New Petersen Automotive Museum exhibit celebrates minimalist design
Later this month, a new exhibit will open at the Petersen Automotive Museum, titled Disruptors, featuring innovative automotive designs by two designers from outside the car world. Starting June 29, 2019, minimalist vehicles and other works by industrial designer Joey Ruiter and architect Rem D Koolhaas will be on display in the museum’s Armand Hammer Foundation Gallery.
Per the museum’s press release, “Disruptors will explore how each designer’s perspective upends the status quo of traditional vehicle design by eliminating complexity to create visually arresting yet completely functional automobiles and other means of transportation.”
Koolhaas is the founder of the United Nude fashion label, known for mashing up fashion and architecture to create “abstract yet functional” objects. Ruiter has worked on product design with a number of prominent brands, including Herman Miller furniture.
Not coming from automotive backgrounds, Ruiter and Koolhaas have independently brought fresh perspectives to vehicle design, creating automobiles with minimal curves and planes that are yet still fully functional cars with advanced technologies.
Among the artworks on display will be Ruiter’s Moto Undone, a motorcycle that’s been denuded of nearly everything that makes up a conventional motorbike, and United Nude’s Lo-Res Car Sculpture, that resembles what a Lamborghini Countach would look like if viewed in low, 3D resolution.
In announcing the new exhibit, Petersen Automotive Museum Executive Director Terry L. Karges said, “’Disruptors’ is a critical analysis on how two designers with backgrounds in fashion, architecture, and industrial design have come to perceive the automobile. This exhibit is unlike any other we’ve presented in the past because the content challenges common perceptions of vehicles, and the presentation is appropriately unconventional in its aesthetic.”
Disruptors will run through the middle of March next year. A reception and preview with a moderated artist talk, wine, and appetizers will be held the night before the public opening, with tickets available at the museum website. Once the display opens, entry to Disruptors will be included with regular museum admission.
