MAD Talk – On the Couch with Jonathan Adler and Rachel Federman

A series of conversations at MAD to accompany The Mad MAD World of Jonathan Adler, “On the Couch with Jonathan Adler” seats the celebrated potter and designer next to leading contemporary design curators and critics. With Adler’s optimistic, irreverent perspective on “the work” sparking against the keen insights of the design world’s liveliest thinkers and writers, the evenings promise to kindle fresh conversations about the important influences on Adler’s craft-based design practice. 

It’s a Hanukkah edition of “On the Couch!” Join Jonathan Adler and art historian Rachel Federman for a wide-ranging conversation exploring the convergence of mid-century modern abstraction and modernist synagogue design, both important influences on Adler’s work. Federman will present a selected history of post-WWII modern design within houses of Jewish worship in America, while Adler will discuss how these design expressions of Jewish identity have also found a home in his creative practice.