As the cultural calendar shifts through the autumn and winter seasons, the architecture, design, and art worlds are presenting an ambitious roster of exhibitions, major museum openings, and high-profile installations. From exploratory deep dives into the historical roots of Surrealism to the adaptive reuse of massive industrial infrastructure, institutions around the globe are highlighting how design shapes human behavior, environmental consciousness, and cultural memory.
Among the season’s premier offerings, the Design Museum in London has launched a sprawling, comprehensive exhibition that traces the historical origins of Surrealist art and design while engaging with contemporary creative responses. Co-curated alongside the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the major presentation brings together an extraordinary cross-section of furniture, interior design, fashion, photography, and fine art. The exhibition features foundational 20th-century masters such as Salvador Dalí and Man Ray, alongside more recent tastemakers, including couture fashion houses Schiaparelli and Dior, as well as visionary Icelandic musician Björk. By examining the lingering influence of the Surrealist movement across multiple disciplines, the exhibition demonstrates how the uncanny, the irrational, and the dreamlike continue to permeate modern material culture.
What’s Going On
Moving across the Atlantic, Washington, D.C., is welcoming a major cultural addition to its arts landscape. Collectors Don and Mera Rubell, who have been acquiring contemporary art since 1965 and currently maintain one of the largest private collections in the world, are expanding their institutional footprint. Following the success of the first Rubell Museum, which opened in Miami in 1993, the foundation has opened a brand-new, 32,000-square-foot space in the nation’s capital. Located in a former public high school that has been meticulously renovated by architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle, the new venue serves as a dynamic anchor for the city’s contemporary art scene.
The inaugural exhibition serves as a direct homage to the iconic 1971 album by Marvin Gaye, a notable alumnus of the historic school building. The grand opening show features more than 200 works created by 40 distinct artists. Among the highlights is a remarkable 20-part ink-and-gouache series by Keith Haring, which the celebrated artist completed in a single, continuous sitting while listening to the music of Gaye and Bob Marley.
Meanwhile, in Karlsruhe, Germany, the ZKM | Center for Art and Media is hosting the first-ever solo exhibition dedicated to the work of high-rise architect Ole Scheeren. Founded in 2010, Scheeren’s eponymous firm has gained international renown for monumental and experimental building projects that redefine urban density and community space. Born in Karlsruhe, Scheeren began his career at Rem Koolhaas’s OMA office in Rotterdam before striking out on his own to design such iconic structures as the award-winning China Central Television (CCTV) Station in Beijing and the cascading Interlace building in Singapore. The winter exhibition, titled Spaces of Life, provides an intimate look at the conceptual underpinnings and global impact of his architectural philosophy.
Ongoing Exhibitions
In London, the AA Gallery is currently hosting an exhibition that tackles pressing ecological concerns through the lens of architectural history and practice. Curated by the Bologna-based practice Mario Cucinella Architects, The Future is a Journey to the Past: Stories about Sustainability explores the evolving definition of environmental stewardship and investigates how architecture can mediate the ongoing conflicts between the natural world and human development. Visitors to the gallery encounter a detailed timeline tracing the historical evolution of environmental activism alongside a curated selection of projects by the firm that exemplify sustainable design strategies. The exhibition draws its conceptual inspiration from principal Mario Cucinella’s recent book of the same name, in which the architect reflects on ten exploratory journeys to diverse cities and landscapes around the world, speculating deeply on humanity’s patterns of natural resource consumption.
Along the coast of North Somerset, England, a retired industrial relic has found a dramatic second life as one of the United Kingdom’s largest public art installations. See Monster, created by design studio Newsubstance, transforms a decommissioned North Sea oil rig into an immersive destination. After being towed around the island nation for much of the summer, the structure is now permanently docked in the Bristol Channel off the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare. Visitors navigating the installation can pass directly behind a sweeping water feature cascading from the lower platform, gaining access to four stories of interactive architectural elements. These include a multi-level slide, a seated outdoor amphitheater, and elevated gardens. Developed for the nine-month-long Unboxed Festival, See Monster stands as a powerful testament to the potential of industrial infrastructure adaptation and reuse.
Back in the British capital, the Korean Cultural Centre UK has partnered with the Art Center Nabi in Seoul to present Our Friendly Neighbors. The exhibition showcases new works by contemporary South Korean artists Yiyun Kang, Bang & Lee, and Jinjoon Lee. Through their respective mediums, the selected artists explore the intricate connections linking art, technology, and the environment, prompting viewers to reconsider the boundaries of community in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerating global interconnectivity.
In New York City, the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at Cooper Union is presenting Model Behavior, an exhibition featuring more than 70 works by 45 diverse artists and architects, including Olafur Eliasson, Peter Eisenman, Eyal Weizman, and Greg Lynn. Curated by the collective Anyone Cooperation, the exhibition poses a fundamental question to contemporary designers: how do architectural models actively reflect, anticipate, and contribute to changing social behaviors far beyond the traditional boundaries of the design studio?
Out on the West Coast, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is currently staging the first-ever solo museum exhibition for award-winning architect Marshall Brown. Titled The Architecture of Collage: Marshall Brown, the show features 25 of the architect’s striking works. Brown refers to these intricate pieces as chimeras—named after the mythical lion-goat-snake hybrid of Greek antiquity. By taking photographs of existing buildings and recombining their individual elements, Brown constructs entirely new architectural forms that challenge traditional perceptions of space, mass, and urban fabric.
Events
In the realm of live cultural programming, Las Vegas is celebrating its distinct architectural heritage through a specialized multi-day event. The Neon Museum, housed on a site designed by legendary architect Paul Revere Williams, is hosting Duck Duck Shed: Celebrating Las Vegas Architecture, Design, and Culture. The four-day gathering highlights the decades of relentless architectural innovation—particularly within the realm of hospitality design—that have come to define the identity of Las Vegas. The event features prominent speakers including urban planner Alan Hess and architect Jon Sparer, the creative minds behind landmark destinations such as the Mirage, Paris Las Vegas, and the Bellagio.
Competitions
For emerging talent, major design opportunities continue to open for the upcoming year. Leading surfacing manufacturer Formica has officially launched its annual student design competition, inviting aspiring creatives from across the globe to test their skills. The 2023 FORM Student Innovation Competition challenges entrants to submit a detailed color rendering alongside a comprehensive project statement for an original furniture design explicitly informed by the concept of maximalism. To qualify, student submissions must incorporate three or more products from the Formica or FENIX brand portfolios, including at least one selection from the recent SurfaceSet collection.
