Back in the days when COVID-19 was still an epidemic centered in the Hubei province of China, a Chinese architect named Sun Dayong posted some computer-generated graphics on Instagram showing a man wearing a carbon composite shield nearly as big as a bathtub. According to the caption, the apparatus was “a wearable space device that can effectively isolate us outdoors to ensure safety”, which Sun created using “the bionic design principle, taking bats as the prototype”. Sun chose bats because they might be the carriers of the novel coronavirus, and might therefore know a thing or two about how to survive it. He called his invention Be a Bat Man. In case anyone missed the superhero allusion, the back of his suit mimicked Batman’s iconic wings. – Read the full article by Jonathon Keats’ on Forbes.

“Our foreseeable future is a masked one. Already, I recite a new mantra when I leave my home, lest I forget one of four essential items: “Keys, wallet, phone, mask.”

The initial rush to produce as many simple-but-effective face coverings as possible (most notably, to address personal protective equipment shortfalls for front-line workers and medical personnel) was necessary and generous. But as panic subsides into a baseline of healthy, responsible caution, there’s more room for creativity. Yes, we wish we didn’t have to wear them, but it’s time to embrace masks as an expression of personal fashion.” Check out the full article on MCD’s Let’s Face It mask design competition by Sarah Hotchkiss at KQED Arts here.

Above image: A perforated leather and hand-dyed cotton mask made by artist Lauren McKeon. (Courtesy the artist)

Artist and environmental activist Linda Gass is concerned about “climate change at the intersection of water.” Her solo exhibition, titled and then this happened… at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) addresses issues of failing infrastructure, human interventions, and disasters that impact the Bay Area’s varied terrain and fragile watersheds. For Gass, textiles are a way to use “soft material to talk about hard issues.” Read Leora Lutz’s full review in the Spring 2020 Interwoven: Collaboration issue of Surface Design Journal.

Our Earth – in terms of climate – is on the brink of no return. This precarious situation is clear for all to see. Extreme events continue to batter every corner of the planet, even those that were hitherto considered safe, protected places. From politicians to designers, by way of the young Greta Thunberg, so many people and organisations are trying to come up with different measures in a bid to combat these phenomena. Read the full article in Salone del Mobile.Milano here.

Climate Change is an issue that can no longer be escaped in our everyday lives as well as in our disciplines. On view at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco is an exhibition that addresses the matter at both of these levels. As the exhibition unravels, we can’t help but wonder how these experiments can become starting points to explore the problem at a much larger scale while still retaining their portable, accessible, and resilient natures. Read the full Ness Magazine article here.

Wanxin Zhang @ Museum of Craft and Design. The artist’s life-sized figures fuse the ancient tradition of Asian ceramic sculpture (as seen in the terracotta soldiers excavated in 1974) with the subversive legacy of Northern California Funk. His art addresses age-old questions about whether enshrined ideals are sturdy enough to withstand present-day assaults.  A Story From Uncle Tom (2017), a multi-breasted figure of a black Lady Liberty, for example, seems ready to suckle all of humanity – until you see that her torch has been severed and knocked to the ground, while several clusters of graffiti-covered ceramic bricks asks whether any structure, here or anyplace else, can contain the tide of human migration.  Read all of Square Cylinder’s Best of 2019 here.

“…While Far Out gets us to contemplate interplanetary solutions to our earthbound problems, another San Francisco exhibition, Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience at the Museum of Craft and Design, asks us to rethink the foreseeable habitability of Earth (before we resort to living on Mars). Architects, designers, and artists address questions about shelter, food security, and access to safe water—and the creative solutions required in a world afflicted by natural disasters and climate change.” Read Jessica Zacks full article in Alta here.

Survival takes on a whole new meaning at the Museum of Craft and Design’s new exhibit, “Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience.” The show explores the intersection of art, architecture, science, and technology to understand how to design and adapt our built environment with natural disasters in mind. Art Works for Change invited a handful of architects and artists to design solutions for emergency shelters in a climate-constrained, disaster-prone world. The exhibition will be on display from December 19 through May 3, 2020. Read Kelsey Mulvey‘s full article online at Architectural Digest here.

For Bay Area residents looking to do some gallery hopping this fall, a trip to “Interior/Exterior” at the Museum of Craft and Design may be in order. “Interior/Exterior” features various structures, sculptures, and objects that explore the intersection of the two boundaries. Curated by Ariel Zaccheo, the show features eye-popping and site-specific works created by Julie Alpert, Benjamin Armas and Ori Carino, Macon Reed, Kathy Sirico, and Kaori Yamashita. The vivid colors and unique textures of each piece are perfect fodder for Instagram, and San Francisco residents have been wandering through the show with their phones at the ready. Here’s a look inside the show, which closes on December 1. See full Architectural Digest article by Timothy Latterner here.

The Museum of Craft and Design has two new compelling exhibitions dealing with the ways in which individuals are addressing climate change.

“Survival Architecture and the Art of Resilience” features ambitious work from artists and architects creating adaptations to a world that will be increasingly in need of emergency shelters in a climate-constrained world. The concurrent exhibition “Linda Gass: and then this happened …” draws attention to the natural water infrastructure in the greater Bay Area. Read full article by Sharon Anderson in the Marina Times here.

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the first Bauhaus school opening in Weimar, Germany. Bauhaus—from 1919 to 1933—brought together arts, crafts, and industry with a focus on aesthetics and objects. Though it lasted only a few years, it forever changed design.

Today’s architecture has Bauhaus roots (e.g., white, curves, glass corner), which can be seen in many contemporary buildings, especially those of the Silicon Valley variety. And you can still purchase Bauhaus items like a Junghans wristwatch (with its evocative number “4”) by industrial designer Max Bill; Alessi’s series of ashtrays, like this one designed by Marianne Brandt; or Marcel Breuer’s tubular-steel Wassily Chair. Read Brock Keeling’s full article on Curbed here.

“It is a bit frightening to know that just before the fall of their great civilization the ancient Greeks had come so close to our age, not only in their thought, but also in their scientific technology,” wrote the science historian Derek J. de Solla Price in the June 1959 issue of Scientific American. The source of Price’s awe and anxiety was a peculiar 2,000-year-old device known as the Antikythera mechanism. With more than twenty high-precision brass gears, the ancient computer showed the positions of the known planets on any given date. There were also dials forecasting future eclipses as well as the timing of upcoming Olympics. Read the full article by Jonathon Keats in Forbes.

In celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the Bauhaus movement in Germany, American Institute of Architects, San Francisco (AIASF) and the Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) present bauhaus.photo, a catalogue of life at the Bauhaus, portrait, architectural, and product photography.The exhibition charts the various ways the Bauhaus helped lead the development of contemporary avant-garde photography; from Surrealism and Dadaism to the New Vision and New Objectivity. Read the full article on SF Station here.

Al Farrow’s exhibition, Divine Ammunition at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, was a topical, heady series of twenty-four sculptures of cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, religious objects, and reliquaries. Created with gun parts, bullet casings, lead shot, and bones, Farrow’s sculptural replicas of religious edifices are a meditation on the poignant relationship between worship and violence that is endemic to religious traditions. Read Terri Cohn’s full review in Art Practical.

Each of Wanxin Zhang’s ceramic sculptures give the viewer something old and something new, reminding us of Jasper Johns’ famous injunction “take a thing, do something to it, do something else to it.” But here, the thing in question is the ancient tradition of Asian ceramic sculpture, and the doing something lies in his treatment of those traditions with additional elaborations derived from other sources, most obviously the long legacy of Northern California ceramic sculpture reaching back to the 1960s.  At first glance, their forms seem familiar, but we soon discover subtle mischief, oftentimes located in several distinct layers of visibility. Read Mark Van Proyen’s full article on Square Cylinder.

“Zhang may be a descendant of such masters of monumental ceramic sculpture as Shaw, Viola Frey, Peter Voulkos and, above all, Robert Arneson, but he is a worthy heir. Like them, his skills are so extraordinary he can confidently violate every rule, turning that technical irreverence to humorous, polemical and artistic effect. Having come to the U.S. from China in his 30s as an already accomplished artist, he adds his own unique twist.” Read Charles Desmarais full article in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook here.

Inspired by the late Robert Arneson and his friend Ai Weiwei, internationally celebrated and exhibited Bay Area sculptor Wanxin Zhang is a truly creative force. But the artist, the subject of an exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art in Sonoma through April 7 and “Wanxin Zhang: The Long Journey,” opening Saturday at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design, didn’t find success overnight.
Read the full article by Jackie Lee in the SF Examiner here.

As a symbol of power, the White House has been a site of protest from almost the time it was rebuilt in the early 19th century. Anyone who has witnessed or participated in the yelling and sign-waving that takes place at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. — especially in the Donald Trump era — will testify to the cacophony of sound and noise directed at the neoclassical building.

What Al Farrow has constructed is a kind of silent protest. But because it’s an Al Farrow work, The White House is both a resounding sculptural feat and a resounding cultural commentary. Farrow’s White House isn’t white. It’s a de-scaled replica weighing almost a ton that’s coated in a color that — let’s put this kindly — resembles that of a lightly colored bowel movement. In other words, shit. The White House doesn’t advertise its color scheme on any accompanying text. It doesn’t have to; art-goers who visit Farrow’s new sculpture and exhibit at the Museum of Craft and Design can make that connection for themselves. Maybe they won’t see fecal matter. Maybe they’ll see layers of pollution. Or soot. Or the color of corruption. But one thing that Farrow hopes they see is a building stained by both major political parties, not just the current occupant’s. Read Jonathan Curiel’s full article in SF Weekly here.

It’s not possible to walk into Al Farrow’s Divine Ammunition without feeling both awe and soul-deep dismay.  Farrow’s somber, menacing vision is ideally suited to the fear, horror, and moral dissolution that seems to permeate  contemporary life. The hatred that religions can breed is the blood-soaked ground upon which Farrow constructs models of mosques, synagogues, cathedrals, and reliquaries using munitions—a perversely incongruous counterpoint to the gospel of peace, love and tolerance we hear coming from pulpits. Read the full article on Square Cylinder by Julia Couzens.

Shiny bulbous columns and spheres are presented alongside jagged mineral-like structures and rocky reconstructions. It seems to be a futuristic stone-age, where the uncannily natural sit alongside the synthetic in an exploration of unapologetic materiality. Read full article by Lara Chapman here.

El artísta Tom Loeser estará presentando en el Museo de Artesanía y Diseño su exposición inaugural de 2018, Tom Loeser: Please Please Please, en asociación con el Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, y una instalación complementaria específica del sitio realizada por el colectivo artístico galardonado en SFMOMA SECA 2017: t.w.five. Read full article here.

Under radar even for many locals, the Museum of Craft and Design is a small museum with a big science-y and architectural bent. To be fair, the 13-year-old institution only moved to the Dogpatch neighborhood in 2013. Since then, it’s packed into a single (albeit spacious) room curious exhibits like an interactive “sewer portrait” that invites museumgoers to “compose” music by pumping water into a drainpipe installation; or a wool experience spanning everything from microscopic fiber imaging to a visual explanation of the felt-making process to creative home and decor applications of wool. See full “Where to” list here.

“A life-size environment for exploring architectural ideas in public, the pavilion is the architectural equivalent of the concept car. Yet unlike concept cars, which often generate headlines, pavilions seldom get much attention outside of specialized contexts like the Venice Architecture Biennale. A new exhibition at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design makes a strong case for the pavilion’s importance, and may even help to bring more attention to the pavilion-building practice.” Read full article in Forbes by Jonaton Keats here.

“A new exhibit opens this month at the Museum of Craft and Design, making it the perfect third stop on our morning-slash-afternoon in Dogpatch. See the new exhibit — highlighting digital and handmade architectural pavilions — then hit up the gift shop.” -Read full article by Ellie Eckert here.

“The pavilion is an architectural outlier. Traditionally a freestanding, temporary structure, it can provide utility or shelter, but more often than not its true purpose is pure spectacle. Imagine the architectural equivalent of statement jewelry. But Architectural Pavilions: Experiments and Artifacts, now on view at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design, pinpoints an ulterior, altogether invisible functionality for these unconventional structures: architects’ testing grounds…” Read full article by KQED Arts writer Sarah Hotchkiss here.

“In San Francisco, the heart of high tech, it is all about coding. Appropriately, Felt Decoded | Wool: Nature’s Technology deciphers the many facets of this fascinating fiber. The exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design explores every aspect, from the science of wool and age-old traditions to contemporary artistic and architectural uses.” –Read full Surface Design Journal article by Barbara Shapiro here.

NO 32: February / March- 2017
“GO AHEAD, YOU CAN TOUCH THAT—IT’S NATURALLY DURABLE, SO YOU CAN’T REALLY HURT IT,” says artist Janice Arnold. Standing at one end of a 40-foot table in her downtown Olympia, Washington, studio, the founder of JA Felt is running her nimble fingers along the undulating edges of a large handmade felt textile patterned with swirling foliage…Read full article by Rachel Gallaher here.

Wendy Maruyama’s wildLIFE Project continues its US tour to San Francisco this month

The San Diego, California-based artist Wendy Maruyama is bringing attention to the plight of elephants and other animals slaughtered for their tusks with her recent work, the wildLIFE Project, now traveling across the United States. Maruyama was inspired to create the wildLIFE Project after meeting with wildlife advocates—and elephants—on a trip to Kenya. Read full article by Victoria Stapley-Brown of The Art Newspaper here.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday from November 22-29, the Warriors and Glad teamed up to recognize five exemplary Bay Area individuals who have embodied kindness and service to others through their community organizations. On Tuesday, November 29, the five #GladToGive heroes were rewarded for their generosity and impact with a $1,000 shopping spree at the Alameda Target location to shop for needed items for each of their organizations. Read the full article here.

“You think, “All that rust and gunk: What an eyesore!” if you think of them at all. And the background noise of running water — from the toilet flush to the bathtub draining — is usually a mild annoyance and not a pleasure to hear. Of Sound l Mind and Objects, Ulfeldt’s new exhibition at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design, is out to prove otherwise…” Read Jeffrey Edalatpour’s full article on KQED Arts here.

“In the parking lot, tents and structures created a festival atmosphere, with carnival games and art activities supported by the Museum of Craft and Design, the Opera House’s own Dare 2 Dream art program, and more.” Read full article on Hoodline here.

“…But Venom’s quilts aren’t exactly Ladies’ Home Journal material: They’re all about crime, gambling, metal, and drugs. “My art is a collision of fine art crafting and the fringes of society,” he says. “I’m riding that razor’s edge.” – Read full article by Lauren Murrow.

Originally published in the May issue of San Francisco

“Yet there is no dedicated department of arts and crafts for veteran rehabilitation, at least not through the federal government. Instead, for decades, individual veterans have turned to crafting on their own, as explored in the PBS documentary “Craft in America: Service” and a recent exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, “Art and Other Tactics: Contemporary Craft by Artist Veterans.” By applying funds from the G.I. Bill toward taking on new artistic disciplines, more and more veterans are finding solace in crafts like pottery, woodworking, and metalsmithing…” Read the full GOOD article by Rebecca Huval here.

Sura Wood says “The Museum of Craft and Design showcases cutting-edge craft in two new exhibitions”.

Read the article in April, 2016 SF/ARTS

Read the article published in SF Gate on December 9, 2014

See the article in the April 5, 2013 issue of the San Francisco Examiner

The Museum of Craft and Design has finally found a home in San Francisco after the unexpected loss of its location on Sutter Street in 2004. After years of pop-up museums around the city, the museum’s new permanent location opened in the Dogpatch neighborhood this past weekend with a celebration including inaugural exhibits, food trucks and a family activity in its MakeArt Lab — all for free.

See the article in the April 8, 2013 issue of the Daily Californian

See the review in the April 5, 2013 issue of Wallpaper

Read the April 4, 2013 article in Pure Wow