Minneapolis just gained a joyful new reason to visit the Walker Art Center. On October 17, the museum opened Walker Design Triennial: Beyond Materialism, its first-ever design triennial, on view through February 14, 2027, in Galleries 1, 2, 3 and D/Perlman. Held every three years from now on, the series builds on the Walker’s nearly 90-year commitment to design, from its pioneering Idea Houses of the 1940s to the Idea House 3 platform launched in 2023.
Guest curated by architect Joseph Grima in close collaboration with the Walker’s Asli Altay, the inaugural edition gathers more than 95 works by 26 designers and collectives from 13 countries, including Austria, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Nigeria, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Seven of the designers are showing in the United States for the very first time.
The exhibition proposes a hopeful shift: contemporary design moving away from profit and mass consumption toward spirituality, emotional connection and community. Theaster Gates explores heritage crafts, Superflux imagines speculative futures, and Christoph Wimmer-Ruelland builds playful tableaux from surplus goods. Two works were commissioned especially for Minneapolis: an interactive quilt by VESSEL that grows through shared activity, and a sound installation by Lucas Muñoz Muñoz that invites visitors to remix recordings gathered across the Twin Cities.
Furniture, lighting, textiles, ceramics and installations fill the galleries, and a fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the show. Find it at 725 Vineland Place, next to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden — a bright, hands-on celebration of what design can do for people and the planet.
Photo: Walker Art Center
