas, Ruth and Svetozar Radakovich, June Schwarcz, Kay Sekimachi, Art Smith, Toshiko Takaezu, Peter Voulkos, Marguerite Wildenhain.
CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS: Tanya Aguiñiga, Ebitenefya Baralaye, Dana Barnes, Ashwini Bhat, Nicole Cherubini, Dee Clements, Liz Collins, Amber Cowan, Francesca DiMattio, Nik Gelormino, Haas Brothers, Marie Herwald Hermann, Cody Hoyt, Serban Ionescu, Doug Johnston, Misha Kahn, Joyce Lin, Roberto Lugo, Luam Melake, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, Cedric Mitchell, Jayden Moore, Kim Mupangilaï, Jolie Ngo, Jovencio de la Paz, Anders Ruhwald, Katie Stout, Anna Von Mertens, David Wiseman, Thaddeus Wolfe, Jeff Zimmerman.
OBJECTS: USA is organized by R & Company. This exhibition is part of Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, presented by Craft in America.
OBJECTS: USA is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Museum of Craft and Design’s exhibitions and programs are generously supported by an anonymous funder, Windgate Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and Crankstart Foundation.
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Press/Media Preview:
Friday, September 4, 2026, 5:00–7:00 PM
RSVP to sbrosales@sfmcd.org
Press Image Folder
For interview requests or more information, contact Sarah Beth Rosales, Marketing and Communications Director, Museum of Craft and Design at sbrosales@sfmcd.org or 415.773.0303.
About R & Company
R & Company gallery is committed to nurturing and sustaining the careers of both emerging and established designers, as well as to maintaining and expanding commercial and academic interest in historical design. Its founders, Zesty Meyers and Evan Snyderman, are widely recognized for identifying rising talent, deepening scholarship about collectible design, and developing new avenues for growth in the industry. Through its acclaimed exhibitions, publications, and fair presentations, the gallery has become a sought-after leader in the field, fostering relationships with an array of collectors, cultural leaders, dedicated patrons, and scholars.
About the Museum of Craft and Design
Founded in 2004, the Museum of Craft and Design is San Francisco’s only museum dedicated to these creative fields, exploring the processes and material intelligence that shape contemporary life. Through artist-centered exhibitions, hands-on learning, and community engagement, the museum connects audiences with the ideas, skills, and stories behind the things we make. Learn more at sfmcd.org.
