Jesse Ede (b. 1985, Cape Town) is a self-taught designer and sculptor whose work is grounded in material exploration and process-led experimentation. Raised in the workshop of his father, a multidisciplinary craftsman, he developed a deep respect for making from an early age. Ede spent eight years working internationally as an artisan, including boat-building in Antigua, before returning to South Africa to establish a design and manufacturing studio. Working with bronze, stone, aluminium, and brass, he sources materials directly and embraces open-cast smelting, allowing chance, heat, and gravity to shape each work.

Ede’s practice emerges through sustained experimentation with open-cast smelting, foregrounding the organic nature of metal and stone. By sourcing materials directly from local quarries, he allows the inherent character of sandstone, granite, and bronze to guide each work’s form. His processes reveal the tension between raw material and human intervention, embracing unpredictability as part of making. Solaris, the focal work of his 2023 exhibition Of Space and Time, reflects a longstanding interest in interplanetary phenomena. Cast in open-cast bronze, its vertically mounted, radiating circular forms echo cosmic systems and mark a shift from functional design toward a purely sculptural, contemplative expression.