SGX

Celebrating Southern Guild’s 10th anniversary, SGX features iconic pieces by the gallery’s core stable of designers, all of whom have notably changed the landscape of South African design and continue to help articulate a wide-ranging but unique local identity. Less a historical survey than a showcase of key works that retain their relevance, this exhibition includes pieces that are still in production and which have come to define each designer’s practice. It also launches new works by Charles Haupt, Xandre Kriel and Chuma Maweni.

When Southern Guild was established in 2008, the collectible design category didn’t exist in South Africa. Over the past decade, the gallery has propelled its artist-designers to make spirited, challenging and emotive work that has redefined global perceptions of African design. In 2011 it became the first African gallery to present at Design Miami, and in 2015 it was the first to be featured at Christie’s London’s annual design auction.

The gallery shows regularly at Design Miami in Basel and the US and has shown at Design Days Dubai and the Collective Design Fair in New York, resulting in sales to leading architects, top collectors and respected museums. It has had work from its collections included in Vitra Design Museum’s Making Africa exhibition and Beauty–Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, as well as the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.