Object: Alessi: Ethical and Radical

A teapot is more than a teapot when it’s made by Alessi. The Italian design company began making household objects in 1921, but in the 1950s, under Carlo Alessi’s leadership, it began commissioning superstar architects and designers to make domestic gadgets and tableware for us to use—but also to covet and display. Now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the exhibit Alessi: Ethical and Radical are 150 of those objects, including Future Systems’ blobby 2003 reinterpretation of Carlo Alessi’s 1945 tea-and-coffee service set (shown). Through April 10.• philamuseum.org