Museum of Arts and Design

“The first time the artist Eve Biddle exhibited her work alongside her mother’s, she was a bit nervous. It was 2018, 20 years after she lost her mom, Mary Ann Unger, to breast cancer. Unger (@maryannungerestate ) used materials like bronze, marble, and steel to make her mammoth sculptures. “Mom’s work has a loud voice,” says Biddle(@biddlebiddle ), whose own work crosses disciplines and is often smaller in scale. But Alexandra Schwartz (@alixschwartz ), the curator of that 2018 show, knew it would be a powerful pairing despite the artists’ different styles. “She told me, ‘You can see two voices,’” Biddle recalls. One didn’t drown the other out—they harmonized. Since then, sculptural works from Biddle and Unger have continued to appear together in exhibitions, most recently in “Craft Front & Center: Conversation Pieces,” which opened in early June at the Museum of Arts and Design in Manhattan. Also curated by Schwartz, this third iteration of “Craft Front & Center,” on view through next April, places more than 60 works from MAD’s extensive collection in dialogue with contemporary artists. The works span more than 80 years, and most are composed of the core craft materials of fiber, ceramic, and glass. In organizing the show, Schwartz chose to foreground the personal connections among the artists in three overlapping sections: “Teachers and Students,” situating work from educators alongside that of their pupils; “Collaborations,” which highlights artistic partnerships, like the Korean American duo AYDO Studio (@aydo_studio ); and “Generational Dialogues,” which examines the ongoing influence of 20th-century greats—including #AnniAlbers , #SheilaHicks , and #ClaireZeisler—on the artists of today.” “It’s all about relationships,” says Schwartz. “Because craft has to be taught, there will always be those connections.” - @graceedquist for @Vogue.com Tap the link in bio to read the Edquist full piece on Craft Front & Center: Conversations Pieces.