Chairman

Chairman is the first comprehensive book dedicated to artist and designer Yinka Ilori, tracing his celebrated chairs and the vibrant design language shaped by his British-Nigerian heritage. Bringing together over a decade of work, the book explores how Ilori transforms discarded and overlooked furniture into powerful vessels of memory, migration and joy. Rooted in the storytelling traditions of his Nigerian upbringing and shaped by the visual landscape of London, Ilori’s chairs operate at the intersection of art, design and social commentary. Each piece carries a narrative, often inspired by parables shared in his childhood, re-imagined through bold colour, pattern and craft. Through newly commissioned photography, archival material and in-depth studio insights, Chairman reveals the processes behind Ilori’s distinctive aesthetic, from material sourcing and restoration to surface intervention and conceptual development. Essays situate his practice within wider conversations on diasporic identity, sustainability, and contemporary design culture, positioning the chair as both a functional object and a cultural archive. Visually rich and critically engaged, Chairman is both a collector’s object and a significant contribution to twenty-first-century design discourse, offering the first sustained study of an artist whose work reshapes how we understand furniture, authorship and belonging.

Yinka Ilori, MBE, is a multidisciplinary British-Nigerian artist and designer known for bold, joyful work rooted in Nigerian storytelling. Believing design should be accessible to all, he re-imagines objects and spaces to foster community, optimism, and global connection through playful, contemporary narratives.