Bonus Post - Museum of Art and Design (MAD) - Abagail T. Serrano

 

Abagail T. Serrano, MAD Visit

I took my boyfriend with me to the MAD. There were a few different exhibitions at the time. These include the Outside of the Jewelry Box show, and the Barbie: A Cultural Icon Exhibit.

The Outside of the Jewelry Box show was a beautiful group of works by LGBTQ+ individuals. The room was all in rainbow and had a great showing of different jewelry pieces. My favorite piece was Beau McCall's Button Armor, made with buttons and wire. It was made to show its versatility to be fluid in form and the ability to express gender identities. The work made me nostalgic for my childhood in which buttons were often present and I own many today. It is a beautiful piece and the message behind it gives the piece that much more meaning. 

The next Exhibition we got to experience was Craft Front and Center: Conservation Pieces. They showed some work from their permanent collection, new and old. The focus of the show was generational dialogues. From this Exhibition, my favorite piece was Dark Prayer Rug, a 1968 piece made by Sheila Hicks. As a part of the fiber arts movement, Hicks was inspired by Joseph Albers' wife Anni Albers the Bauhaus Weaver. She later looked into different weaving techniques. This piece was so breathtaking in scale and the richness of color. Seeing the handmade piece hung on the wall across the gallery had me making a B-line right to it. Her connection and respect for different cultures and their weaving techniques sing in this piece and I wish I could ask her more about it. 

The next show, next to this was Anne Wilson's Errant Behaviors. The room was fitted with tables and small pieces of paper with pens. Underneath the glass on these tables were many samples of black lace. On the opposite wall was huge text, listing instructions to sit, and use the lace to spot different objects in its shapes. From there you were asked to draw what you saw. It was a beautiful quiet interactive exhibit, unfortunately, I couldn't sit for it. 

The final exhibition we saw was Barbie: A Cultural Icon.

This was a two-floor exhibition full of all of the different Barbies over the years, in wonderful condition. There were many photo opportunities which we took full advantage of. Aside from that many of the areas showing the barbies were accompanied by the dresses that inspired the outfits of the barbies or that were inspired by the barbies all made by different fashion designers. There was a lot of love put into this exhibit and was a lot of fun to experience. 

I can't drive 

https://madmuseum.org/visit