Australian designer Mark Newson studied jewellery and sculpture at Sydney College of Art from 1982-84 and two years later he had his debut exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery with a small selection of furniture, including the three-legged Lockheed Lounge. For the exhibition, Newson was asked to work on the cheapest possible materials, and since the manufacturing possibilities were limited, he decided to make the body of the Lockheed Lounge in the same way you would create a surfboard, in polyurethane foam coated with polyester and aluminum. The lounge chair became Newson’s breakthrough in the design world during the 1990’s, and thirty years later, it had set four world record prices at auctions for work created by a living designer.
In 1987 Newson moved to London where he designed several well-known furniture such as the Embryo Chair for Idée Japan in 1988, and the Orgone Lounge and the Felt Chair in 1993. During the same time Newson worked at the Japanese design company Idée and in 1989 his furniture was shown at the Milan Furniture Fair. In 1992, Newson opened a studio in Paris and in the following year he was named Designer of the Year at Salon du Meuble. Two years later Newson launched the Bucky lounge chair as part of the installation Bucky, From Chemistry to Design at Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris.
Newson moved back to London in 1997 where he established Marc Newson Ltd with Benjamin de Haan. From 1998-99 he designed interiors for the Falcon 900B jet. In 2001 Newson had a solo exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney an in the following years he designed Skybed business-class seats for Australian airline Qantas, for which he was the creative director from 2005-2015.
Following the exhibition Marc Newson at the Design Museum in London 2004-05, Newson was awarded the title of Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in 2006. In 2007 a solo exhibition of Newson’s work was shown at the Gagosian Gallery in New York and in the following year he designed Sky Jet, a space jet for EADS Astrium. Three years later he was appointed honorary Doctor of Visual Arts at the University of Sydney and received the Lucky Strike Designer Award.
In 2012 Newson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to design in Great Britain and worldwide. From 2014 Newson has been the Designer for Special Projects at Apple, where his first project was the design of the Apple Watch. Marc Newson is represented at several international museums including the Design Museum in London, the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and the Museum of Furniture Studies in Stockholm.
