This exhibition features Stephen Burks' innovative work from a variety of projects. The exhibition includes furniture, home accessories, lighting, packaging, photographs, prototypes and sketches.

Burks works in various media in his New York design studio, Readymade Projects, and often translates his observation into objects, understanding how culture, do-it-yourself ideologies, fashion, and art impact design and how people use things. For example, Burks' vases for Italian design house Missoni are covered in fabric and resemble the beautiful ready-to-wear knitwear for which Missoni is famous. Other objects, such as the gold-plated conductor's baton, humorously mimic the path a conductor's baton takes as it is wielded in front of an orchestra. The resulting design is a beautiful physical and conceptual utterance of movement and music.

In addition to Missoni, Burks has developed concepts for Calvin Klein, Estée Lauder, Herman Miller, Idée, Cappellini, Swatch, Triple 5 Soul, Vitra and others. He is the first African American industrial designer to collaborate with these companies. Last year, Burks was chosen by Infiniti as a featured creative in its current international ad campaign Infiniti in Black. He also was included in the television documentary In Black, which aired nationwide on BET. Most recently, he has worked as a design consultant in South Africa and Peru for the non-profit organization Aid to Artisans, using his experiences with European companies to develop products for international export from the developing world.

Burks has received numerous awards and has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; as well as at international design fairs in London, Milan, New York and Tokyo.

His work has been included in numerous design publications including Metropolis, House & Garden, Elle Decoration, I.D., The New York Times, wallpaper and many others. He was chosen as one of the "50 Tastemakers of 2004 by House & Garden magazine.

In Burks' own words, Readymade Projects "is interested in the space between the object and the activity, as well as the activity around an object in space. We believe this is where the most potential lies for innovation. In most cases our design process doesn't begin with a formal or a material exploration, but a simple observation, 'how do you use this?'"

Burks studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Product Design at IIT's Institute of Design in Chicago. He also attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture in New York City.