March 28, 2024

Paola Antonelli

Italian-born Paola Antonelli, senior curator at the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Architecture and Design will deliver on October 11, 2012, the fourth annual distinguished designer lecture at George Washington University’s interior design program.  Antonelli is one of the world’s foremost experts on contemporary architecture and design. She received her MA in Architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1990, and worked at the design magazines Domus and Abitare before joining MoMA in 1994.   Antonelli has been a strong of advocate of treating design as art: she’s written that “everything is designed, one way or another.”

Paola Antonelli
Paola Antonelli

Antonelli is known for her eclecticism, and has curated well-received shows such as Workspheres (2001), devoted to the workplace of the near future. Her recent exhibit SAFE included – among other materials – a UN refugee tarp, camouflage cream, and a baby buggy.  In a recent Washington Post interview she said that she is “Like a curious octupus.  I am always reaching around in all kind of places and taking in things from everywhere.” You can follow her an Twitter at @curiousoctopus.

Antonelli has taught design history and theory at UCLA and Harvard and is the author of Humble Masterpieces: Everyday Marvels of Design, and co-author of 2008 book Design and the Elastic Mind.