Leo Maher is a British-born designer, researcher and sculptural furniture maker who’s work sits at the intersection of object design and art. His practice collects research from material cultures, past and present, working this research into dynamic new works using a complex array of materials and techniques. Those works often attempt to challenge normative ideas surrounding our material realities and the narrative they represent. Maher often endeavors to treat each tool or material with equal regard, recognizing the delicate mutuality and harmony that emerges as narratives, materials, and techniques converge to create conglomerate objects. He takes great pleasure forming each material by hand in his studio.
He graduated Cum Laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven (BA) in 2021 and with Merit from Kingston School of Art (2017). His project ‘Unfamiliar Passions’ was nominated for the DAE Melkweg Award for ‘outspoken talent’ and he was short-listed for the Dutch Design Awards ‘Young Designer Award’ 2022. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in a number of private collections.
publications
ELLE Decoration NL 'Name to Know' 2023
Eight Days a Week
Archipanic
Hortipoint
exhibitions
You Can Sit With Us Too, Haricot Gallery, LDF, London, 2024
Cover It, Rue Hippolyte, Zürich, 2024
Design & Materials, a cosmology of Desires, FORMAE Talks, Paris Design Week Factory, Paris, 2024
ALCOVA Milano, Villa Bagatti Valsecci, Milan, 2024
COLLECTIBLE Brussles, Curated Section, Brussles, 2024
Pioneers in Ceramics, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, Delft, 2024
Dripping Rhubarb, Tableau, Copenhagen, 2023
Infinite Looping in Harmony, HATCH, Paris, 2023
At the Edge of Everything, Cabin, Berlin, 2023
'Cruising: Discomfort as a Tool to Depatriarchise Design', Huidenclub, Rotterdam, 2023
Dutch Design Awards, Young Designer Award, Microlab Hall, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2022
Confessions, Tableau & Post-Service, Alcova- Milan Design Week, 2022
Super Group 2.5, Superhouse Gallery NY, hosted by The Attico, Milan Design Week, 2022
Kazerne Design Award, Kazerne, Eindhoven, 2022
Unfamiliar Passions, Galerie Fleur en Wouter, with Mai van Oers, Amsterdam, 2022
'Queer Ontology', Willem Twee, with Leon Stoffelen, Den Bosch, 2022
'Positioned Realities', Non-Depleted Collective, Berlin, 2022
'The Invisibles: Historic Furniture from a Contemporary Design Perspective', Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Lithuania, 2021
Superhouse Group Show 2, Superhouse Gallery, New York, 2021
Hall G, Sectie-C, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2021
Design Academy Eindhoven Grad' Show, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2021
Gerrit Rietveld Academie Grad' Show, Geomax with Mona Mercier, Amsterdam, 2020
EitR, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2019