La Nave was a collective of designers born from the merger of the Caps i Mans and Enebece (NBC) studios, which brought together eleven professionals from different disciplines, ranging from industrial and graphic design professionals to visual artists, architects and quantity surveyors. This exhibition brings together the prolific work of Eduardo Albors, Paco Bascuñán, José Juan Belda, Carlos Bento, Lorenzo Company, Sandra Figuerola, Marisa Gallén, Luis González, Luis Lavernia, Nacho Lavernia and Daniel Nebot.

From 9 March until 10 September, the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (IVAM) is hosting a retrospective exhibition on the important work of this group of Valencian designers.

The work of La Nave is framed in a social context of transcendental political, social and cultural changes that gave rise to a movement that was known as “La Movida”, which was particularly relevant in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. This historical moment was also a turning point in the practice of design with the appearance and consolidation of postmodernist aesthetics, which represented a formal liberation and the definitive overcoming of the rigid principles of the Modern Style synthesised in the rejection of ornament—postulated by Adolf Loos—and Sullivan’s maxim “form follows function”. The resulting design was influenced by the major breakaway movements of the time: Memphis and Alchimia in Italy; the emerging figure of Philippe Starck; the graphics of Neville Brody; the work of Sostres or Peret in Barcelona, or that of Tibor Kalman in the United States.

Curated by Adriana Cabello and Inma Bermúdez, the “Mujeres que no son florero” (Women who are not vases) exhibition presents the relationship between design and ceramics through the work of 14 female creators. It can be visited from 14 to 18 February in a unique home refurbished by the QUAM Arquitectura studio.

Already presented in 2022 in the context of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, 10 designers, artists and ceramicists, all of whom are from or reside in Valencia, are now joined by the creators working in Madrid, within the framework of the Madrid Design Festival.