Architectural Digest February Issue 2025

Featured in the February issue of AD Magazine, Hanah Martin’s article explores São Paulo’s emerging design studios that are reshaping Brazilian design—breaking away from tradition and shaping the city’s future. The piece highlights some of the incredible artists represented by Aalvo Gallery, alongside other standout talents pushing Brazil’s collectible design scene forward. Below, we’ve included excerpts from Hanah Martin’s article.

Rafael Triboli

“I was feeling the weight of tradition and thinking about how to break it,” explains Triboli, speaking from his studio in Barra Funda, an industrial neighborhood that has become a hot spot for artists, designers, and galleries. He’s referring specifically to wood, a material that has defined Brazilian design since the era of Sergio Rodrigues and José Zanine Caldas, even as illegal harvesting complicates the sourcing process. A self-taught artist, Triboli only began experimenting with woodworking during the pandemic, embellishing hand-hewn mahogany and imbuia chairs and tables with inlaid wax and bronze details. After debuting that series with AGO Projects at the 2023 edition of Design Miami, he expanded into other furnishing typologies, like daybeds, folding screens, and more. (Many star in his solo show at Anthony Meier gallery in Northern California, on view through February 14.) Triboli acknowledges the enduring influence of Brazilian modernism, but he wants to open up the conversation. “For me it’s important to create a different language.”

Chapel Chair by Rafael Triboli

Folding Screen by Rafael Triboli

Table Lamp by Rafael Triboli

To see more of Rafael Triboli click here.

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Jacque Faus

“In northeast Brazil, ceramics embody ancestral knowledge, passed down mainly by Indigenous women,” says Faus, a born-and-raised Paulistana. Inspired by that rich history—and in particular the narrative monumental vessels of artists like Dagmar Muniz de Oliveira and Selma Calheira—she began making small hand-coiled pots and vases some 10 years ago. Those sculptures have since grown in scale, evolving into canvases of sorts as she scratches and paints their surfaces, leaving traces of clay visible. “I add these layers, but I like the background to show the natural color of the ceramic,” explains Faus, who works out of a studio in the Vila Madalena neighborhood. In the past year, she also began creating lamps and tables, some of which debuted at her recent show at the city’s Aalvo Gallery. “There’s a growing dialogue in São Paulo between art and design, which is particularly relevant to my work.”

Sculptural Vessel by Jacque Faus

Sculptural Table Lamp by Jacque Faus

Sculptural Vessel by Jacque Faus

To see more of Jacque Faus click here.

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Pedro Ávila

“Growing up in Brasília, Ávila recalls the contrast between the monumental architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and the hippie culture that has taken root there. “I think my aesthetic was created by this mix of things, Brutalism paired with the crystals and the mystical traditions,” he notes, speaking from his Barra Funda studio. His own functional sculptures embrace both sides of that creative conversation, manipulating age-old materials using a combination of manual and digital techniques. Wood from a felled tree that was struck by lightning, for example, might be hand-carved into an armchair, its cracks filled with molten metal. Side tables, meanwhile, might be born from a ceramic model that is scanned, its form then digitally carved from stone using a robotic arm. “I’m mixing very old, primitive techniques with new technology,” he explains.”

Cáravo Side Table by Pedro Ávila