Dutch Designers Exploring ‘Beauty’ in Silicon Valley

Sat, Oct 8 - Fri, Feb 19  2016

From October 8 until February 19, Dutch artist Jantje Fleischhut, Formafantasma, Pepe Heykoop, Richard Niessen, Scholten & Baijings, Florian Idenburg, Studio Job, Iris van Herpen, Olivier van Herpt, Jólan van der Wiel, Vlisco, and Finnish Dutch based artists Kustaa Saksi and Tuomas Markunpoika, will all be featured in ‘Beauty’, a group exhibition in the San Jose Museum of Art.  The popular contemporary design exhibition is part of a series by the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. The exhibition comprises 280 works by fifty-seven international, cutting-edge designers from twenty-seven countries. 

Projects range from experimental prototypes and interactive games to high-tech fashion and architecture made possible by new material technologies; from forms enabled by advanced digital systems to fantastical creatures imagined and handmade by a cottage industry of South African beadworkers. Imagine, for example, a couture jacket that turns color based on the air temperature. Across the board, this exhibition is about beauty—and its uplifting, surprising, and inspiring impact on our lives. This exhibition lets visitors experience the delight of unfettered creativity that is simultaneously functional and smart, yet equally human, elegant, and witty.

What comes to mind when you hear the word “beauty?” The designers in Beauty answer this question in myriad ways. The exhibition explores beauty through seven descriptive categories: extravagant, intricate, ethereal, transgressive, emergent, elemental, and transformative. These themes will serve as springboards to engage designers, artists, architects, engineers, and futurists (as well as the general public) in San Jose, Silicon Valley, and the Bay Area. From the iPhone to the Tesla Model S, beauty and technology often go hand-inhand in Silicon Valley. Here, the aesthetic appeal of great design is a strategic imperative: an object’s “look and feel” provides a leading, competitive edge and can be as spectacular as the function within. Today, in fact, there are more digital and tech-product designers working in the San Francisco Bay Area than anywhere else in the world. We are an important hub of design thinking for the twenty-first century.

About San Jose Museum of Art

The San Jose Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought provoking, the museum delights visitors with it’s surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time. The museum is a leading showcase in the Bay Area for modern and contemporary art. It has earned a reputation for its fresh, distinctive exhibitions, which are conceived to engage museum visitors of various ages and cultural backgrounds. Through its exhibitions and programs, SJMA addresses major trends in international contemporary art, architecture, and design, with an ongoing commitment to also place the work of California artists in national and international context.  The Museum strives to make significant contributions to art‑historical scholarship; address prescient issues of interest to the general public; and offer programs that reflect the rich diversity of its communities.  The Museum presents nine to twelve exhibitions each year, including one‑person and thematic group exhibitions that include a range of artworks, from traditional painting to exploratory new‑media installations. Given its location in the heart of the high‑technology culture of Silicon Valley, the museum has a substantial commitment to new work in new media, as well as to initiating special projects and commissions that reflect issues of importance to its communities.