Body of News Release
Marin County, CA – Marin County’s iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Civic Center will soon become home to the work of Marin-based designers Simon Ungless and Jody Niederkohr, founders of sustainable luxury brand When Simon Met Ralph (WSMR). The free exhibit runs from October 1 through January 7, 2027, on the building’s first and third floors.
The designers are known for their "rehabbed" luxury wear and one-of-a-kind home accessories, and the exhibit will bring WSMR's expansive creative vision together under one roof. Works include men's suit jackets printed with WSMR's signature feather print, lace dresses treated to a rubberized overlay, felted wall-hangings/blankets, and never-before-seen graphic wall prints.
"It was important to us to pull together a selection that illustrates the breadth of what we do without losing focus on our signature approach to design," Ungless said.
The exhibit mixes archival items familiar to fans of the brand across the globe with entirely new pieces. "If the exhibit were exclusively archival items, it wouldn't be an accurate reflection of us, our process, or our brand," Niederkohr said, "because we're always moving forward creatively."
The exhibit will also include collaborative works by industrial designer turned ceramicist Susan McKinney. In this collaborative series, McKinney and WSMR sourced glass beads from vintage 1920s dresses, embedding them into clay forms. Fired at Cone 5 heat (roughly 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit), the pieces let the glass melt into the stone, creating softly variegated tears of color infused into the neat geometry of McKinney's weave-like clay creations, inspired by the Civic Center building itself.
"The collaboration with Susan is so natural, it's almost like play," Ungless said. "So, it was also important to us that the selection of our pieces work in harmony with the collaborative pieces."
Ungless's work has been included in many international exhibits, and pieces of his print work, created with friend and early collaborator Alexander McQueen, are part of the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This exhibit follows Ungless's solo show, A Life in Print, at the University of Wisconsin's Furlong Gallery, which ran February through March 2026. WSMR also worked with the Palm Springs Art Museum Store earlier this year to create a line of one-of-a-kind merchandise.
Parking for the exhibit is near the Civic Center’s South Arch, which winds under the historic building on Peter Behr Drive. Exhibit information, including gallery hours, can be found on the Marin Cultural Association website.
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For disability accommodation, please phone (415) 473-6358 (voice), CA Relay 711, or e-mail County staff in advance of the event. The County will do its best to fulfill requests received with less than five business days’ notice. Copies of documents are available in alternative formats, upon request.