Wendell Castle, “Tongue,” 1969, plastic and fiberglass. (Photo: Joe Kramm. Image courtesy of R & Company)
What makes an object a work of art? Is it the materials, the maker, or simply the way we choose to value it? More than 50 years after a groundbreaking exhibition helped challenge the boundaries between art, craft, and design, OBJECTS: USA is returning for a new generation.
Now on view at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design (MCD), the exhibition brings together more than 70 historic and contemporary works spanning furniture, fiber, sculpture, jewelry, and experimental design. Organized in collaboration with R & Company, the show builds on the gallery’s OBJECTS: USA project, which revisited the influential 1969 exhibition in 2020 for a new generation.
The exhibition looks back to the original OBJECTS: USA, launched by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1969. Featuring more than 300 artists working in clay, enamel, fiber, glass, metal, mosaic, and wood, the ambitious show traveled throughout the United States and Europe. At a time when craft was often separated from the fine art world, OBJECTS: USA helped establish studio craft as an important space for artistic experimentation.
The new exhibition brings works by many of these pioneering makers into conversation with artists working today. Historic pieces by Wendell Castle, George Nakashima, Art Smith, Kay Sekimachi, and others appear alongside contemporary work by artists including the Haas Brothers, Roberto Lugo, Tanya Aguiñiga, Nicole Cherubini, and Jolie Ngo.
The result demonstrates just how broad the idea of craft can be. Furniture can become sculpture, traditional materials can take unexpected forms, and functional objects can become opportunities for experimentation.
One standout from the original exhibition is Wendell Castle’s Tongue (1969). Made from plastic and fiberglass, the bright orange work stretches outward in a long, organic form that sits somewhere between furniture and sculpture. More than half a century later, its playful shape still feels surprisingly contemporary. That spirit continues in the work of the exhibition’s present-day makers, many of whom experiment with materials and techniques while questioning the distinctions between art, design, and utility. Together, the works show that these boundaries are perhaps even more fluid today than they were when the original exhibition debuted.
OBJECTS: USA also has a special connection to its San Francisco setting. California, and the Bay Area in particular, played an important role in developing the American studio craft movement, providing a place for generations of artists to work outside the traditional hierarchies of the postwar art world.
That history makes revisiting OBJECTS: USA particularly fitting now. Presented during the United States’s 250th anniversary, the exhibition asks viewers to consider not only what American makers have created, but what the objects a culture chooses to value can tell us about that culture itself.
“Humans make objects, and objects make us human,” says MCD Executive Director Masha Berek. “They open a way into our relationships with beauty, tools, labor, and the body.”
More than five decades after the original exhibition challenged ideas about where craft belonged, OBJECTS: USA demonstrates that those questions are still relevant. By placing past and present makers side by side, the exhibition celebrates craft not as a fixed tradition, but as something that continues to change with each generation.
OBJECTS: USA is on view at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco through January 17, 2027.
New OBJECTS: USA exhibition brings together more than 70 historic and contemporary works.
Joyce Lin, “Skinned Chair II,” 2022, Found chair, epoxy clay, steel, and gold pigment. (Photo: Logan Jackson. Image courtesy of R & Company)
The exhibition looks back to the original OBJECTS: USA, launched by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1969.
Richard Marquis, “Hexagonal Stars and Stripes Bottle, 1969-70,” 1969, Glass. (Photo: Logan Jackson. Image courtesy of R & Company)
Kim Mupangilalai, “Bina Daybed,” 2023, Teak wood, volcanic stone, and rafia. (Photo: Logan Jackson. Image courtesy of R & Company)
The exhibition explores just how broad the idea of craft can be.
Haas Brothers, “Mace Jones,” 2016, Icelandic sheepskin, silver-plated cast bronze, and ebony. (Photo: Joe Kramm. Image courtesy of R & Company)
Arline Fisch, “Feather Plus Pectoral,” 1973, Sterling silver, fire gilt, feathers, leather, cameo, and pearls. (Photo: Joe Kramm. Image courtesy of R & Company)
More than five decades after the original exhibition challenged ideas about where craft belonged, OBJECTS: USA demonstrates that those questions are still relevant.
Jolie Ngo, “Table Lamp in Forced Perspective,” 2024, Stoneware, glaze, epoxy, wire, luster, and PLA plastic. (Photo: Logan Jackson. Image courtesy of R & Company)
