Our air conditioner appears to be circling the drain. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that our house is very warm and the last thing I wanted to do was spend the heat of the day in our many square foot oven.
The baby and I took advantage of Dixon Gallery and Gardens’ pay what you can day to go and see the Memphis Milano exhibit. The pieces in the show all come from the personal collection of a Memphian, and the 1980s furniture is fun but not exactly functional. They are full of bold colors and patterns and combinations of various geometric shapes.
The exhibit is well laid out with the first gallery being chronological and the subsequent ones being thematic. My favorite touch was the use of one of the geometric prints along all of the door frames. It really tied the galleries together visually.
If the baby was a few years older, we would have had a blast in the participatory gallery that gave families the opportunity to “experience” the 80s. I wish I could have dressed him up in the blue jean vest, but he was not feeling it.
I wish I had had more time to read the text, but kid was hungry. My main criticism is that they included wall text in the first gallery that told the major events in each year the Memphis design group was active. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but they used the same technique in last year’s contemporary Memphis art exhibit. It felt recycled.
Overall, I enjoyed the exhibit. I don’t care much about furniture usually, but the Dixon and the Memphis group made me think about it differently, which is basically the point of museums. At least to me.
Caroline Mitchell Carrico 