Blu Dot is proud to announce that it has been selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art MCA), Chicago, to provide furniture for the current exhibition, Universal Experience: Art, Life and the Tourist's Eye. Blu Dot has loaned the MCA 20 Buttercup Chairs, which provide seating in the Universal Experience gallery space. In addition to the Buttercups, the MCA is using Hot Rod Benches in other parts of the exhibition and has furnished their Video and Education Center with a Chicago Desk and Thirty2 Stools.

Occupying the entire MCA building, Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist’s Eye focuses on the phenomenon of international visual artists whose work responds to their experience of traveling and living within various cultures. Addressing issues related to tourism that include spectacle, architecture, authenticity, history, souvenirs, and anthropology, Universal Experience will feature work by more than seventy artists including Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol. Located in the heart of downtown Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art is an innovative and compelling center of contemporary art where the public can directly experience the work and ideas of living artists.

When planning the exhibition space for Universal Experience, Senior Curator Franceso Bonami and Assistant Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm wanted to create a lounge space that evoked a mid-century airport, in keeping with the exhibition's travel theme. "We were looking for young, fresh designers whose work would fit well within our plan and Blu Dot was the first company we thought of,” said Rodrigues Widholm. Blu Dot's furniture will remain in the museum for the duration of the Universal Experience exhibition, which will run from February 12, 2005 through June 5, 2005.

The Buttercup is a swiveling lounge chair that presents an elegant study in opposites. The seat is a lightweight shell of molded plywood, while the base is solid steel with an alloy-plated finish.

Founded in 1997  by John Christakos, Charles Lazor and Maurice Blanks, best friends since their undergraduate days at Williams College, Blu Dot was started as a way for the three friends to produce well-designed furniture they could afford.  The furniture’s minimalist style is not just an aesthetic approach, but it is an economic one as well. Clean lines and simple forms lead to more efficient production, less waste, easier home assembly, and lower costs.  Christakos is a sculptor with an MBA from Northwestern.  Lazor is an architect with an M.Arch from Yale.  Blanks earned his graduate degree in architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Blu Dot has won numerous national and international design awards.  The company’s work has been featured in several publications, has been seen on the sets of hit television shows such as Friends and is in the permanent collections of many museums. In 2002 Blu Dot was honored at the White House as a finalist in the National Design Awards for Product Design.

Reader Inquiries:  Blu Dot, 612.782.1844 or online for local retailers at www.bludot.com.