Colour Field is inspired by the Colour Field painters of the 1950s and 1960s, who included Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. Their paintings featured large planes or bands of colour that enveloped the viewer, abandon­ing form and figuration to evoke pure emotion. For the first time in abstract painting, figure and ground became one, with the space of the picture – conceived as a “field” – seeming to spread out beyond the edges of the canvas.

This group exhibition will premier bold new work by designers such as Tonic, Zizipho Poswa, Xavier Clarisse and Ronel Jordaan, whose approach to colour is immersive and transformative. Working in a wide variety of materials – including glass, aluminium, wood, clay, fabric and leather – the designers explore the interplay of colour with light, texture and materiality in contemporary furniture, lighting, ceramics and textiles.

Colour Field will include some relative newcomers to South African collectible design, such as fashion designer and weaver Nicholas Coutts, industrial designer August de Wet and jewellery designer Eric Loubser.