Open Studios at the Museum of Arts and Design

Visit Heechan Kim, Luam Melake, and Rachelle Dang for Open Studios from 10:30-5:30 on May 11, 13, 14, 18, and 20. The artists and designers of MAD’s Artist Studios cohort will welcome visitors into their studios to share brand new works and works-in-progress for a behind-the-scenes look into their creative practices.

Museum admission includes access to the Artist Studios and MAD’s new season of exhibitions including Chris Schanck: Off-World, Flower Craft, and Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Heechan Kim applies traditional craft techniques in new contexts to reimagine and explore outcomes, and challenge craft’s visual potential. At MAD, Kim will continue his practice of reimagining traditional weaving practices using new materials. Researching pattern, color, and the functionality of woven seating, Kim will explore broader questions of sustainable product design. Kim is currently an adjunct faculty member of Parsons School of Design and the City College of New York. He received an MFA in woodworking and furniture design from Rochester Institute of Technology and a BFA in metal arts and jewelry from Seoul National University.

Luam Melake creates handwoven sculptures and furniture using innovative material combinations that reference her interdisciplinary interests in craft, industrial design, fine art, and architecture. Exploiting the psychological impacts of objects is the central focus of her work. Melake’s handwoven sculptures explore how empathy can be experienced with objects that convey abstract emotional concepts through their material compositions. Similarly, her hyper-functional furniture work investigates the potential for furniture to facilitate meaningful social interactions and improve psychological well-being. Melake received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley in interdisciplinary field studies with a focus on architecture. She has exhibited internationally, including at R & Company, Parker Gallery, Addis Fine Art and Fondation Blachere. She is currently a research fellow at Parsons School of Design.

Rachelle Dang combines sculpture and installation to comment on colonialism’s lasting impact on the natural environment. By bringing together historical material, botanical research, personal memories, and poetic allusion, she encourages audiences to deconstruct the past and reimagine the future. Dang was born in Honolulu and lives in Brooklyn.

ABOUT MAD’S ARTIST STUDIOS

MAD’s Artist Studios program invites visitors to ask questions, view works in progress, and gain firsthand exposure to the creative process of resident artists and designers working on-site at the Museum. The residents represent diverse experimental creative practices and participate in a wide range of intergenerational public programming. Open studio hours are held every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm. During that time, the artists welcome Museum visitors inside their workspaces for conversation and close looking.

Established in 2008, the program is widely recognized as an innovative model for museum education and has served as an important platform for nearly 200 artists and designers. Alumni of the program have gone on to highly regarded careers, and after their time at MAD have proceeded to exhibit work at MAD and other major institutions, including the Queens Museum, Whitney Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum, among others. The MAD Artist Fellowship was introduced in 2016 to support the practice of emerging NYC-based artists from historically underrepresented communities.

Learn more at https://madmuseum.org/artist-studios.