Martin Margiela
Artist
Biography
Martin Margiela (born 9 April 1957 in Genk, Belgium) is a Belgian fashion designer and artist, and the founder of the Paris fashion house Maison Margiela. Throughout his career he has kept a famously low profile, declining face-to-face interviews and refusing to be photographed. Celebrated for a deconstructed, upcycled aesthetic and oversized silhouettes, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential designers of recent decades. After leaving fashion in 2008 he turned fully to art, pursuing an inquiry into the human body, materiality and the transformation of everyday objects. His debut solo exhibition as an artist opened at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris in 2021 and travelled to M Woods in Beijing (2022) and the Lotte Museum in Seoul (2023); a solo presentation followed at Kudan House in Tokyo in 2026. His work has appeared in group exhibitions including L'Homme qui Marche at Kunsthalle Bielefeld and No Angels at Wilhelm Hallen in Berlin, and in 2024 his sculpture Blinds was permanently installed in the centre of Antwerp. He works in Belgium and lives between Belgium and France.
