From kitchens and domestic spaces to immersive installations and new approaches to materials, design takes many forms this autumn. Across the US, UK and Europe, exhibitions are exploring how objects and environments reflect changing social values, challenge established ideas and shape the ways we experience the world around us. From landmark figures of the 20th century to a new generation of Black designers, these five shows consider design as a space for experimentation, storytelling and exchange.
The Kitchen and Its Discontents
LACMA, Los Angeles | Until 14 March
During the 20th century, Americans were offered an array of “domestic tomorrows” – from desktop computers to self-cleaning kitchens and plastic houses that could be assembled in a day. Home of the Future reflects on these utopian promises as part of LACMA’s autumn programme, which positions design as an agent of social, political and economic change. The second show, The Kitchen and Its Discontents, foregrounds two of the period’s most influential kitchen designs, as envisioned by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky and Charlotte Perriand. The display also includes work by artists and activists Cindy Sherman, Martha Rosler and Laurie Simmons, addressing the space’s longstanding association with women’s labour.
Walker Design Triennial
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis | 17 October – 14 February
The inaugural Walker Design Triennial, Beyond Materialism, brings together 50 recent works by 26 designers and collectives representing more than 10 countries. Its curation starts with the question: “What does it mean to design now?”, and is organised around four themes. After Materials traces the shift away from mass production; A New Poetics foregrounds storytelling; Reclaiming Design responds to current issues, such as technological advancement and the climate crisis; and Ritual and Symbolism positions design as a space for performance and community-building. The line-up includes Buckminster Fuller, Ettore Sottsass Jr., Nathalie Du Pasquier, Objects of Common Interest, Superflex and Theaster Gates.
The Nue Black Aesthetic
The Design Museum, London | 6 November – 8 August
The Design Museum has just opened Es Devlin: Other Worlds, a major retrospective of the celebrated stage designer. Running concurrently is The Nue Black Aesthetic, curated by Charlene Prempeh, which charts innovative contemporary Black designers working today. It features 16 names, including Bianca Saunders, Giles Tettey Nartey, Samuel Ross, Saul Nash and Simone Brewster, who are reshaping the industry. At its core is a key message: Black creativity is not a monolith, and that there is no single way to be a Black artist. “The idea … should not be surprising or controversial,” says Prempeh. “Yet there has historically been very little interrogation about the complexities and inspiration of contemporary Black designers or about how the specific experience of creating in a predominantly white space influences their practice.”
Sabine Marcelis – Light and Color
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich | 30 October – 4 April
Light becomes a material and colour becomes a three-dimensional experience at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich this winter. Sabine Marcelis is among the most influential voices in contemporary design, treading the boundaries between art, architecture, furniture, lighting and spatial installations. This exhibition brings together works from the last 15 years – including key pieces such as Tall Stripe, the irresistibly tactile Candy Cube, and the artwork Sunbeam Capture, in collaboration with Boris Acket. There are also immersive stagings where viewers will discover the spatial effects of light, colour and reflection – as well as floor-to-ceiling lava lamps. An interview with the artist appears in the October / November issue of Aesthetica.
Verner Panton: Form, Colour, Space
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein | Until 9 May
Chairs hung from the ceiling. Interiors transformed into rainbow playgrounds. Few creatives shaped design in the second half of the twentieth century as decisively as Verner Panton, developing radical new spatial concepts in which light, hue and textiles were central. Vitra Design Museum marks the 100th anniversary of the Danish artist’s birth with Form, Colour Space. The display spans several periods of Panton’s career, featuring iconic designs such as the Panton Chair, Cone Chair and the Flowerpot lamp, as well as rarely shown furniture and architectural projects. A walk-in reconstruction of the legendary Fantasy Landscape from 1970 invites visitors to immerse themselves in Panton’s sculptural, colour-saturated worlds.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Sabine Marcelis, Voie Light, 2016, photo: Lee Wei Swee
2. Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #3, 1977, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection, © 2026 Cindy Sherman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth, digital image © Museum Associates/LACMA
3. Objects of Common Interest, Lights On, 2023. Large-scale lighting installation. Courtesy the artist, Photo: FTfoto
4. ‘Strange Notes’ 2025 by Giles Tettey Nartey. Courtesy of Giles Tettey Nartey
5. Sabine Marcelis, in collaboration with Boris Acket, Sunbeam Captured, 2024, photo: Rubén P. Bescós
6. Verner Pantons Flying Chairs, Multi-Level Lounger und Sitzmöbel auf der Kölner Möbelmesse, 1964 © Verner Panton Design AG
