The Design Show 2019 is an illustration of the interdisciplinary research and production for which the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is known. This year’s exhibition features Masters students from the graduating classes of the Departments of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects and Fashion, Body, and Garment Design. It is the culminating presentation of the aforementioned graduate-degree candidates, and provides the opportunity for new and ambitious work to be presented to the public. This year, 50 degree candidates have worked with their lead department faculty and a curatorial team led by Curators Jonathan Solomon and Matylda Krzykowski, including three Graduate Curatorial Assistants to envision the exhibition.
Curator Jonathan Solomon is Associate Professor and Director of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Curator Matylda Krzykowski is a designer, curator, art director and educator, and a Mitchell Visiting Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jonathan and Matylda have worked in collaboration with Graduate Curatorial Assistants Constanza Mendoza-Guerra (MA Arts Administration & Policy, 2020), Nura Husseini (MFA Visual Communication Design, 2020) and Xavier Robles (MFA Photography, 2019).
The exhibition is overseen by the Department of Exhibitions and Exhibition Studies, with Steven Plaxco, Director of Exhibitions Operations, and Michael Hall, Exhibition Manager, in collaboration with Site Managers and student crew.
Always Sure, Never Certain
Assured in its ambivalence, design is uncertain in its confidence. Design is always jumping, never landing; always working, never finished; always starting, never ending. Always asking, never doubting. Design makes it up, and design breaks it down. Often used, but seldom as intended, design is always present, but never stays. Always there, but never when you need it, always human, sometimes humane. Always an art and never a science, never an art and always a science, design is always fiction and always fact.
Always possible, never probable; always an alternative, never a choice; design makes the visible invisible and the invisible seen. Always a pleasure, always work; always chaotic, always strategic; always trial, always error; design is never sustainable, always renewing.
All this may be right and may be wrong. Design is always certain, never sure.
—Matylda Krzykowski and Jonathan Solomon, Curators
View Gallery Guide.
The exhibition is on view from Saturday, May 11 through Tuesday, May 28.
View our event information for the May 11 opening here.
All events are open to the public and take place at Block Thirty Seven, 108 N. State St., 2nd floor gallery.
