The exhibition will take place at the museum from the 6th November 2026 until the 8th August 2027.
This autumn, the Design Museum will present an exhibition focusing on guest
curated by author and journalist Charlene Prempeh that charts the work of
some of the most innovative contemporary Black designers working right
now.
Titled The Nue Black Aesthetic, the show will feature 16 designers who are currently helping to reimagine the design industry. Featuring over 100 objects, the exhibition will see innovative practices that span from fashion and furniture, to architecture, product design and sculpture all focused on.
Set across six sections, the exhibition will highlight that there is no single way to be a Black designer. By spotlighting diverse practices and voices, the exhibition invites visitors to
rethink assumptions about what Black design looks like and who gets to shape design culture.
The designers who are set to be featured in the exhibition include: Tejumola Adenuga, Taiba Akhuetie, Ini Archibong, Simone Brewster, Mac Collins, Phoebe Collings-James, Foday Dumbuya, Feben, Nifemi Marcus-Bello, Andu Masebo, Saul Nash, Tosin Oshinowo, Bianca
Saunders, Rachel Scott, Samuel Ross and Giles Tettey Nartey.
Meanwhile, additional works and graphics by over 20 designers — from Althea McNish
to Yinka Ilori — will also feature in the exhibition’s introduction to
contextualise Black design from the 20th and 21st centuries.
The title of the show is reference to the cultural movements of the ‘Black
Aesthetic’ of the 1960s and the ‘New Black Aesthetic’ of the 1980s. But this
exhibition proposes a ‘Nue’ era — one defined by nuance, where there is no
single way to be a Black designer.
Talking about the exhibition, Charlene Prempeh, guest-curator of The Nue Black Aesthetic said: “The idea that Black design is not monolithic should not be surprising or
controversial and yet there has historically been very little interrogation
about the complexities and inspiration of contemporary Black designers or
about how the specific experience of creating in a predominantly white
space influences their practice. This exhibition focuses a spotlight on the
design work of the diasporic community while provoking a reassessment of
what Black design is today.”
To book tickets visit: https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-nue-black-aesthetic