Leo Maher is a British-born artist and designer currently based between Athens and the Netherlands. His work involves gathering research from both past and present material cultures, exploring the narratives they are tethered to, and subsequently reformatting archives into new physical pieces. The works frequently aim to challenge normative ideas surrounding our material realities and the narratives they represent. Maher often endeavors to treat each tool or material with equal regard, recognizing the delicate mutuality and harmony that emerges as narratives, materials, and techniques converge to create conglomerate objects.
He graduated Cum Laude from the Design Academy Eindhoven (BA) in 2021 and with Merit from Kingston School of Art (2017). His project ‘Unfamiliar Passions’ was nominated for the DAE Melkweg Award for ‘outspoken talent’ and he was short-listed for the Dutch Design Awards ‘Young Designer Award’ 2022. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in a number of private collections.
publications
ELLE Decoration NL 'Name to Know' 2023
Eight Days a Week
Archipanic
Hortipoint
exhibitions
ALCOVA Milano, Villa Bagatti Valsecci, Milan, 2024
COLLECTIBLE Brussles, Curated Section, Brussles, 2024
Pioneers in Ceramics, Museum Prinsenhof Delft, Delft, 2024
Dripping Rhubarb, Tableau, Copenhagen, 2023
Infinite Looping in Harmony, HATCH, Paris, 2023
At the Edge of Everything, Cabin, Berlin, 2023
'Cruising: Discomfort as a Tool to Depatriarchise Design', Huidenclub, Rotterdam, 2023
Dutch Design Awards, Young Designer Award, Microlab Hall, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2022
Confessions, Tableau & Post-Service, Alcova- Milan Design Week, 2022
Super Group 2.5, Superhouse Gallery NY, hosted by The Attico, Milan Design Week, 2022
Kazerne Design Award, Kazerne, Eindhoven, 2022
Unfamiliar Passions, Galerie Fleur en Wouter, with Mai van Oers, Amsterdam, 2022
'Queer Ontology', Willem Twee, with Leon Stoffelen, Den Bosch, 2022
'Positioned Realities', Non-Depleted Collective, Berlin, 2022
'The Invisibles: Historic Furniture from a Contemporary Design Perspective', Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Lithuania, 2021
Superhouse Group Show 2, Superhouse Gallery, New York, 2021
Hall G, Sectie-C, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2021
Design Academy Eindhoven Grad' Show, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2021
Gerrit Rietveld Academie Grad' Show, Geomax with Mona Mercier, Amsterdam, 2020
EitR, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven, 2019