Kind: Collective Exhibition
Curator: Luján Cambarieri
Museum: Grassi Museum, Leipzig, Germany
Participant products: Tiripiti Lamp and Venus Tables in hammered copper.
“El alma de los objetos” es una exposición que redefine el diseño latinoamericano, mostrando más de 200 piezas como portadoras de identidad, memoria y energía cultural, donde lo artesanal y lo ritual se entrelazan con la innovación contemporánea. Curada por Luján Cambariere, especialista en artesanía y diseño latinoamericano, la muestra se enfoca en explorar la dimensión simbólica, espiritual y ritual de los objetos, que van más allá de su funcionalidad o estética. Se plantea como un panorama de las artes aplicadas latinoamericanas, abarcando obras de 13 países, donde cada objeto incorpora códigos culturales, historia y memoria colectiva
La exposición reúne más de 56 artistas y diseñadores, con trabajos que incluyen textiles, cerámicas, muebles, joyería, objetos rituales y estructuras de gran escala.
Kind: Book
Editor: Phaidon Editors, with an introduction by Kelsey Keith
About the book:
Designed For Life showcases 100 of the most exciting designers around the world and, through their work, shines a lens on what is happening at the forefront of contemporary product design. The boundaries between design, art, craft, fashion, and architecture have been blurred in recent years and a new generation of designers has emerged, working across different fields and genres. Products illustrated in the book range from furniture, lighting, and objects, to limited editions, glassware, and office systems. Chosen by an international line up of influential industry experts – design critics, museum curators, entrepreneurs, journalists, and gallerists – the nominated designers comprise young product designers who have emerged in the last few years, but who have already produced outstanding, creative, and innovative pieces of design. This fascinating book illustrates the new materials, processes, and technologies being utilized; the radically different styles being created; and the growing importance of sustainability, diversity, and inclusivity in design. These designers believe design can build a better world and a better life.
Kind: Exhibition
Place: Denver Art Museum
Curator: Jorge F. Rivas Pérez
In 2024, Your Skin Chair was selected for Have a Seat: Mexican Chair Design Today at the Denver Art Museum, curated by Jorge F. Rivas Pérez. The exhibition brought together 17 contemporary seats by 22 Mexican artists and designers, creating a dialogue between Mexico’s material traditions, cultural influences, and contemporary design.
The exhibition explored the chair as a space where history, culture, craftsmanship, and contemporary design intersect. Through a diverse selection of works, it revealed the many ways Mexican designers reinterpret materials, techniques, and cultural references, while reflecting the country’s complex history of exchange and transformation.
Being part of this conversation, alongside designers whose work I admire, was a meaningful moment in the journey of Your Skin Chair. The piece was later acquired by the Denver Art Museum for its permanent collection.
Kind: Collective Exhibition
Curator: Ana Elena Mallet & Pilar Obeso
Museum: Franz Mayer Museum México City.
Photo credit: Ana Tello & Mariana Achach
Participant products: Venus Tables in stone
“Diseño en femenino. México 1940-2022” es una exposición que celebra la labor y creatividad de más de cuatro generaciones de diseñadoras mexicanas, visibilizando su impacto en la historia y práctica del diseño en México.
Kind: Magazine mention
Editor: Katia Contreras
En 2021, AD México publicó su primer AD100, una oportunidad de reunir aquellos nombres que revolucionaron lo hecho en México. En aquella edición convivieron leyendas de la arquitectura, el interiorismo y el diseño con otros talentos emergentes de la creatividad mexicana.
“Los 100 talentos están dando forma al mundo del diseño del mañana, marcando tendencias de diseño y respondiendo a las necesidades actuales con sus ideas. Sus proyectos marcan tendencias y definen estilos. Son las personas que hay detrás de estas historias innovadoras e inspiradoras las que hacen que todas nuestras ediciones y canales sean lo que realmente es AD.”
Kind: Project Exhibition
Comission: Fundación Mota Engil México
Place: Ex Convento del Carmen
Location: Guadalajara, México
Design team: Santiago Vega and Mariana Peiro
Memoria y Creación Contemporánea was a documentary and design project developed in 2018 through Tributo, exploring the geographical, social, and cultural contexts that shape the ways materials are transformed into objects.
From January to September, we traveled through Veracruz and Nayarit, from the Sierra Madre Oriental to the Sierra Madre Occidental, documenting the current state of local craftsmanship and the knowledge, materials, and creative practices connected to each territory. We selected representative workshops and processes to create a record of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage, while opening new possibilities through dialogue and material experimentation.
The resulting research was presented at the Museo Ex Convento del Carmen as an exhibition organized around four stages: geographical context and biodiversity, cultural and social context, dialogue and experimentation through collaborative practices, and finally contemporary design. The exhibition connected landscapes, traditions, rituals, materials, and techniques with the objects that emerge from them, making visible the relationship between territory and creative practice.
The project concluded with new collections of contemporary utilitarian objects developed through these encounters, proposing craftsmanship not as something static to be preserved, but as living knowledge capable of generating new forms and possibilities.
Kind: Book
Editor: Beppe Finessi
About the book:
A book that narrates 20 years of history of the SaloneSatellite, the annual event inside the Salone del Mobile in Milan, that since 1998 has permanently changed the world of design, renewing it with the energy of the many young talents whose careers have been launched in the process. The volume, by Beppe Finessi with book design by Leonardo Sonnoli, is organized as a credible dictionary of contemporary creativity, with 500 designers and 1500 images that chronicle the evolution of taste in this early phase of the Third Millennium.
»Among the international designers at the height of their success today, many began their careers about twenty years ago. And many made their debut at the SaloneSatellite. Over the years, from Matali Crasset to Satyendra Pakhalé, llkka Suppanen to Nendo, Matteo Bazzicalupo and Raffaella Mangiarotti of Deepdesign, all of them have been selected and discovered by the great design godmother, Marva Griffin. The idea was as simple as it was revolutionary: to take advantage of the audience of journalists, dealers, curators and entrepreneurs that flock to the Salone del Mobile, to give young designers of outstanding talent a showcase that could make a career happen – and to give the world the opportunity to enjoy their passion and imagination. After twenty years the Satellite is still on its voyage of discovery, finding new planets and new moons every year. AII intensely habitable!«
Paola Antonelli – Senior Curator, Architecture & Design Director, Research & Development The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Kind: Design Fair
Exhibited: Your Skin chair, Piedra Poufs
Location: Dubai EAU
Brands: LCMX,Tributo, Biyuu, Ediciones Jalapa, Tania Zaldivar
In 2015, I was invited by Francisco Torres and the “Abierto Mexicano de Diseño” to participate in “Destination”part of the inaugural Dubai Design Week as part of a curated selection of Mexican design projects. The invitation arrived just a year after the launch of Tributo, while the project was still in its infancy; consequently, bringing our work into this international arena represented a highly significant opportunity.
“Destination” brought together projects from six design weeks around the globe Beijing, Helsinki, Istanbul, Melbourne, Mexico City, and San Francisco creating a space for exchange among emerging brands, designers, and professionals. The Mexican contingent comprised Ediciones Jalapa, LCMX, Tributo, and Biyuu.
We participated by showcasing the “Your Skin Chair” and the “Pouf Piedra”. During the week, I took part in the panel “How to Grow Your Own Design Brand” alongside Dubai based architect Viktor Udzenija and interior designer Bruno Guelaff; the discussion centered on the challenges and possibilities of building a design practice and brand within an international context.
Dubai offered a first opportunity to observe how our work might be perceived from different cultural perspectives and to begin understanding displacement as an integral part of our own creative process. That experience reinforced the idea that objects serve as meeting points, allowing territories, materials, and people to travel and sparking conversations along the way.
Kind: Design Fair
Exhibition: Tributo.mx launching
Location: Porrúa’s bookstores headquarters
In 2014, my sister Gabriela Noriega and I founded Tributo, a design brand born from our interest in exploring the relationship between contemporary design, Mexican craftsmanship, and cultural heritage.
For the brand’s launch, we chose the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño in Mexico City as the setting to present our first collection of furniture and objects. It was an opportunity not only to introduce Tributo but also to highlight the people and places behind each piece.
From the start, we wanted to move beyond the notion of craftsmanship as merely an anonymous source of production. The names of the master artisans along with their regions, techniques, and expertise were presented alongside those of the designers. For us, this was essential to highlighting the value of the processes behind the objects and recognizing craftsmanship as an active form of knowledge and cultural heritage.
The collection brought together diverse materials, techniques, and regions of Mexico through a contemporary design language that emerged from the collaboration between designer and artisan.
Kind: Design Fair
Exhibition: Your Skin Chair and Empathy Vases
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Designers Week 2012 took place from October 30 to November 5, 2012, at Meiji Jingu Gaien in Aoyama, featuring a main venue designed by architect Sou Fujimoto.
That year, I shared a space with my colleague Montserrat Salazar, a designer from San Luis Potosí, México where we presented the results of our research residency at the Kyoto Institute of Technology, centered on the theme “Modern Design and Traditional Craftsmanship.”
It was at Tokyo Designers Week that I first presented the findings of my research into “tatami making” and its production processes, ranging from the harvesting and drying of igusa fiber to the dyeing stage and hanagoza weaving. This research led to the design and development of the “Your Skin” chair, manufactured by Tatami Tokura+Ohashi and Miyazaki Mokuzai . I also showcased the results of my collaboration with a master artisan of Kiyomizu porcelain: “Empathy,” a series of vases and candle holders.
