San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design


			The Thinking Body This exhibition will examine ideas about the body’s perceptual relationship to jewelry, functional objects and spaces. In a thought-provoking, engaging and aesthetically compelling show, the curators have brought together a range of art objects that speak about function, use, display, and adornment, and the relationships of all of these kinds of objects to the body. Featuring contemporary American, European and Asian metalsmiths, jewelers and artists whose work considers the body in relation to its spatial, cultural and intellectual environment. Catalogue will be available in the Museum Store. Co-curators: Kate Wagle, Chair Department of Art, University of Oregon and Anya Kivarkis, Assistant Professor (visiting), Jewelry/Metalsmithing, University of Oregon Exhibition Design: Ted Cohen October 17, 2008 through January 4, 2009


			Michael Cooper: A Sculptural Odyssey 1968-2008 Michael Cooper: A California Sculptural Odyssey, 1968 – 2008 documents the career of a seminal Bay Area sculptor through a selection of more than twenty-three of his most exquisitely crafted and thought provoking works, from early explorations of functional forms to recent large-scale mixed media installations. Michael Cooper is best known for his complex and adroitly crafted wood sculpture, works which depict seemingly commonplace objects but with a twist. His fantastical “vehicles,” which include pistol-packing tricycles, flying machines that don’t quite take off, collapsed bicycles, remarkably detailed motorcycles, as well as preposterously mobile forms of “furniture,” underscore Cooper’s role as one of the most innovative contemporary artists working in wood. Organized by independent curator Harold B. Nelson for the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design, A California Sculptural Odyssey will tour to three other institutions after its initial presentation in San Francisco. The fully illustrated catalogue includes essays by the curator and Eudorah Moore, organizer of the pioneering California Design exhibitions; Glenn Adamson, Head of Graduate Studies at the V&A in London; John Lavine, Editor of Woodwork and an interview with the artist by writer and independent curator Karin Nelson. The exhibition is made possible by a generous grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation. Curator: Harold B. Nelson Exhibition Design: Ted Cohen Opens in 2010!