Archibong's work reflects an interest in master-craftsmanship and its relationship to modern and ancient technology. It is inspired by the study of architecture, environmental and product design, as well as mathematics, philosophy and world religions.[4][5] He has said about the relationship between art and design, "The idea that something has to be useless in order to be art is something I reject."[6]
The son of Nigerian parents who emigrated to the United States as academic scholars, Archibong was born in Pasadena, California.[3][7] He attended and was graduated from the Polytechnic School, then briefly attended the USC business school before dropping out.[8][9][10] He subsequently enrolled at ArtCenter College of Design where he was both an Edwards Entrance Scholar and an Art Center Outreach Grant recipient, was also named the 2010 Student Designer of the Year,[11] and from which he received a degree in Environmental Design.[12][13]
After graduation, he joined Tim Kobe's Eight Inc. [de] in Singapore, before continuing his studies at the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ÉCAL), where he earned a master's of advanced studies in Design for Luxury and Craftsmanship.[14][15][16]
Archibong began exhibiting his work at the Milan Furniture Fair in the mid-2010s. His 2016 furniture collection titled "The Secret Garden" was produced with the support of the actor Terry Crews.[17][18] This was followed by several exhibitions of his furniture designs for Sé Collections at the Rossana Orlandi gallery.[19][20] He began an ongoing collaboration with the Knoll furniture company in 2018 creating designs such as the "Iquo Cafe Collection".[21] In 2019 Hermès began marketing Archibong's "Galop d'Hermès" wristwatch.[22][14] In 2020, Archibong started working on the creation of sculptural pieces for a solo exhibition at the Friedman Benda Gallery in New York.[23]
In 2019, along with business development collaborations with Benjamin de Haan, Archibong founded L.M.N.O. CREATIVE, a multi-disciplinary design collective. The collective includes fellow graduates from Pasadena's ArtCenter, Jori Brown and Maxwell Engelmann, as well as designer Ebony Lerandy, who studied under Archibong at ÉCAL.[30]
He is the recipient of the ICFF Studio Award, Best of NeoCon Silver, International Woodworking Fair's Design Emphasis Award, ICFF's American Student Designer of the Year Award, and the 2019 Elle Deco American Design Award.[34][29] In 2019, he received Distinguished Alumni awards from both ArtCenter and Polytechnic in his hometown of Pasadena.[35][36]
His design for a Pavilion of the African Diaspora (PoAD) won the Best Design Medal at the London Design Biennale at Somerset House in June 2021.[40][41] In the same year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET)[42] in New York acquired his "Orion" table, "Atlas" chair and "Vernus 3" chandelier for its Afrofuturist Period Room.[43]
In 2022 the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) added Archibong's "Switch" table to its permanent collection.[45] The table also featured in his second solo show, titled "Narthex", at the Friendman Benda gallery in Los Angeles.[46][47] His Iquo Cafe Collection for Knoll received a Good Design award in 2022.[48][49]
A collaboration between Archibong and Tsugaru NuriJapanese lacquerware was unveiled at an exhibition called Craft x Tech Tohoku Project at Kudan House in Tokyo (2024).[56] Described as a "musical instrument in the form of a large organic pod-shaped sculpture ... [that] emits otherworldly electronic sounds when human hands hover above its lacquered surfaces", the piece and the exhibition itself seeks to marry heritage master-crafts techniques with contemporary technology.[57] The show was curated by Maria Cristina Didero, and also included works by Sabine Marcelis, Studio Swine, Yoichi Ochiai, Michael Young, and Hideki Yoshimoto.[58][59][60] The work was also exhibited in the Prince Consort Gallery of the V&A London.[61][62]
The New York Times published an essay by Archibong titled "Ini Archibong: What We Believe About Storytelling" in 2021.[63] The essay is part of a series called The Big Ideas: What Do We Believe,[64] which also includes essays by Agnes Callard, Garry Kasparov, T.M. Luhrmann, Harry Reid, and Carlo Rovelli, among others. This work was later published in a compendium titled Question Everything: A Stone Reader.[65]
Speechless: different by design. Schleuning, Sarah (2019). Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art. Shapco Printing, Dallas, Texas. ISBN978-0-300-24703-9. OCLC1139707385.[67]
Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room. Ian Alteveer, Hannah Beachler, Sarah E. Lawrence, (2022). Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. ISBN978-1-58839-745-4[69]
^Schleuning, Sarah (2019). Speechless : different by design. Andrea Gollin, Laurie Haycock Makela, Ina Archibong, Misha Kahn, Yuri Suzuki, Matt Checkowski, Eric Zeidler, Steven and William Ladd, Dallas Museum of Art, High Museum of Art, Shapco Printing. Dallas, Texas. ISBN978-0-300-24703-9. OCLC1139707385.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)