Gloria Cortina: Mexico

Consolidating European and modernist influences with Mexico's arts and crafts heritage

Mexican furniture, lighting and interior designer Gloria Cortina (born 1972) believes that design should be determined by an expression of culture and craft, not merely or primarily a brand identity. Her approach to design, shaped by the philosophies of Mexican masters such as Diego Rivera and Luis Barragán, seeks to consolidate European and modernist influences with Mexico's own arts and crafts heritage in pieces characterized by luxurious materials like tropical wood, stone, textured metal and rich textiles. Instead of offering a conventional monographic survey of Cortina's design, which consciously eludes easy branding, Gloria Cortina: Mexico seeks instead to present Cortina's elegant and precise work through the ideas and concepts that have shaped it, connecting her pieces to an inherited Mexican culture and aesthetic as well as honoring the designer's unique, sensual approach to material and form.