As partners of the globally renowned industrial design studio Stephen Burks Man Made, Malika Leiper and Stephen Burks unite art, industry, and community through a hands-on and workshop-based creative practice. Having met at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Burks and Leiper began their artistic collaborations in 2019 with the launch of the traveling solo exhibition Shelter In Place which positioned the home as a site of radical design speculation in response to converging global crises. Shelter in Place was curated by Monica Obniski and opened at the High Museum of Art in September 2022 and traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art in September 2023. That same year, they opened a solo show Spirit Houses at Volume Gallery in Chicago followed by the studio’s participation in The New Transcendence group exhibition curated by Glenn Adamson in January 2024. Today, Stephen and Malika are pursuing the artistic expressions of their ideas through residencies and fellowships while mentoring and teaching internationally.
