Taama: Cheick Diallo

Southern Guild proudly presents Taama, a major solo exhibition by Malian designer, sculptor and architect Cheick Diallo at its gallery in Melrose Hill, Los Angeles, opening 13 February, 2025 (until 3 May, 2025). Taama, meaning “voyage” in the West African language of Malinké, will trace the trajectory of Diallo’s pioneering design practice and showcase the full range of his oeuvre, including a selection of iconic and experimental furniture, lighting, sculpture and objects. The exhibition’s design will situate his work within the context of his studio in Bamako, collaborative approach to fabrication and revival of West African craft. This will mark his first solo exhibition at a gallery in the United States.

Widely regarded as one of Africa’s pre-eminent designers, Diallo has played an influential role over the course of his three decades-long career. With its mix of conceptual ingenuity and reinvention of centuries-old craftsmanship, his studio has redefined the possibilities for African design. “I have been on a long journey of discovery, creation and experimentation – one I hope will continue for years to come. Even after all these years, I am still learning!” he says. “I’ve always defended artisanal savoir faire and handcraft from Africa. That which is made by hand – that’s the culture; that’s what we have to save and treasure in Africa because if we lose that, we lose a lot of things. Tradition needs to support modernity.”

Born in Bamako, Mali in 1960, Diallo trained as an architect at Rouen School of Architecture and began working at various architecture studios in France. He went on to study furniture design as the first Black African to enroll at ENSCI (The National School of Industrial Design) in Paris from 1992 to 1994.During this time, his Ifen lamp and Rivale chair earned him top honours from the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris.

Since returning to his home city of Bamako to establish his own studio in 2014, he has dedicated himself to working exclusively with everyday materials and local artisanal techniques. His team of craftsmen include Tuareg leather workers, metalsmiths, indigo dyers, carpenters and weavers with whom he collaborates to produce unique objects that interrogate Western notions of luxury. He incorporates waste material from Europe and elsewhere – including salvaged metal, bottle tops, fishing rope, leather and old tyres – transforming them into collectible design that he then re-sells to a majority of European collectors, a concept he calls “return to sender”. Diallo’s sensuously curved chairs and chaise longues woven from colourful nylon thread have earned him particular renown.

“I’m always looking for new possibilities with the materials I find around me. It’s an obsession – an illness! I can be working on 10 pieces at once. There’s no Sunday, no Monday for me. I’ve been like this all my life. I’m very curious so I try things on various maquettes just to see if they will work or not, purely out of curiosity,” he says.

Diallo established the Association des Designers Africains in 1996 and has managed a large number of design workshops around Africa, including in Mali, Togo, Congo, South Africa, Morocco, Benin and Ghana.

He has exhibited extensively all over the world, including the Hayward Gallery in London, the National Centre for Art and Centre Pompidou in Paris, Kunst Palace in Düsseldorf, and a 2012 solo show at the Museum Mandet in France. His work was included in the Vitra Design Museum exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design and Africa Remix at the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. His work is in the collections of major institutions, including the Centre Pompidou, Vitra Design Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), Philadelphia Museum of Art and Manchester Museum of Art, among others.

Diallo has participated in several group exhibitions with Southern Guild and in the gallery’s presentations at Design Miami (Basel and Miami), The Aspen Art Fair, Untitled Art and Investec Cape Town Art Fair. He has been a trusted mentor and advisor to his peers and younger generation of designers on the continent, as well as an influential member of the Design Network Africa programme led by the Danish Centre for Culture and Development and facilitated by Source, Southern Guild’s sister company.

Taamo by Cheick Diallo runs concurrently with Manyaku Mashilo’s solo exhibition, The Laying of Hands, as well as a presentation of recent works by Jozua Gerrard and Jody Paulsen.