The Visiting Artists Program resource guides contain upcoming speakers' biographies, articles, video and audio content, related publications in the Flaxman Library, and additional online resources. These guides may be used in the classroom in preparation for the event, research, or post-lecture discussion.
Fernando Laposse: Tuesday, March 5, 6:00–7:30 p.m. CT
The Art Institute of Chicago, Fullerton Hall, 111 S. Michigan Ave.
This event will be live captioned by Communication Access Realtime Translation services.
Join us in person for a lecture by designer Fernando Lapossee followed by an audience Q&A.
Born in 1988, Fernando Laposse trained at Central Saint Martins as a product designer. Laposse specializes in transforming humble natural materials into refined design pieces. He has worked extensively with overlooked plant fibers such as sisal, loofah, and corn leaves. His works are the result of extensive research which culminates into objects of “endemic design” where materials and their historical and cultural ties to a particular location and its people take center stage. He often works with Indigenous communities in his native Mexico to create local employment opportunities and raise awareness about the challenges they face in a globalized world.
His projects are informative and educational and touch on topics such as sustainability, the loss of biodiversity, community dissolution, migration, and the negative impacts of global trade in local agriculture and food culture. He does so by documenting the issues and announcing possible resolutions through the transformative power of design.
His projects have been exhibited in the Triennale di Milano; Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; Design Museum, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; World Economic Forum; and the NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne to name a few. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Design Museum Gent, Le Centre national des arts plastiques, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Laposse currently lives and works in Mexico City.
Presented in partnership with SAIC's department of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Designed Objects, and the UIC School of Design Public Seminar Series.
Image Credit: Fernando Laposse. Courtesy of Friedman Benda and Fernando Laposse. Photography by Pepe Molina.
Gallery Representation
Fernando Laposse Takes a Sustainable Approach to Furniture Design
Peter Webster | Interior Design | November 14, 2023
An Old Crop Gets a New Life
Paola Antonelli and Arlette Hernandez | MoMA | October 31, 2023
Fernando Laposse’s ‘Ghosts of Our Towns’: a narrative of materials, culture and evolution
Aarthi Mohan | STIRpad | October 10, 2023
A Chair Made of Corn? This Designer Uses Ancient Agricultural Techniques to Build Modern Objects
Sophie Lee | Cultured Magazine | September 26, 2023
Design for a Rural Mexico
Martha Pskowski | Disegno Journal | September 24, 2023
Endemic design: Fernando Laposse bringing the focus back to outsourced Mexico
Martina Tondo | Lampoon Magazine | March 18, 2023
True Colors: Fernando Laposse’s Avocado Portraits
Glenn Adamson | Friedman Benda | 2023
Interview: Fernando Laposse Unearths Mexico's Indigenous Wisdom in Friedman Benda Show
Kat Barandy | Designboom | September 11, 2023
Fernando Laposse: A Grain of Truth
Gaggenau | Please note this video does not provide closed captions
Sisal Bench / Making of
Studio Fernando Laposse | Facebook | Please note this video does not provide closed captions
Broken: Mending and Repair in a Throwaway World by 
Why Materials Matter by
This visually stunning investigation of natural and man-made materials will change the way you look at the world around you, while offering hope for the future of our planet. What does it mean to live in a material world, and how do materials of the past and present hold the keys to our future? This book tackles these questions by focusing on various issues that human beings face and by discussing potential materials-related solutions. Through the lens of intriguing projects by designers, artists, makers, and scientists, it presents a colorful panoply of ideas, technologies, and creative efforts that focus on the earth's most basic elements, while also showing how these elements can be transformed into entirely new materials. It explores, for example, how ancient practices such as dyeing fabric and making glue may hold the secret to renewable and earth-friendly consumer products, as well as how recycling plastics can tackle food waste, and how a type of light metal being developed may one day make air travel less fuel-reliant. This book also investigates the potential of the digital experience, suggesting how this most ephemeral type of matter can be used to improve our world. Eye-catching and provocative, Why Materials Matter serves as both a stimulating catalog of possibilities and a timely manifesto on how to consume, manufacture, and design for a better future.
Waste Age: What can design do? by 
Victor Papanek: the Politics of Design by
Shortlisted for the Richard Schlagman Art Book Awards 2019 for Best Contribution to Design History The designer, author and design activist Victor J. Papanek anticipated an understanding of design as a tool for political change and social good that is more relevant today than ever. He was one of the first designers in the mainstream arena to critically question design's social and ecological consequences, introducing a new set of ethical questions into the design field. Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design presents an encompassing overview of Papanek's oeuvre, at the heart of which stood his preoccupation with the socially marginalized and his commitment to the interests of areas then called the Third World, as well as his involvement in the fields of ecology, bionics, sustainability and anti-consumerism. Alongside essays and interviews discussing Papanek's relevance in his own era, this book also presents current perspectives on his enduring legacy and its influence on contemporary design theory. Original Papanek family photographs, art and design work, drawings, correspondence and countless materials from the Victor J. Papanek Foundation archive at the University of Applied Arts Vienna are reproduced here for the first time, alongside work by both Papanek's contemporaries and designers working today.
Maison Perrier-Jouët Presents The Pollination Dance by Artist Fernando Laposse
Maison Perrier-Jouët has announced the opening of ‘The Pollination Dance’ (December 6 – 10, 2023), an installation by Mexican artist and designer Fernando Laposse at Design Miami/.
Fernando Laposse: Ghosts of Our Towns at Friedman Benda
Friedman Benda presents Ghosts of Our Towns (September 7 – October 14, 2023), Fernando Laposse’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. Known for questioning the ethics of agriculture and production via its waste products, Laposse focuses on three materials for this exhibition: corn, agave, and avocado.
Conflict Avocados at NGV Triennial 2023
Fernando Laposse presents Conflict Avocados (December 3, 2023 – April 7, 2024) on display in NGV Triennial at NGV International, Melbourne. Coupling design with material research, Conflict Avocados interrogates the recent history of the avocado plant and the ramifications of its rapid increase in popularity.
Visiting Artists Program Lecture Recordings from the Archive
SAIC Visiting Artists Program video and audio lecture recordings (1977–present.) Available with SAIC login credentials.
SAIC Digital Collections: Visiting Artists Program
SAIC Visiting Artists Program publicity archive and audio recordings (1977–98).