DRESDEN.- The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) present the first survey exhibition of designer Robert Stadler. Initiated by the director of the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Tulga Beyerle, the exhibition You May Also Like: Robert Stadler is curated by Alexis Vaillant and is being held at the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden from 18 March to 25 June 2017.

Working at the intersection of design, the visual arts and critical practice, Robert Stadler uses design to question social issues and imagine new ways of conceiving objects. You May Also Like: Robert Stadler marks the first survey exhibition of his work. Seventy-one of his pieces are exhibited together. Following on from his interest in objects of all kinds, Stadler has further enriched the exhibition with a careful selection of historical and contemporary objects presented next to his own designs. Alongside six objects from Stadler´s own collection, a selection of twenty-three masterpieces and unattributed artifacts from eight of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden collections form an integral part of the exhibition. The combination of objects from various periods results in a cross-historical “community of objects” that creates a network of meanings around five theme.

(1) Artificial Intelligence, (2) Instability and Fetishism, (3) Informed Objects, (4) The Morphing of the Natural into the Artificial and (5) Forms of Randomness / Control and Fragmentation are followed by an installation without walls or corridors unfolding in front of an oversized back-lit screen. This network highlights the challenge of Stadler´s unique designs: the exhibition is a specific surface that links the “community of objects” exhibited to the digital world. This formula is connected to the multi-layered nature of Stadler’s own profile.

It also suggests how this particular profile “functions” with both the objects and the ideas within them. But in a world where the mechanisms of e-business are based upon “indifference and desire”, combining the expression “you may also like” with Robert Stadler’s name as the title critically highlights what sums up an individual on the Internet today: the creation of a profile and the gathering of likes linked to it.

Contributing museums of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery), Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault), Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Decorative Arts), Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst (Museum of Saxon Folk Art), Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden (Ethnographical Museum Dresden), Porzellansammlung (Porcelain Collection), Skulpturensammlung (Sculpture Collection).

Including works by Agostino Carracci, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Johann Joachim Kaendler, Paul Kindermann, Wilhelm Wagenfeld, and anonymous masters, ranging across the fine and decorative arts, mirabilia, antiques and contemporary consumer goods, such as an electronic cigarette.

The exhibition also features works from the Robert Stadler collection: Richard Artschwager, Sammy Engramer, Aaron Garber-Maikovska, Jaya Howey, Hans-Christian Lotz, William G. Webb.