Iberoamérica Diseña
Nov, 2022

During the 8th. edition of the Ibero-American Design Biennial in Madrid, the founding members of the BID, in collaboration with an exceptional production team, carried out an exhibition that highlighted 44 projects representing the 22 Ibero-American countries. Under the title “Iberoamérica Diseña,” this exhibition was carefully curated, with each team member selecting two projects from their respective country. In the case of Venezuela, the selection was made in collaboration with Álvaro Sotillo and Jaime Cruz. Each of the selected projects was accompanied by a deep reflection on the striking idea of Ibero-American design.

NoMATERIA 2020 | Balance
Diseño Industrial en Venezuela. Industrial Design in Venezuela
Nov, 2021

The 4th edition of the online exhibition NoMATERIA features 28 products crafted by Venezuelans both within the country and abroad. This curated selection serves as a means of promoting, disseminating, and contemplating industrial design in Venezuela. The catalog, available in both Spanish and English, emphasizes that this collection of objects does not seek to define Venezuelan identity, nor does it attempt to establish a specific ‘Venezuelan design’ profile. Instead, it focuses on showcasing objects and products designed and/or produced by Venezuelans, regardless of their location. In this edition, the NoMATERIA Seal was introduced to highlight the featured designs.

Curator: Ignacio Urbina Polo. Prologue: Alberto Sato Kotani. Graphic Design: Claudia Mauro. Text review: Gabriela Caraballo. Text translation: Daniel Esparza. Collaborators: Jorge Andrés Castillo, Rodrigo Marin Briceño, Rodolfo Agrella, Antonio J. García, Sergio Alonso, Jaime Cruz and Humberto Valdivieso.

BID_ve2019
Iberoamerican Design Biennial in Caracas
Jul, 2019

The itinerant exhibition of the Ibero-American Design Biennial in Caracas was inaugurated on July 7, 2019 in the spaces of the Hacienda la Trinidad Parque Cultural. With the support of the Cultural Office of the Embassy of Spain in Venezuela and the Fundación DIMAD in Spain. The BID_ve2019 presented the Awards and Mentions of the BID18 and 46 projects with the participation of Venezuelan designers in the 2014, 2016 and 2018 editions of the BID.
Coordination: Silvia Fuentes | Hacienda la Trinidad
Curated by: Ignacio Urbina Polo
Exhibition design: Álvaro Sotillo
Graphics: Ariel Pintos
Exhibition montage: En3Artes

photos: George Dunia and Ignacio Urbina Polo

Iberoamerican Design Biennial
Nov, 2018

In November 2018 we presented in Madrid the sixth edition of the Ibero-American Design Biennial (Bienal Iberoamericana de Diseño) BID18. An effort of promotion, visibility, and reflection on the design of the region. More than 400 projects, selected by an International Jury, from 23 countries were part of this exhibition. Since its creation in 2007, I am part of the Advisory Committee in charge of the representation of Venezuela and developing other activities related to the Biennial.

NoMATERIA Exhibition
Apr, 2018

This project is an initiative that capitalizes the work of designers in the design and development of products. A panorama of the fundamental areas where the design operates, arranged here to produce a dialogue between those more experimental and academic exercises, and the projects directly connected with the industrial sector. 
NoMATERIA 2012 – 2017 | Build the Future. Industrial Design In Venezuela was the 3rd. edition and was curated, produced, published online on di-conexiones in 2017 and displayed in 2018 at Pratt Institute in NYC. In NoMATERIA 2012 – 2017 there are 50 projects involving 74 Venezuelans, residing in 24 cities in 11 different countries. Download the Catalog of the exhibition (en|es) HERE.

NASAD Exhibition
National Accreditation
May, 2015

Pratt Institute / ID Department
Along with Prof. S. Vandervoort and Prof. E. Beke, some ID instructors, and a team of ComD students, we coordinated and organized the exhibition for NASAD and Middle State NY, for the national accreditation of the ID program. The exhibition included student’s work of Undergraduate, Graduate, and Global Innovation Design program.

“NoMATERIA:
less atoms, more disclosure”
Dec, 2012

Two editions of NoMATERIA 2011 – 2012 were exhibited at the Carlos Cruz-Diez Museum in Caracas, Venezuela. An exhibition with 50 works of Venezuelan designers took the spaces of the Museum, an institution devoted to promote and discuss the disciplines of design and photography.

“Behind the Things:
Industrial Design in Venezuela”
Jul, 1995

In 2005 the Estancia Art Center in Caracas was inaugurated, an initiative of the national company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) to promote design and photography. The center opened with a national industrial design exhibition: Detrás de las Cosas: El Diseño Industrial en Venezuela, curated by Architect Alberto Sato and assisted by Ignacio Urbina Polo.
The photographic work was directed by Jorge Andrés Castillo and the graphic design by Ariel Pintos. Exhibition design and museology of this exposition was a collaborative project with Venezuelan architect Marcel Erminy and aimed to show objects designed and manufactured in the country, in the spaces of a colonial house in the city of Caracas. A kind of shop window with a wavy band showed small objects in the center of the main hall. Almost one hundred products were exhibited in this exhibition, the largest industrial design exhibition ever held in Venezuela.