XP& | EXPAND DESIGN LTD

Autonomous Rex, 2006

The Bauhaus #itsalldesign. (Travelling Exhibition organized by Vitra Design Museum)
ADAM Art and Design Atomium Museum, Brussels, Belgium.

Curator: Jolanthe Kugler

March 16 – June 11, 2017

Additional details:
http://www.adamuseum.be

Cityscapes collection of wearable structures in 9k gold, presented by Elisabetta Cipriani at TEFAF Showcase Maastricht.

Dates: March 10 – 19, 2017

Additional details:
https://www.tefaf.com/fairs/tefaf-maastricht

B Table, presented at Collezione SaloneSatellite 20 Anni, Milan Design Week 2017.

In April 2017, SaloneSatellite turned 20 years. The milestone was celebrated by showcasing important collaborations between selected designers and producers, some presented for the first time.

Organiser: Marva Griffin Wilshire
Curator: Beppe Finessi

Dates: April 4 – 9, 2017

Additional details:
http://www.salonemilano.it/en/manifestazioni/salone-satellite.html

Felix Burrichter. “Favorite Flora.” Pin Up, Issue 20, Spring Summer 2016

“Expand Designs: Ifeanyi Oganwu Talks Art, Design and Africa.” This Day, Home + Design, Issue 14, August 2016
PDF copy available to download via link below:

Margot Guicheteau. “Un Bureau à Domicile: Des Modèles Compacts et Design.” Le Figaro, Madame, September 23, 2016
http://madame.lefigaro.fr/deco-design/un-bureau-a-domicile-190916-116649

Cédric Saint André Perrin. “Megéve. Design en Altitude.” AD France, No. 139. December 2016 / January 2017
PDF copy available to download via link below:

Delphine Després. “Galerie Armel Soyer Alps – Seizing Contrasts.” Artravel Hors Serié – Les Alps 2017. December 19, 2016
PDF copy available to download via link below:

Aiwekhoe Iyahen. “The Future is Now – The Engineering Craft of Ifeanyi Oganwu.” Luxe Noir, Issue 1, Cape Town. December 2016
PDF copy available to download via link below:

Marie-Eudes Lauriot Prévost. “In Megève, Design at the Top.” Point De Vue, January 4, 2017
PDF copy available to download via link below:

Christine Marie Halter-Oppelt. “The Wonder of Megève.” Style Mountain, February 2017
PDF copy available to download via link below:

Jareh Das. “TEFAF MAASTRICHT 2017 Review.” Selections Magazine, March 30, 2017
http://www.selectionsarts.com/2017/03/tefaf-maastricht-2017-review/

REBORN

Two-Person Show with multidisciplinary artist Christina Oiticica.

Presented at Gallery Elle, Zurich’s premier gallery with an emphasis on contemporary design programming.

Organized by Galerie Armel Soyer and Gallery Elle.

Exhibition Start Date: Oct. 21, 2016

Additional details:
http://galleryelle.com/

Photos Courtesy of Gallery Elle.

Seeking Africa
Pedestal + Duniake presented in Seeking Africa, Design / Art Across A Continent. A group show organized by West London Gallery – Themes & Variations, highlighting the work of over 20 artists and designers from the continent and diaspora.

Accompanied by illustrated catalogue available through the gallery.

Exhibition Dates: Nov. 16 – Dec. 16, 2016

Additional details:
https://www.themesandvariations.com/

Making Africa, A Continent of Contemporary Design

Travelling exhibition organized by Vitra Design Museum and Guggenheim Bilbao, stopped at Kunsthal Rotterdam.

Curated by Amelie Klein with Okwui Enwezor as consulting curator.

Exhibition Dates: Oct. 1, 2016 – Jan. 15, 2017

Additional details:
https://www.kunsthal.nl/en
http://www.design-museum.de

Photo by Mark Niedermann, Courtesy of Vitra Design Museum.

Design Miami/ 2016
Cityscapes debut presentation by Elisabetta Cipriani.

Dates: Nov. 30 – Dec. 4, 2016

Additional details:
http://miami2016.designmiami.com/

Nadia Sesay. “Ifeanyi Oganwu’s ‘Cityscapes’ Debuts in Miami Art Week.” Blanc Modern, November 28, 2016
https://www.blancmodernafrica.com/blancculture/2016/11/ifeanyi-oganwus-cityscapes-in-miami-art-week

Vanessa García-Osuna. “Jewels with a Pedigree and its Own Name. A Calder on Your Jacket Lapel.” La Vanguardia, Magazine, Fashion & Arts, Spain. December 2016

PDF copy available to download via link below:

Cufflinks, 9KT Rose Gold, 2016
15 x 17 mm / 0.6 x 0.7 in
Edition of 12 + 2AP

Ring, 9KT Rose Gold, 2016
37 x 33 mm / 1.5 x 1.3 in
Edition of 12 + 2AP

Earrings, 9KT Rose Gold, 2016
45 x 23 mm / 1.8 x 0.9 in
Edition of 12 + 2AP

Cityscapes collection of wearable structures seeks to unify natural and manmade landscapes. Here, the functional support acts as a horizon line from which shards are reflected to create interactive elements with varying geometric intricacy.

Works in the collection include a double ring, large earrings, and a pair of cufflinks, all of which grow from aggregated clusters of folded shards – the primary unit of the designs which are inspired by metropolitan skylines mirrored on bodies of water.

Presented by Elisabetta Cipriani – Jewellery by Contemporary Artists.

Annabelle Birchenough. “Taking the Everyday, a Meeting with Ifeanyi Oganwu.” 1:54 Art Fair Editorial Feature, September 2016
http://1-54.com/london/taking-the-everyday-a-meeting-with-ifeanyi-oganwu-2/

PDF copy of expanded version available to download via link below:

Fleur Macdonald. “Between Design and Art at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair.” TRUE Africa, October 8, 2016
http://trueafrica.co/article/behind-the-154-art-fair-lounge-the-designer-ifeanyi-oganwu/

Akinyi Ochieng. “Our 5 Favorite Highlights of 1:54 Contemporary African Fair London 2016.” Okayafrica International Edition, October 9, 2016
http://www.okayafrica.com/culture-2/5-favorite-highlights-1-54-contemporary-african-fair-london-2016/

Grace Banks. “1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair: The Eye of Modern Mali and More.” Wallpaper, October 16, 2016
http://www.wallpaper.com/art/154-contemporary-african-art-fair-highlights-london-edition

Talk – Waveforms, in conjunction with Phoebe Boswell and Princess Alia Al-Senussi.

Expanding on approach to collaborative practice, part of 1:54’s FORUM Series curated by Koyo Kouoh (Artistic Director, Raw Material Company, Dakar).

Date: Friday, October 7, 2016.

Listen HERE.

Photos by Victor Raison.

In collaboration with Galerie Armel Soyer, textile design firm Toghal, and visual artist Phoebe Boswell.

A series of special objects for the 2016 Edition of 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, held at Somerset House, London.

The installation developed specific spatial devices to amplify the porosity between the exterior and interior of the main lounge. The external terraces were transformed into soft rooms from which to take in sights and sounds of London. Meanwhile, the lounge was defined by waveforms of various scales. In the bookshop, new works are adapted to explore both the circularity and vertical axis of the room; overall the dynamic presentations encouraged flexible use of the spaces.

Dates: Oct 6-9, 2016.

Additional Information:

http://1-54.com/london/

http://armelsoyer.com/

http://toghal.com/

https://www.phoebeboswell.com/

Pedestal + Duniake, Moulded Birch Ply, Cotton with Digital Print, Linen, Foam, 2016
475 x 384 x 400 mm / 18.70 x 15.12 x 15.75 in
Edition of 200

In this new collaboration fusing art and design, tradition and modernity, the Duniake fabric of female bodies is inspired by the everyday language of the Kenyan khanga and was created by Phoebe Boswell, whose work combines the digital and exquisite draftswomanship in her personal exploration of ‘home’.

The Pedestal assembly elevates the presentation of the artist designed fabrics while disappearing into the background – this is achieved through the vocabulary of arches, which are ubiquitous in urban landscapes. The pair of cylindrical bolsters suggest an innovative approach to seating whilst appearing to be displaced or broken off from a larger assembly.

The Pedestal reduces the stool typology to its essential form, combining moulded plywood shells supported by a pair of vertical walls and an inclined brace that is partially visible on the side elevation.

Pedestool, Laminated Birch Ply, 2016
475 x 384 x 400 mm / 18.70 x 15.12 x 15.75 in
Edition of 10

In collaboration with Toghal UK.

Autonomous Rex – a speculative architectural project from 2006 which envisions a radical extension to Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, is included in Vitra Design Museum’s travelling survey of the Bauhaus.

The exhibition titled The Bauhaus #itsalldesign is curated by Jolanthe Kugler and offers a contemporary reading of the historical institution.

Catalogue available HERE.

Exhibition dates:
01/04/2016 – 14/08/2016, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
14/10/2016 – 07/01/2017, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel

Gallery Elle has partnered with Armel Soyer to present Zurich’s only gallery dedicated to contemporary design.

The space located at Mommsenstrasse 18, opened on May 19th with a group show that includes Blue Milk.

03/2016 – 08/2016
Splice presented at Making Africa. A Continent of Contemporary Design.
Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona.
http://www.cccb.org/en/

10/2015 – 02/2016
Splice presented at Making Africa. A Continent of Contemporary Design.
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/en/

Travelling exhibition curated by Amelie Klein with Okwui Enwezor as consulting curator.

03/2016 – 04/2016
Blue Milk, presented by Galerie Armel Soyer at Pavilion of Art & Design, Paris.
https://www.pad-fairs.com/paris/en/

12/2015 – 02/2016
Shwisty presented at Maker Maker exhibition, part of the 2015 Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture, Shenzhen.
http://en.szhkbiennale.org/

Curated by Benjamin Ward.

Shwisty, Mild Steel, 2015
760 x 1510 x 2740 mm / 29.92 x 59.45 x 107.87 in
910 x 1830 x 2740 mm / 35.83 x 72.05 x 107.87 in (Including net)

Shwisty is a participatory surface designed for public use and engineered for both indoor and outdoor settings, part of a series in which compact functional planar surfaces are derived from folded continuous loops. Its multipurpose nature lends the table to work, play and relaxation depending on the number of users at a given time.

The design is formed of planar sheet steel constructs – 5mm in thickness, which create dichromatic structural supports and playing surfaces. Diachromatism is introduced as topological markers to describe the trajectory and structural interdependence within each group of planar surfaces, resulting in the combination of pattern and function. An approach inspired by a range of sources notably Hank Willis Thomas’s photograph Crossroads as well as Peter Doig’s painting Ping Pong.

The construction incorporates manufacturing technologies and processes available in Shenzhen with a view towards deploying the work in other cities – one per continent. In addition to adapting design to each site of installation, local fabrication expertise will be utilized as a means to produce a range of unique results within the series. In this instance, the constituent parts are cut offsite with assembly and finishing carried out onsite.

Commissioned on the occasion of the 2015 Bi-City Biennale in Shenzhen, and deployed at Maker Maker in order to create an active surface where play and relaxation are not only encouraged; they coexist within the site of an exhibition.

Photos Chaos Zhang, courtesy UABB (SZ).