R & COMPANY / OBJECTS: USA 2020

R & Company

NYC

February 16 – September 16, 2021

R & Company presents Objects: USA 2020 – A landmark exhibition reframing the history, present, adn future of handmade American arts.

Objects: USA 2020 surveys American handmade arts through a curated selection of 100 artists, including 50 of the most impactful contemporary makers working today and 50 historical artists, whose work viewed together is a testament to the diverse, pluralistic, and hybrid state of handmade objects in American culture today.

Curated by Glenn Adamson, James Zemaitis, Abby Bangser, and Evan Snyderman.

With accompanying monograph.

Objects: USA 2020 hails a new generation of artist-craftspeople by revisiting a groundbreaking event that redefined and elevated American craft.

Complementing and expanding the Objects: USA 2020 exhibition, this publication revisits the history of Objects: USA and its accompanying catalog—which has become a bible of sorts to curators, gallerists, dealers, craftspeople, artists, and auction houses. Featuring essays by some of the foremost authorities on craft, including Glenn Adamson (curator and former director of the Museum of Arts & Design), James Zemaitis (director of Museum Relations at R & Company), and Lena Vigna (curator of exhibitions at the Racine Art Museum), an interview with Paul J. Smith (cocurator of Objects: USA), archival photographs of the original exhibition and of important historical works, and lush full-color images of contemporary works, Objects: USA 2020 is an essential art historical reference that traces how craft was elevated to the status of museum-quality art, and sets its trajectory forward.