On view through March 5
Stephen Burks with The Ancestors, 2022, acrylic, epoxy resin, enamel, polystyrene foam, and clay-coated paper, designed by Stephen Burks (American, born 1969), manufactured by Stephen Burks Man Made, New York, established 1997, collection of the artist. Photo by Caroline Tompkins.
Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place surveys Burks’s multifaceted, craft-centered design practice at midcareer, which includes global craft projects, industrial design, and new work inviting radical participation. The exhibition explores ideas concerning domesticity—namely, how we can design interiors to enable joyful living while empowering creativity. In the wake of several global crises, designers have responded by redefining our relationship to our homes, including interrogating the modernist trope of better living through design. As an African American designer, Burks has forged a distinctive path by embracing the challenge to advocate for hand production as a strategy for innovation within industrial production. Following the solo presentation of Stephen Burks: Man Made (at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2011), this exhibition is the first to survey Burks’s workshop-based design practice, presenting several key projects from the last ten years. These industrial design and craft-centered projects are in conversation with a new speculative project—Shelter
in Place—that explores the visionary possibilities of design.
Exhibition catalogue available for purchase at the Museum Shop and at museumshop.high.org.
RELATED PROGRAMS
CONVERSATIONS WITH CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS: STEPHEN BURKS
Thursday, November 10, 7 p.m., Hill Auditorium
Join us as we welcome designer Stephen Burks to discuss his exhibition Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place and the ways that it explores ideas concerning domesticity. Burks will be in conversation with curator and writer Glenn Adamson and the High’s Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, Monica Obniski. Visit high.org for tickets. Free for members.
Support for Conversations with Contemporary Artists is provided by the Jane F. and Clayton F. Jackson Conversations with Contemporary Artists Endowment.
BEREA COLLEGE WORKSHOPS
Saturday, February 11, and Sunday, February 12
Berea College, which Burks has collaborated with since 2018, will be on-site hosting workshops for members and teens on February 11 and drop-in workshops during UPS Second Sunday on February 12. Burks and Berea College’s Student Craft initiative created a series of home accessories, some of which are on display in Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place. Visit high.org for details.
