Rio Kobayashi
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Nio, 2025 -
Ghost (On the Square) Table, 2025
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Ghost (Champion Approved) Chair, 2025
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Ghost (Motor Spirit Turbo) Bench, 2025
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Manus Manum Lavat (One Hand Washes the Other
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Off The Shelf Pavilion, 2024
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Bosa Bosa Chair 2, 2025
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Bosa Bosa Chair 4, 2025
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Improv Table, 2024
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Play 02, 2023
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Fish Table (Fatty Tuna), 2019
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Turning Into Shelf (Sci-Fi 2), 2025
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Shoji Paravant III, 2023
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R for Repair
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Furikake Lantern, 2023
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Robot shelf, 2019
Rio Kobayashi was born in 1989 in the pottery town of Mashiko, Japan and currently lives and works in London. With both Austrian and Japanese heritage, his design practice draws from his background, blending traditional crafts with modern sensibilities. Kobayashi’s eclectic work takes a collaborative and playful approach to fine craftsmanship, experimenting with fabrication techniques based on a rigorous knowledge in materials. Before setting up his own studio and workshop in East London in 2017, he worked with international studios in Milan, Berlin, Innsbruck, Paris and London.
Kobayashi was awarded the 2025 London Design Festival’s Emerging Design Medal and Best Curio for his commission for Blunk Space at Design Miami 2024. Solo exhibitions include Crooked Pencils, Kate MacGarry, London (2025) and Manus Manum Lavat (One Hand Washes the Other), Cromwell Place, London (2023). Group shows include Rio Kobayashi & Fritz Rauh, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA, USA (2025); The Equal Right to Live and Blossom, Kate MacGarry, London (2024); Grazie Enzo: Contemporary Responses to Enzo Mari, Design Museum, London (2024); 100 Hooks, Blunk Space, Point Reyes, CA, USA (2023) and R for Repair, Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2022).
