Presented in 2023 as part of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture’s exhibition Seeking Zohn, Fabien Cappello’s stools are part of the designer’s investigation into the vibrant, functional objects that are part of the everyday fabric of Guadalajara, Jalisco.

The stools are produced utilizing a valuable yet overlooked metal technique particular to the region, and reveal unexpected aspects of the locality and an open approach to the working practices of culture in the making.

The Seeking Zohn exhibition is traveling to Louis Barragan’s Casa Cristo in Guadalajara in February 2025. Here in Los Angeles, take home a piece of this memorable exhibition! Fabien Cappello’s stools are on auction through December 30th! All proceeds from the auction will benefit the MAK Center.

Fabien Cappello (France, 1984) is a furniture and product designer. He studied at the University of Art and Design (ECAL) in Lausanne, Switzerland and obtained a master’s degree in Design Products at the Royal College of Art in London in 2009 under the tutelage of Martino Gamper and Jurgen Bey. Estudio Fabien Cappello is a spacial and furniture firm currently based in Guadalajara, Jalisco, after four years in Mexico City. The design studio’s work is part of the permanent collection at SFMOMA, The Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, and the National Centre for the Arts (CNAP) in Paris, France. Cappello’s work shares a high consideration for craft techniques and industrial production, reflecting design through people and their interactions with space, environment, and material culture.

Seeking Zohn is an exhibition of works by Mexican-Austrian architect and engineer Alejandro Zohn (1930-2000) through contemporary photography and design. The exhibition takes as subject Zohn’s robust civic and commercial architecture built in Guadalajara from the 1950s to the 1990s, with an interest in how the city’s social, cultural, and material histories are interwoven with his structures. Exhibited at the Schindler House, commissioned photography and video by artists Adam Wiseman, Lake Verea, Onnis Luque, Sonia Madrigal, and Zara Pfeifer veer from the documentary conceit of architectural photography toward the subjective.

Curated by Los Angeles–based critic and curator Mimi Zeiger and Mexico City–based collaborative practice Tony Macarena: Lorena Canales and Alejandro Olávarri.

First exhibited at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in Los Angeles, the exhibition creates a connection between Vienna, Guadalajara, and Los Angeles, drawing parallels between the migratory experiences of Zohn and R.M. Schindler. Now, in its hometown of Guadalajara, it illuminates both the ambitions and the limitations of modernism in building an inclusive city.

Fabien Cappello Stools from MAK Center's exhibition Seeking Zohn