Malene Barnett Picks 6 Furniture Designers
Rearranging Things From the Inside

Malene Barnett is an artist, entrepreneur, and authority on the cultural traditions and practices of art in the African diaspora and how it translates into her vision of the modern black experience. From her sculptural ceramic tiles and vessels to mixed media paintings to handwoven rugs, Barnett continues to evolve her craft and share her African heritage with a global audience. As the founder of the Black Artists + Designers Guild, a global platform and curated collective of independent black artists, makers, and designers, she is always seeking new ways to define the black narrative and experience for a new generation while bringing awareness to inequality.

Andre Sandifer @alisandifer
Detroit, Michigan

Andre Sandifer is a designer and a self-taught craftsman. He was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan and professionally trained in architecture. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan (2001) and a Bachelor in Facilities Management from Ferris State University (1996). Andre specializes in hand-fabrication with an expertise in hardwoods.

OI Studio @oistudio_
New Orleans, NO.

OI Studio is a design firm based in New Orleans. “We produce bespoke, eco-friendly furniture and home accessories using sustainable materials and processes. Our credo: W good for the planet is ultimately great for our clients and our business model”. Being raised on St. John, US Virgin Islands, which is mostly a national park, BOA has always been acutely aware of the need to balance our natural environment with the built one.

Chuma Maweni @chumamaweni
Cape Town, SA.

Photography: Hayden Phipps

A master of hand-thrown ceramics, Chuma Maweni’s distinctive approach combines contemporary hand-coiled shapes marked with precisely patterned incisions. From his studio in Woodstock, Cape Town, he makes exquisitely crafted ceramic vessels and furniture, the latter finding their largest form to date in his sought-after Imbizo series of tables, side-tables and stools. Chuma was born in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, in 1976.

Jomo Tariku @jomofurniture
Springfield, Va

Ethiopian American artist and industrial designer Jomo Tariku is defining a new language for modern African design by synthesizing his experience of the continent’s diverse landscape, indigenous cultures, architecture, and lifestyles. Blending the memories of his formative years in Ethiopia with travel through Africa, Jomo’s designs offer a new line of inquiry and experience of modernity while venerating the rich historical palette of Africa.

Clayton Rhule @crhulestudio
Trinidad & Tobago, WI.

Clayton Rhule is a Jamaican Designer based in Trinidad & Tobago. Educated at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, where he majored in Sculpture, and later went on to do his post graduate work in graphic design at the Florence Design Academy in Italy. His furniture takes on a sculptural sensibility, which makes each piece stand out in any space. “The objects that I make tells the story of its journey into being. There is beauty in the crafting, there is beauty in the imperfections, there is beauty in how it is used.”

Tosin Oshinowo @ile.ila
Lagos, Nigeria.

Tosin Oshinowo is a registered architect in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and a member of the Royal Institute of the British Architects. She has been lead architect at cmDesign Atelier (cmD+A) since 2012. cmD+A is an architecture design consultancy practice based in Lagos and is best known from the Maryland Mall, which opened in June 2016.