Kossi Aguessy,

Kossi Aguessy was born in Lomé, Togo, in 1977 to a Togolese father and a Brazilian mother. At the age of three, he left Togo with his mother for New York, where he grew up. His childhood across cultures informed a body of work he would never allow to be reduced to a single origin. He described himself as an artist without borders and resisted labels that sought to define his work by a particular identity.

A gifted and precocious child, he earned his French baccalauréat at the lycée français in New York at the age of thirteen. During a trip to London with his mother, he discovered Central Saint Martins. He passed the entrance examination and won a scholarship to study industrial design and interior architecture. After graduating, he settled in Paris and spent four years working at Philippe Starck’s agency. In 2008, he founded his own studio.

His practice extended beyond industrial design to sculpture and painting. He designed the bottle for Stella McCartney’s Stella fragrance and collaborated with Yves Saint Laurent, Coca-Cola, Swarovski, Cartier and Renault.

In 2010, his work was shown in The Global Africa Project at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; some of his pieces later entered the museum’s collection. In 2012, the Centre Pompidou presented his work in Multiversités créativesand acquired his Fogo lamp. The following year, it acquired his Jord chair.

Maison Charles holds the exclusive edition rights to three of Kossi Aguessy's creations: The Stool, Asap and L447, among the last designs he completed. He passed away on 17 April 2017, his fortieth birthday. In November 2019, the Palais de Lomé opened to the public with Infinity, a retrospective of his work.