This fall, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) will present Women + Design: New Works, an exhibition composed of recent works by seven contemporary female designers. It also features two newly commissioned pieces that will go on view for the first time by Iris van Herpen and Najla El Zein. International in origin and diverse in their media, forms, and objectives, this dynamic group of featured designers additionally includes Katie Collins, Carrie Dickens, Genevieve Howard, Katie Stout, and Faye Toogood.

Providing a rare museum platform for new work by emerging and mid-career female designers, this is the first DMA exhibition curated by Sarah Schleuning, the recently-appointed Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design. As part of the Museum’s role as an incubator of contemporary talent, all of these works will join its growing collection of contemporary design.

“The voice of women in the field of design is often overshadowed, underrepresented, or unnoticed. This exhibition offers a glimpse into a range of works being conceived by women in the field today, with each individual work signifying their creativity and contributions to design today,” said Schleuning. 

The artists featured in Women + Design bring a range of approaches and perspectives to their work:

Katie Collins: Fascinated by tools and machinery, Australian designer Collins creates intricate, articulated wearable works that can be manipulated into various forms. The works fold and unfold like erector sets.

Carrie Dickens: British designer Dickens creates work that explores the tactile potential of jewelry, often with 3-D printing technology. Her intention is to make sensory jewelry that “touches back.”

Iris van Herpen: Dutch designer van Herpen continues to create works that straddle new technology and traditional haute couture with wearable designs for the body. Her inspiration ranges from the natural to the man-made.

Genevieve Howard: Irish designer Howard combines her skills as a jeweler with her passion for music, translating pieces of music into graphic, wearable forms. She also combines new technologies such as laser cutting with traditional handmade techniques and materials.

Katie Stout: American designer Stout pushes ideas of materiality and form, all with a playful wink. Her creative, colorful forms offer vibrancy as she transforms the commonplace into the magical.

Faye Toogood: British designer Toogood’s work illustrates a preoccupation with materiality and experimentation. She plays with various forms and elements to expand the notion of what is possible.

Najla El Zein: Lebanese designer El Zein explores materiality and form, creating sensuous, curving pieces. Her new body of work explores her transitional moments both as a creative professional and as a woman. 

On view October 28, 2018–February 17, 2019, Women + Design: New Works is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and curated by Sarah Schleuning, The Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the DMA. The exhibition is included in free general admission. For more information, visit DMA.org.