Black design isn't a monolith, as London's Design Museum's new exhibition reminds us

At London's Design Museum, collective objects bring us closer to the people behind them, their influences and the knowledge that makes their work possible. 'The Nue Black Aesthetic' (until 8 August 2026) guides visitors through the narratives shaping Black design, from earlier masters and Larry Neal's writing to the conversations taking place in studios and workshops today. Along the way, it asks whose creative contributions are remembered, how knowledge lives on between generations and who has been denied the leeway to tell their story.

Guest curated by Charlene Prempeh, alongside co-curator Tiya Dahyabhai of the Design Museum, the exhibition brings together over 100 objects by 16 contemporary Black designers. Spanning furniture, architecture and fashion, their work challenges Black erasure while granting agency to the individual experiences and endeavours that shape a practice.

The exhibition builds on discussions of a Black aesthetic in the 1960s and a New Black Aesthetic in the 1980s, focusing on Larry Neal's 1968 essay 'The Black Arts Movement', and a collection of seminal essays on the arts, Any Day Now: Toward a Black Aesthetic, published by David Zwirner Books, placing today's practices within a continuing discussion about cultural identity and artistic self-determination.

Here, 'Nue' stands for nuance. The designers, many of whom belong to diasporic communities, draw on shared but dispersed experiences and the distinct traditions of their particular heritage. Their work reveals how differently those influences can be felt and communicated, with historical research running throughout the exhibition.

Designers including Andu Masebo, Samuel Ross and Ini Archibong bring their own approaches to objects, while fashion by Foday Dumbuya, Feben, Saul Nash, Bianca Saunders and Rachel Scott return our attention to 'the dressed body'. Taiba Akhuetie's braided objects and Phoebe Collings-James' ceramics offer further ways into the relationships between material, form and making. There is plenty to absorb as the exhibition continues to unfold and these connections accumulate. Spending time with each practitioner account deepens the show's proposition: Black design is not monolithic.

Here, we look at five key objects from the exhibition, and the stories they tell.

Lantern House by Tosin Oshinowo

For Nigerian architect and designer Tosin Oshinowo, the conversation begins with the conditions of a Lagos home. Featuring 'Lantern House', the building expresses her approach to Afrominimalism through the everyday experience of living back home: an extended focus on how light enters a room, how it transforms, while also considering how a home feels to those inside it.

Open Code by Mac Collins

Assemblage takes a more explicit form in Mac Collins' 'Open Code'. Drawing on his Jamaican heritage, Collins's reconstruction of the dominoes table for Harewood House, an estate with historical connections to slavery, gives the game's familiar expression of Jamaican communal life particular resonance. The table's significance extends through the people who sit and the discussions that follow.

Strang Notes by Giles Tettey Nartey

In the exhibition's wider conversation, British-Ghanaian architect and designer Giles Tettey Nartey's 'Strang Notes' presents his reinterpretation of the balafon, a gourd-resonated West African xylophone, examining how inherited forms continue to develop through contemporary making, along with a further development of Assembly, continuing the idea of gathering unity.

Resting Figure Bench by Simone Brewster

Simon Brewster continues her exploration of the Black female body through sculptural form. Visitors may already know her work from the museum's PLATFORM display. In many ways, her new piece, 'Resting Figure Bench' materialises earlier conversations, drawing attention to the relationship between Black female body, everyday life and the customary constructs that support.

Oríkì (Act III): Whispers of a Trail by Nifemi Marcus-Bello

For Lagos-based designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello, the starting point is material. 'Oríkì (Act III): Whispers of a Trail' follows copper through countries' politics of extraction and the practical difficulties of sourcing it in his community. Working with traders and craftspeople, the artist procures reclaimed metal from Lagos's scrap markets and reworks it into functional sculptures, bringing the expertise of those who sourced and worked the metal, alongside questions about who can access Africa's resources and who benefits from their circulation.