Announcing the Fall 2020 Studio Visit Series!
We are delighted to announce our Studio Visit Series lineup for the Fall 2020 season. Read more below about Richard Clarkson, Ilana Harris-Babou, Ti Chang, Kelli Anderson, and Brian Singer!
Richard Clarkson is a product designer and the creative mind behind the eponymous Richard Clarkson Studio. He has always been fascinated with color, materiality, shape and form, drawing his inspiration from nature, especially from the sky. With strong foundations in furniture and industrial product design, he is engaged with media and graphic design, as well as photography, painting and architecture. His work is guided by inspiring awe, joy and a sense of magic. Known for his creation of the iconic Clouds lighting systems, Richard is also the designer of unique furniture, lighting fixtures and home accessories. Born in New Zealand, Richard holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts’ Products of Design program, and a Bachelor of Design Innovation in industrial design from Victoria University of Wellington.
Ilana Harris-Babou is an American sculptor and installation artist who uses music videos, cooking shows, and home improvement television as material in an abject exploration of the American Dream. She works primarily in ceramic sculpture and video installation, and frames messy scenes with studio lighting and HD video in order to ask questions about intimacy, violence, and consumption.
In 2018, she created a fake hardware store at the Larrie Gallery in New York City. This project, titled "Reparation Hardware", features reclaimed furniture to create sculptures that reflect the notion of making the old new again. Her work on "Reparation Hardware" critiques double standards and the modern American ideals of life within the home. She also features political messages reflecting the emancipation and equality of African-Americans in the United States.
Harris-Babou was born in Brooklyn, New York, and currently lives and works in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where her studio is located. Harris-Babou received an MFA in New Genres from Columbia University and a BA in Art from Yale University. Ti Chang
Ti Chang is an industrial designer and entrepreneur passionate about designing products for women. she is the co-founder of Crave, a luxury sex toy manufacturer for women who has been featured in Fortune, Huffington Post, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, and New York Times. Crave, a San Francisco-based company specializes in discreet and beautifully designed luxury sex toys. Ti leads the concept and design for the company’s full line of products which has won numerous awards including Red Dot, IDEA and Good Design. Prior to Crave, Ti founded INCOQNITO, a line of intimate accessories that double as fashionable jewelry which was acquired by CRAVE in 2011. Ti is best known for the design of Vesper, a vibrator necklace, one of the most celebrated and innovative sex toys disrupting the adult toy industry and changing the conversation around sex.
Ti holds a MA in Design Products from Royal College of Art in London and a BS in Industrial Design from Georgia Institute of Technology. Ti grew up in Atlanta, GA and now enjoys life and work in San Francisco.
Kelli Anderson is an artist, designer, animator, and tinkerer who pushes the limits of ordinary materials by seeking out possibilities hidden in plain view. Her books and projects have included a pop-up paper planetarium, a book that transforms into a pinhole camera, and a working paper record. Intentionally lo-fi, she believes that humble materials can make the complexity and magic of our world accessible. A long-time collaborator with the activist group, the Yes Men, together they created and distributed a meticulously counterfeited copy of the New York Times — filled only with only good news from a Utopian future — for which they won an Ars Electronica Prix Award of Distinction.
She is also known for her design, animation, and illustration work for NPR, The New Yorker, Wired, MoMA, Pentagram, Tinybop’s award-winning Human Body app, the Exploratorium, and the real New York Times, as well as her redesign of NYC brands such as Russ & Daughters and Momofuku. She occasionally teaches at the School for Poetic Computation and the New School in NYC.
Someguy, also known as Brian Singer, is a San Francisco based fine artist whose projects have received international attention. His art ranges from intimate works with paper and books, to large scale installations and participatory projects. The 1000 Journals Project, launched in 2000, was turned into a book, a feature length documentary, and has been exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The project was covered in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Better Homes and Gardens and many others. More recently, Singer launched the provocative project TWIT Spotting, where photos of people using their phones while driving were placed onto Billboards in the San Francisco Bay Area gaining widespread attention across regional broadcast media outlets.
Brian is also an accomplished graphic designer having created work for Apple, Adidas, SFMOMA, Facebook, Chronicle Books and many others. In addition to being recognized with numerous awards and publications, he has served as the president of the San Francisco chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design and taught at Academy of Art University.