studio job turns new york's museum of arts and design into a MAD house

studio job turns new york’s museum of arts and design into a MAD house
photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design

studio job: MAD house
museum of arts and design, new york
now through august 21, 2016

from now until the end of august, the museum of arts and design hosts 57 pieces by design collaborators job smeets and nynke tynagel of studio job — four of which make their debut at the exhibition. ‘MAD house’ is the first solo museum show in the US dedicated to the atelier, and emphasizes the elements of history, fantasy and irony that studio job has become best known for.

two floors of the new york-based museum are transformed into an immersive design experience, featuring sculpture, lighting, furniture, floor coverings, wallpaper, drawings, and other objects created over the past 16 years. ‘for us, creation is more important than discipline,’ smeet says, ‘and with purpose and precision, we’re situating decorative arts within the twenty-first century. unlike most designers working today, we’re not coming from modernism,’ said smeets. ‘our contribution is that we’ve recovered a lost path. is that design? is that art? I’m not sure.’

photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design

presented as if featured in a collector’s home, the pieces are organized by narrative rather than chronology. the exhibition highlights studio job’s expressive and opulent body of work, which combines ornamentation and monumentality with personal and sociocultural fictions. the pieces making their international debut include works like ‘sex cake table lamp’ and ‘sinking ship table’, alongside sketches and full-scale color drawings that document the creative process. additionally, four private commissions are shown publicly for the first time: the cast bronze ‘pitchfork and shovel’, stained glass ‘heart’ and ‘dr. crützen illuminator’, and ‘unity cabinet’ in marquetry.

finally, the designers have created a sound piece made in the spirit of an audio tour for a private art collection. in it, job smeets and nynke tynagel play the role of art collectors who have acquired these works, recounting both real and imagined stories behind each object that speculate on the artists’ possible intent.

photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design

‘studio job stands as one of the most distinctive contemporary design studios today,’ says ronald t. labaco, MAD’s marcia docter senior curator. ‘their exhibition concept organizes their work in loose, sometimes contradictory groupings around ideas such as love/lust, agrarian/preindustrial, and church/religion. these fluid categories underscore studio job’s desire for visitors to bring their own interpretation and personal experience to the artwork on view, in effect creating a metamodern dialogue rooted in engagement and storytelling.’

photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design

photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design

photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design 

photo by butcher walsh / courtesy of the museum of arts and design

burj khalifa, 2013-2014 | photo by loek blonk, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery

train crash, 2015 | photo by adrien millot, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery

studio job, banana, 2015 | courtesy of samuel vanhoegaerden gallery

big ben, 2009-2014 | photo by loek blonk, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery

wrecking ball, 2010 | photo by adrien millot, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery 

monkey business, 2013 | photo by loek blonk, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery

taj mahal II, 2014 | photo by adrien millot, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery

robber baron lamp, 2007 | photo by robert kot, groninger museum 

chartres, 2009-2012 | photo by adrien millot, courtesy of carpenters workshop gallery