Maxime Mballa-Tagny is an artist, designer and thinker.
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My art balances creativity, harmony, and curiosity. With my background in Industrial Design and African Art, my goal is to make artefacts of the future.
I am constantly wrestling with the definition of art. How and why do we create? Definitions around the world vary from culture to culture. In my own, the answer is still unclear to me, where very rarely art for art’s sake exists. Instead, there are beadworks, vessels, pillars, and more… all very beautiful, but functional and informed by their times.
As a result, I studied how we create, studying Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design. This exposed me to the cutting-edge making and thinking of my time. The crowning achievement being a European Product Design Award and an International Design Awards Gold. I have since gone on to work as a product researcher and designer at Eqogo and its subsidiary BuildBetter, a procurement platform. Currently, I am the lead designer for Archives Design, an art and design house based in Thailand. Our dedication to craftsmanship has led to exhibitions at the Art Space by MOCA and collaborations with Monocle, a global lifestyle brand, and Pañpuri, a fragrance brand.
In parallel, I have never stopped asking why we create. First as a docent and finally a Guest Services and Design Associate for the Savannah African Art Museum. Our small team worked on a daily basis with a collection of over 1,000 African artefacts covering over 2,000 years of African history. With this intimate knowledge, I went on to serve as a Young International Fellow of Humboldt University’s Cluster of Excellence, doing a deep dive into the artefacts of the Cameroonian Grasslands. Today, I am building on this foundation as a provenance researcher for the Lübeck World Cultures Collection. The research, funded by the Centre Marc Bloch, investigates the origins and opinions today on Cameroonian artefacts dating as early as the 17th century.
My life is a never-ending quest to see how and why we create. My art is the central element holding the ideas together.
If you’d like to learn more about what makes me tick, reach out to learn more.
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Bruce Scott, Art Gallery Shows in Bangkok to Check Out in June. Prestige, Bangkok, Thailand. 2025
House of Fritz Hansen opens after renovation along with a showcase of leather goods exhibition from Archives Design. Lifestyle Asia, Bangkok, Thailand. 2023
Young International Fellows at the Cluster. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. 2022
Refugee students to enjoy virtual visit to Savannah African Art Museum. Savannah Business Journal, Savannah, GA, USA. 2020
Connecting Careers And Culture At Savannah African Art Museum. The Savannah Tribune, Savannah, GA, USA. 2018
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Unveiling Leather, 20 September - 7 December 2025, Four Seasons Art Space by MOCA Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand.
Mambo: The Object & You, 22 May - 5 July 2025, Archives Design, Bangkok, Thailand.
Unveiling Leather, 28 August - 5 November 2023, Four Seasons Art Space by MOCA Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand.
Chain Link Fence ®, 3 June 2018, Starland Dairy, Savannah, GA, USA.
SCAD Drawing Works, 13 March 2018, Alexander Hall Gallery, Savannah, GA, USA.
On the Block Too, 29 April 2017, On the Block, Savannah, GA, USA.