Over 140 of Van Herpen’s avant-garde designs are placed in dialogue with works of contemporary art—by artists including Agostino Arrivabene, Philip Beesley, Lanny Bergner, Rogan Brown, the Japanese art collective B (Mé], Casey Curran, Wim Delvoye, Kim Keever, Nick Knight, Jacques Rougerie, David Spriggs, and Tim Walker. The exhibition also features design pieces by Ferruccio Laviani, Tomás Libertíny, and Ren Ri alongside loans of scientific artifacts and natural history specimens, such as coral, fossils, and skeletons. The exhibition’s interdisciplinary nature thus nods to the Museum’s past as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, which held both fine art and scientific specimen collections.
Situating Van Herpen’s work within a broad lineage of cross-disciplinary creativity, the Brooklyn presentation will feature new works drawn from its renowned collections in American art, Asian art, contemporary art, and feminist art as well as rare materials from the Museum’s Libraries and Archives.
Featured artists include Katsumata Chieko, Tara Donovan, Harold Edgerton, Senju Hiroshi, Fujikasa Satoko, and Rob Wynne. Together, this intricate and fantastical display offers an intimate glimpse into Van Herpen’s artistic process, her expansive imagination, and her diverse sources of inspiration. The exhibition is complemented by a multisensory soundscape created by Dutch composer and music producer Salvador Breed.