Motet Design Group takes as its subject contemporary exhibition design as it relates to changing attitudes toward cultural display, collecting, cultural representation, and the way museums present narratives that include their communities. A philosophy of display inhabits a new thought system that replaces The Power of Display, the title of the 1998 history of exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, indicating an institutional relationship of participation that includes the viewer, rather than a power relationship that is meant to humble and awe them.
The lodestar of our studio is a respect for cultural history and primary voices in the creation of narratives. We are deeply connected to contemporary art and new media from around the globe, and also very experienced in the presentation of ancient material, textiles, archival material, and especially in the display of material culture that has its origin in spiritual practice.
We connect with the idea of a museum as a place of transformation. We start dialogues with the question: What will you feel when you walk into this space?
Finally, we create contemporary exhibition design that participates in ideas of collaborative intelligence, listening to the needs of all departments, and celebrating the work of people worldwide who are awake to rapidly shifting dynamics between collecting institutions and the art-viewing public they serve.
With over 25 years of experience in design and production for art institutions Sebastian brings a sensitive and collaborative ideal to exhibition making. As principal at Metric Design, which designed and engineered large-scale public sculptures, to exhibition designer at MOCA, designing, permitting, and producing some of the institution’s most ambitious exhibitions, Sebastian has worked closely with the Public Assembly Division of the Los Angeles Fire Department and the LA Department of Building and Safety on many projects.
He has designed exhibitions for many institutions in Los Angeles and abroad, including Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985 (2017) at the Hammer Museum, Civic Virtue: a History of the Watts Towers Art Center (2012) as part of the Pacific Standard Time Initiative, Black Panther: The Revolutionary Art of Emory Douglas for MOCA (2007), and LA Xicano: Mapping Another LA for the second Pacific Standard Time initiative LA/LA (2011). He has been closely involved in organizing, consulting and creating exhibitions with Native American tribes, including the Big Pine Paiute, Tongva, Zuni, Navajo, Kuruk, and San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in the preservation and display of their historical collections and contemporary works.
Currently associated with the Fowler Museum at UCLA as the Director of Exhibitions, he is a member of the Anti-racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (AEDI) Commission for the School of Arts and Architecture, as well as the Staff Advisory Council. He co-teaches a course with art historian Kavior Moon at the Southern California Institute of Architecture called “The Architecture of Exhibitions” focused on the ways in which exhibition architecture drives the contextual narratives in the display of material culture.
Erwin Vergara is a Philippine-born
architectural designer. Erwin’s
current work demonstrates the unique
conditions of space in public art and
design. He holds a Master’s Degree in
Architecture from the Southern
California Institute of Architecture in
Los Angeles and an Undergraduate Degree
in Studio Art from the University of
California, Irvine. His work experience
includes curatorial and parametric
design at Robley Studio.