Samuel Ross appointed artistic director of London Design Biennale 2025

Above: Samuel Ross has been named artistic director of the London Design Biennale. Top: the event will take place at London’s Somerset House

British designer Samuel Ross has been named artistic director of the London Design Biennale for 2025, which will mark the fifth edition of the UK design event.

Ross, who is the founder of clothing brands A Cold Wall and SR_A SR_A, as well as the Black British Artists Grants Programme scheme, will also showcase a series of large sculptural artworks for the biennale.

The event will take place at Somerset House in central London over the course of three weeks and will include a talks and events programme as well as installations by local and international designers.

“London’s consistent spirit of experimentation and palpable artistic culture, remain a fresh forum for global thinking,” Ross said.

Somerset House

“Taking part in the 2025 London Design Biennale as artistic director is an honour, I look forward to collaborating with each practitioner, ideally fuelling a spirit of experimentation, blurring the edges of where design meets art,” he added.

Under the theme of Surface Reflections, next year’s edition of the London Design Biennale will look at how external influences and internal experiences come together to create ideas.

“The elder and child versions of ourselves, in spirit, harvest experiences pooled from the same well,” Ross explained. “The time between each visit to the well does not distort the composition of the water.”

“A different reflection, or means of extraction, may occur over time due to the compound’s characteristics,” he added. “Generations of design-thinkers portray similar behaviours.”

London Design Biennale director Victoria Broackes said the biennale would look to showcase global creativity and innovation.

“2025 will be an important year for design in the UK,” Broackes said. “We are absolutely delighted to be working with Samuel Ross as artistic director for London Design Biennale 5th edition, combining his vision with creativity and innovation from all over the world.”

“London Design Biennale 2025 will present an international showground for original and imaginative ideas, solutions and thrilling opportunities for enriching exchanges,” she added.

In a recent interview with Dezeen, Ross explained that he aims to focus more on art and design than fashion going forward.

“Of course, I’ve still got time for fashion but I feel like there’s more of an urgency to speak in the design remit and within the fine art remit,” he said.

In this spirit, the artist recently showcased a series of massive furniture pieces made from stone, metal and wood at Friedman Benda gallery for NYCxDesign.

The portrait of Ross is by Kohler photography studio and the main image of Somerset House is by Richard Bryant.

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