April 01, 2022

ArtCenter Student Designs Exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao's 25th Anniversary Exhibition

ArtCenter, MIT and Yale are the only U.S. colleges invited by famed architect Lord Norman Foster to showcase student designs in the Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture exhibition April 8 through September 18, 2022

ArtCenter College of Design is one of only three colleges from the United States to have student work featured at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in the exhibition, Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture from April 8 through September 18, 2022. Transportation related designs by students from ArtCenter, MIT and Yale will be presented in a gallery dedicated to the future of mobility.

“We are incredibly proud and honored that our students will be featured in this groundbreaking exhibition on a global stage,” said Jay Sanders, executive director, Transportation Design department at ArtCenter College of Design, who will represent the College at the opening events and press conference. “We are particularly excited to show work that highlights our corporate partnerships such as recent sponsored projects with Lincoln and Genesis and internships with Honda.”

These young designers’ works will be sharing space with the works of historical giants in the field of architecture and art such as R. Buckminster Fuller, Constantin Brancusi, Andy Warhol and Frank Lloyd Wright.

The exhibition Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture covers more than a century’s worth of automotive creation, exploring its multiple connections with the visual arts and architecture. The impressive selection of vehicles, works of art and architectural documents that it comprises covers the main technological achievements in the sector and melds them with their enormous social and cultural implications.

The ArtCenter exhibition space will feature a variety of student projects from the Transportation Design department including Future Pasadena, a video which presents student work from recent design courses and sponsored projects with Genesis and Lincoln to illustrate a vision of future mobility scenarios for the City of Pasadena.

The exhibition also includes three ¼ scale models completed by students Hu Hao, Frank Guan and Jun Yeop Hwang during internships at Honda R&D Americas. The two exterior models and one interior model are explained in detail through a video on a nearby monitor. A second monitor features an animation of an Audi branded vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicle designed by student Aven Shi.

The final monitor in the exhibition space will feature the evolution of auto design and Lincoln’s unique and innovative mentorship program with ArtCenter. Lincoln tasked a select group of 22 students to imagine how the future of Lincoln’s ‘Quiet Flight’ ethos – beauty, human, gliding and sanctuary – might be represented in 2040 vehicles. Multidisciplinary teams from Transportation Design, Illustration and Film came up with specific interior and exterior vehicle designs as well as the environments and scenarios in which those vehicles would operate. Each concept will come to life through animated videos seen by visitors in the museum.

In addition to the student work, an example of designs by ArtCenter graduates Gurminder Bhandal (Class of 2012) and Edward Tseng (Class of 2016) will allow visitors to enjoy an augmented reality experience showcasing two 1/3 scale Genesis models. Alums Bhandal and Tseng created an experimental concept embracing athletic elegance and the sophisticated sculpture and beauty of Genesis.

Engagement with industry has been a critical element of the ArtCenter experience since it was founded in 1930. Hundreds of corporate sponsored studios have taken place in the College’s classrooms—indeed they are now woven into the very fabric of an ArtCenter education. These sponsored collaborations bring industry thought leaders into unrestricted and creative environments, looking through the lens of the next generation of artists and designers to explore the future of design. At the same time, students experience real-world design challenges that impact their future as well as provide them with potential job opportunities.

The concept and design of Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture are created by renowned British architect Norman Foster with curatorial expertise from Lekha Hileman Waitoller and Manuel Cirauqui of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and a team from Norman Foster Foundation and its collaborators. The thematic titles of the galleries that guide the chronological structure of the exhibition include Beginnings, Sculptures, Popularizing Sporting, Visionaries, Americana, and Future. Within the Future gallery, there is work from 15 schools of design and architecture from around the globe, including ArtCenter College of Design, that consider today’s problems of urban congestion, resource scarcity, and pollution and present visions for the future of mobility.

These questions around congestion, scarcity and pollution were the same questions asked roughly 200 years ago at the birth of the automobile. Unlike any other single invention, the automobile has completely transformed the urban and rural landscape of our planet and in turn, our lifestyle. We are on the edge of a new revolution of electric power, so this exhibition could be seen as a requiem for the last days of combustion.

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About Norman Foster Foundation
The Norman Foster Foundation promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and urbanists anticipate the future. The Foundation believes in the importance of connecting architecture, design, technology, and the arts to better serve society, and in the value of a holistic education that encourages experimentation through research and projects. The Norman Foster Foundation holds the Norman Foster Archive and Library, which provide a window into the larger narrative and history of our built environment. The Norman Foster Foundation is based in Madrid and operates globally. It has been recognized by the United Nations as a Centre of Excellence.

About Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is part of an international constellation of museums, which allows it to access an extensive Permanent Collection comprised from all the works in the Guggenheim collections, including the Bilbao holdings. These works complement one another and, together, offer an in-depth, expanded view of modern and contemporary art.

Designed by US architect Frank Gehry, the Museum building is a large sculpture made of titanium, limestone, and glass, and has become the most recognizable icon of the city of Bilbao. The exhibition galleries, some boasting surprising shapes, others with orthogonal configurations, are organized around a spectacular Atrium, crowned with a metalic flower over its skylight.

The complex and mutually enriching dialogue between the art exhibited and the architecture of the building, and the versatility of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao spaces favor a unique museum experience.

About Transportation Design at ArtCenter
Home to a world-class transportation design program for more than 80 years, ArtCenter continues to dominate the field internationally. Graduates have designed many of the most memorable and well-loved automobiles of our time including the Corvette Stingray, Mazda Miata, VW Beetle and Ford F-150, not to mention the Bugatti Chiron and Tesla’s innovative vehicles plus almost all of the modern era Batmobiles. In the late 1930s, as America’s automotive industry was just recognizing the value of good design, ArtCenter alumni began to influence the look of vehicles in showrooms across the country. Graduates including Dick Teague at AMC, Peter Brock and Larry Shinoda at General Motors, and Jack Telnack at Ford were considered among the most respected creative minds in the field. ArtCenter’s influence soon became global with alumni such as Chris Bangle leading BMW’s studio in Germany, Shiro Nakamura at Nissan in Japan and Ken Okuyama at Ferrari in Italy. Graduates also lead design teams at motorcycle companies like Harley Davidson, Piaggio and Polaris; aircraft companies like Gulfstream and even yacht studios like Glade Johnson Design. As transportation evolves and mobility needs shift, ArtCenter will continue to fuel the passion of the next generation of talent and undoubtedly remain at the lead of the innovation economy, driving the future.

About ArtCenter
Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and 10 graduate degrees in a wide variety of art and design disciplines. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves the general public through a highly regarded series of online and on-campus year-round extension programs for all levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations' Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College's long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.

Contact:

Teri Bond
Media Relations Director
ArtCenter College of Design
teri.bond@artcenter.edu 
626 396-2385

Lincoln car design by student
Xiaoyu (Shawn) Zhang designed the interior and Emi Taniguchi designed the exterior of this future luxury sedan during a recent Lincoln sponsored project. A life-sized prototype of the concept vehicle was displayed at The Quail Motorsport Gathering in Monterey and at the LA Auto Show. The work will be included in the exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao through September 18, 2022.
Lincoln student design project
Jya Yan's futuristic urban landscape was created in response to a sponsored course assignment to imagine how Lincoln's "Quiet Flight" ethos– beauty, human, gliding and sanctuary–might be represented in 2040 vehicles. Jya Yan is an Illustration student. The concept is part of the exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao through September 18, 2022.

Genesis car design
Jackson Zhang's future autonomous concept was designed as part of a Genesis sponsored project where Transportation Design students worked alongside students from Environmental Design to explore future vehicles and environments for engaging customers. This design will be featured at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao through September 18, 2022.