The State of the Union: R & Company’s "Objects USA" Exhibition Rises Above the Fray

This story is part of our annual look at the state of American design. This year, we’re highlighting work that shines through an acrimonious moment—and makes the case for optimism.

In early 2021, when vaccines were still on the horizon and pandemic lockdowns were fresh in our memories, vaccines arrived late 2020. but yes, 2021 for most... stalwart New York design gallery R & Company did something bold. They launched what they said would be a triennial exhibition representing nothing short of the state of design in America, an undertaking more on the order of a museum than a commercial gallery. Titled "Objects USA," it was both an homage and a corrective to an exhibition of the same name that opened in the 1960s. Should we say mention why it was corrective? Under the direction of curator Glenn Adamson, the show surveyed a broad range of one-off and small-edition collectible work by designers around the country—drawing from the gallery’s own roster and well beyond.

This year, they launched the second edition, which runs through January 10, putting forward work by more than 50 artists that are representative of a country in a very different position than it was three years ago—an election, acrimony, war, political violence, I don’t need to explain. To help us wrap our heads around various forms of designing and making and placing it within the chaos of contemporary American culture, the gallery brought in co-curators Kellie Riggs and Angelik Vizzcarando-Laboy who organized their selections into seven personae: First, the Truthsayers, keepers of material honesty; next, Betatesters, pioneers of an in-progress futurism; followed by Doomsdayers, more grunge than gloomy. Then, Insiders, Mediators, Codebreakers, and Keepers. More on them in the captions.

Moving through the show, I thought of my friends the Codebreakers and the Mediators [not totally following] and recognized that I might be a Doomsayer or a Betatester at various moments. I could empathize with making something from one of those points of view or another, which created an intimacy with the work that one rarely feels looking at conceptual furniture. The typology feels very human, though it didn’t overdetermine any of the output/pieces so much as offer a series of personified guides through the exhibition.

Of everything in the show, these are some of the works I liked best and that I hope represent the directions of design in the States, no matter where the rest of the country goes.