Going Native
The Museum of Arts and Design will launch its second annual event series “The Home Front: American Design Now” this Thursday, surveying the state of our native design community and the future for American designers. The programming kicks off with a panel discussion featuring New York–based architect Rafael de Cárdenas, among other art and design experts. The museum will also host members of the American Design Club for young designers at a public object-making exhibition in the first week of March; attendees of the lectures, which run between tomorrow and mid-April, will get a copy of the limited-edition journal Temperature 2012 while supplies last (2 Columbus Cir., nr. Eighth Ave.; all lectures $12, $10 students and members; full schedule at madmuseum.org; through April 12).
Into the Beyond
Though one of the pioneers of the “Light and Space” movement in the sixties and seventies, American artist Doug Wheeler has rarely shown in the United States. From January 17 through mid-February, David Zwirner’s Chelsea Gallery will host one of these rare solo exhibits, consisting of an installation that plays with light, reflection, and perception. Along with the exhibition, the gallery will release a monograph of Wheeler’s work (519 W. 19th St., nr. Tenth Ave.; T–Sa, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; through 2/25).
History to Sit On
The MoMA Design Store is adopting six of the museum’s iconic furniture pieces for the first time. The pieces designed between 1924 and 1968 are by the likes of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, while more recent items include the Mezzadro Seat (1957), a cantilevered stool by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni ($1,010), and the Sacco Chair (1968), an innovative bean bag by Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini, and Franco Teodoro from 1968 (44 W. 53rd St., nr. Sixth Ave.; momastore.org).
Text Message
At the Guggenheim Museum’s 24th annual Hilla Rebay Lecture, scholar Tom McDonough will discuss one of his design obsessions: typography. Though typography’s roots trace back to the early-twentieth century, McDonough argues that it wasn’t until the last decade that textural art fully flowered (tonight, 6:30 p.m.; 1071 Fifth Ave., at 89th St.; 212-423-3500; guggenheim.org).