Born in 1988, Fernando Laposse was trained at Central Saint Martins as a product designer. He specializes in transforming humble natural materials into refined design pieces and 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. Laposse 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 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, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, The Design Museum in London, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the World Economic Forum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Victoria. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Design Museum Gent, Le Centre Pompidou, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the High Museum, Le centre national des arts plastiques, Les Manufactures nationales Sèvres & Mobilier national, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Victoria, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Dallas Museum of Art.
Laposse lives and works in Mexico City.
