Art Industrial Design, Fashion, and the Automobile at The Petersen

TGR Staff

On June 29, 2019, the Petersen Automotive Museum will open a new exhibit featuring minimalist vehicles and complementary works by shoe designer Rem D Koolhaas and industrial designer Joey Ruiter. Located in the Armand Hammer Foundation Gallery, “Disruptors” will explore how each designer’s perspective upends the status quo of traditional vehicle design by eliminating complexity to create visually arresting yet completely functional automobiles and other means of transportation.









Rem D Koolhaas, nephew, and namesake of Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, created the award-winning fashion label United Nude in 2003. United Nude is widely known for blending the worlds of fashion and architecture within abstract yet functional objects such as shoes, chairs and personal accessories. Joey Ruiter has worked with Herman Miller and other renowned brands designing products ranging from furniture to watercraft. Joey seeks to challenge common expectations, an aim that often yields startling and thought-provoking designs.

Although Koolhaas and Ruiter do not come from automotive backgrounds, they both independently began applying their dramatic design approaches to the automobile, resulting in vehicles with limited facets and curves that are still technically advanced and fully functional.

Works on display will include the Lo-Res Car Sculpture by United Nude—a conceptual work of art representing a Lamborghini Countach as if viewed in a lower 3D resolution. Vehicles on display will include Moto Undone by Joey Ruiter, a minimalistic city bike stripped of nearly all characteristics of typical motorcycles.









“’Disruptors’ is a critical analysis on how two designers with backgrounds in fashion, architecture and industrial design have come to perceive the automobile,” said Petersen Automotive Museum Executive Director Terry L. Karges. “This exhibit is unlike any other we’ve presented in the past because the content challenges common perceptions of vehicles, and the presentation is appropriately unconventional in its aesthetic.”

To kick off the new exhibit, the Petersen will host an opening reception on Friday, June 28, 2019. Media guests and ticketholders will be able to preview the exhibit before the public opening while enjoying a moderated artist talk, complimentary wine and light appetizers.