Tanya Aguiñiga is a furniture designer whose work is informed by the complex interactions between Tijuana and San Diego, the cities in which she has spent most of her life. While studying design at San Diego State University, she began working as an educator at the San Diego Museum of Art and created collaborative installations with the Border Arts Workshop, an artists’ group that engaged the languages of activism and community-based public art. After earning an MFA in furniture design from Rhode Island School of Design in 2005, Aguiñiga settled in Los Angeles. Her sensitivity to materials and interest in creating furniture that responds to the user’s spatial needs have resulted in a playful and organic modernist approach to form. She hopes to deepen her commitment to ethical design by working with traditional artisans, and connecting local craft traditions with a global economy.