House of Santal Brings South Asian Design to New York - SURFACE

"For a long time, South Asia has been a great back-end support system for a lot of foreign designers and manufacturers: Products are white-labeled while the craftsmanship is outsourced. Over the last ten years, there's been a renaissance in design in India, where legacy craftsmanship is embedded in the design process itself."

"House of Santal's inaugural exhibition, 'At The Threshold of the Courtyard,' presents work by thirteen designers from India who explore traditional crafts and credit the artisans who produce them, with participants active in the new movement incorporating heritage techniques like embroidery, marquetry, metalwork, and weaving into their pieces."

House of Santal opened in February 2024 as the first U.S. gallery exclusively showcasing contemporary South Asian design. Founded by designer Raksha Sanikam, the gallery addresses South Asia's historical role as a back-end support system for foreign designers through white-labeled products. The inaugural exhibition features thirteen Indian designers exploring traditional crafts while crediting the artisans involved. These designers represent a recent renaissance in Indian design that embeds legacy craftsmanship into contemporary work, incorporating heritage techniques including embroidery, marquetry, metalwork, and weaving. Sanikam, born in India and trained in finance and interior design, established relationships with local furniture-makers that enabled the gallery's creation, aiming to build more equitable designer-artisan relationships.

Read at SURFACE