Sebastian Errazuriz: Double Take
Philadelphia Art Museum
November 22, 2025 – August 16, 2026
Lightning Strike Lamp, 2025
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
Chicken Lamp III, 2014
Edition of 12
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
The Represented Self, 2020
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
The Represented Self, 2020
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
The Philadelphia Art Museum presents Sebastian Errazuriz: Double Take, a mid-career survey by artist and designer Sebastian Errazuriz (b. 1977, Chile). The exhibition explores Errazuriz’s multi-hyphenate practice spanning art, craft, design, and technology, from antiquity-inspired furniture to multimedia work informed by artificial intelligence.
Alongside the exhibition, Sebastian Errazuriz will be honored with the 39th Collab Design Excellence Award. Collab is the museum's affinity group for modern and contemporary design and has celebrated diverse international designers who have made important contributions that advance all disciplines of design. Collab was established in 1986 and presents the award annually. Previous awardees have included Florence Knoll Bassett, Naoto Fukasawa, Zaha Hadid, Ingo Maurer, George Nakashima, Gaetano Pesce, Patricia Urquiola, and Marcel Wanders, among others.
Magistral Chest, 2014
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
Bust Shelf Green Marble, 2018
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
Bust Shelf Green Marble (Detail), 2018
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
Errazuriz’s creative imagination challenges upheld ideas of what design should be and, moreover, asks what it could be. Embracing humor and appropriation, his limited-edition and unique pieces often have a subtext that goes beyond form or function to include personal narratives, political messages, and cultural commentary. While many of Errazuriz’s pieces are functional, his work upends a number of conventions established within the design industry, including the notions that form should follow function, or that materials should be used where most appropriate.
Sebastian Errazuriz: Double Take presents over 20 years of making, including early conceptual works that take nature and existing found objects as sources of inspiration. The exhibition features furniture, mirrors, and other products that the designer creates from appropriated and digitally manipulated Greco-Roman antiquities from museum collections. Also on display will be a range of the designer’s “kinetic” cabinets, defined by their moveable elements. Errazuriz is interested in disrupting the idea that cabinets must consist of a box with two front doors, regardless of their design. Instead, objects in Double Take propose a dynamic way of living with furniture that rotates, spins, and fans out in different directions.
Piano Shelf, 2014
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
IMAGINE, 2025
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
A final, monumental installation features a full-wall graphic made up of drawings that Sebastian Errazuriz has created through the use of artificial intelligence. Overlaid is a new work, which spells out the word “IMAGINE” in neon lights, the letters flashing in alternating patterns to alight only “AGI” at certain points. Unlike current AI models which are trained for specific tasks, the concept of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, involves systems possessing human-like cognitive abilities, allowing them to learn new skills, adapt to novel situations, and demonstrate common sense and creativity without explicit pre-programming. This focal point of the exhibition explores Errazuriz’s fascination with, and apprehension about, the potential impact of AI on artists, designers, and culture more broadly.
Fan Cabinet, 2014
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
Narcissus Bowl, 2022
Designed by Sebastian Errazuriz
“The diverse body of work by Sebastian Errazuriz conveys imagination and cleverness, while also bewildering those who encounter it. The pieces are meant to be lived with, but, at the same time, are provocations. They have an air of mystery around their function and meaning,” said Tiffany Lambert, The Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer Curator of Modern and Contemporary Design. “This survey exemplifies one way to understand and challenge how design can impact our daily lives.”
PHILADELPHIA ART MUSEUM
Alter Gallery (Gallery 276)
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19130
