Paola Antonelli



Paola Antonelli (born 1963) is an Italian architect, curator, author, editor, and educator. Antonelli is the Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, where she also serves as the founding Director of Research and Development. She has been described as "one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world" by TIME magazine.

Early life and education
Antonelli was born in Sassari, Sardinia, Italy. She attended and graduated from the Politecnico di Milano University in Milan, from which she received a laurea degree in architecture in 1990. Notwithstanding her training, she has never worked as an architect.

Work and career
After graduating from university, Antonelli curated several architecture and design exhibitions in Italy, France, and Japan. She was a contributing editor for Domus magazine from 1987 to 1991, then from 1992 to 1994 she was the design editor of Abitare magazine. She has also contributed articles to publications such as the Harvard Design Magazine, Metropolis, I.D., Paper, Metropolitan Home, Harper's Bazaar, and Nest.

Lecturer
From 1991 to 1993, Antonelli was a lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught design history and theory. In the spring of 2003, she started to teach a course in design theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has also lectured elsewhere on design and architecture in Europe and the United States and served on several international architecture and design juries.

Curator at The Museum of Modern Art
Antonelli joined MoMA in February 1994 as a curator in the Department of Architecture and Design. The first important exhibition at the museum curated by Antonelli opened in 1995 and was titled Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design. This was followed in 1996 by Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands; Achille Castiglioni: Design! in 1997 (through 1998); Projects 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer in 1999; Open Ends and Matter (September 2000 – February 2001). Her 2001 exhibition Workspheres was devoted to the design of the workplace of the near future. In 2005 she curated the exhibition entitled Safe: Design Takes on Risk also at MoMA.

She curated the exhibition entitled "Safe" in 2005 based on her show at the International Design Conference in Aspen (August 20–23, 2003), similarly entitled "Safe: Design Takes on Risk." Other recent projects include a book about food worldwide, as examples of distinctive design, and a television program on design. As a curator, Antonelli has added various video games to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and she has been attempting to include Boeing 747 in MoMA's permanent collection as well.

Together with Jamer Hunt, Antonelli established an installation entitled Design and Violence which focuses on the physical representation of some of humanity's most prominent features, such as sex, aggression, and smelliness. One piece, for example, is a vial of synthetic sweat. Of the exhibit, Antonelli says, "We wanted objects that have an ambiguous relationship with violence." Each object—an outline of a drone, a self-guided bullet, a stiletto—is selected to highlight both the beneficial and also destructive side of design. Design is multidimensional nowadays, and Antonelli and Hunt aimed to represent this.

In 2017, Antonelli and Michelle Millar Fisher curated "Items: Is Fashion Modern?", an exhibition that explores 111 items of clothing and accessories that have had a strong impact on the world in the 20th and 21st centuries and taught a related massive open online course (MOOC) titled Fashion as Design.

In an exhibit featuring video games such as Pac-Man, Tetris, and Minecraft, viewers are intended to actually play the games to showcase the interaction design of these products. The Guardian, for example, responded, "Sorry MoMA, Video Games Are Not Art".

She has said that she believes that "design has been kind of neglected or misconstrued as decoration or as an embellishment" and has described her work as an attempt to change that misperception, further saying that "Without designers, life would not happen because any kind of scientific or technological innovation gets filtered by design and becomes part of our life. Without designers, we couldn’t use microwaves, we couldn’t use the internet, we couldn’t use so many innovations.

Recognition and awards
In 2014, Antonelli was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art. She was recognized with an AIGA Medal in 2015 for "expanding the influence of design in everyday life by sharing fresh and incisive observations and curating provocative exhibitions at MoMA". She was named one of the 100 most powerful people in the world of art by Art Review and Surface Magazine. She also received honorary degrees from Kingston University in London, ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, and Pratt Institute in New York. She received the following distinctions: 2006 National Design Award, Cooper Hewitt (Smithsonian Institution); 2007 TIME magazine design visionaries; 2010 Lucky Strike Designer Award (Raymond Loewy Foundation); 2011 Hall of Fame inductee, Art Directors Club (ADC); 2019 American Academy in Rome honouree; 2020 London Design Medal; and the 2021 German Design Award Personality of the Year. Antonelli was awarded the 2024 Compasso d'Oro alla Carriera for career achievement.

Books

 * Antonelli, Paola (1995). Mutant materials in contemporary design. Eric Baker, Gaetano Pesce, Museum of Modern Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0-87070-131-2..
 * Achille Castiglioni: Design!
 * Vittori, Arturo; Antonelli, Paola; Vogler, Andreas (2009). Architecture and vision: from pyramids to spacecraft. Italian Cultural Institute. ISBN 978-3-00-026959-2.
 * Antonelli, Paola (2011). Talk to me: design and the communication between people and objects. Museum of Modern Art. New York, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 978-0-87070-796-4 . ''
 * Antonelli, Paola (2000). Achille Castiglioni. Steven Guarnaccia (1. ed ed.). Mantova: Corraini. ISBN 88-87942-02-1
 * Museum of Modern Art (2000). Modern contemporary: art at MoMA since 1980. Kirk Varnedoe, Paola Antonelli, Joshua Siegel. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0-87070-021-9
 * Design and the elastic mind. Paola Antonelli, Museum of Modern Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art. 2008. ISBN 978-0-87070-732-2..
 * Pakhalé, Satyendra (2002). Satyendra Pakhalé, cultural nomad: from projects to products = dal progetto al prodotto. Ingeborg de Roode, Alberto Alessi, Amsterdam. Stedelijk Museum. [Milan]: Editoriale Modo. ISBN 88-7419-002-6.
 * Museum of Modern Art (2000). Modern contemporary: art at MoMA since 1980. Kirk Varnedoe, Paola Antonelli, Joshua Siegel. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0-87070-021-9.
 * Jongerius, Hella (2010). Hella Jongerius : misfit. Irma Boom, Louise Schouwenberg, Alice Rawsthorn, Paola Antonelli. London: Phaidon. ISBN 978-0-7148-5987-3.
 * Sparke, Penny (2009). Japanese design (1st ed.). New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 978-0-87070-739-1..
 * Antonelli, Paola (2001). Workspheres : design and contemporary work styles. Department of Architecture and Design. New York, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0-87070-013-8.
 * Antonelli, Paola (2005). Safe: design takes on risk. Museum of Modern Art. New York, N.Y.: Museum of Modern Art. ISBN 0-87070-580-6.
 * Helfand, Margaret; Antonelli, Paola (1999). Margaret Helfand Architects : essential architecture. New York: Monacelli Press. ISBN 1-885254-93-8.
 * Rawsthorn, Alice; Antonelli, Paola (2022). Design emergency : building a better future. London. ISBN 978-1-83866-427-5.

Contributions

 * Pasta by Design – Forward
 * On the Table – On the American Table
 * Droog Design – Spirit of the Nineties
 * No Discipline – Preface
 * Items: Is Fashion Modern? 
 * "Satyendra Pakhalé Culture of Creation"