Design Miami’s Sunshine State of Mind

Miami’s annual showcase of the world’s most collectible Design Art is back and exploring inclusivity and interconnectedness, beginning with the offer of all access passes to both those on the ground and those browsing from home...

By Emma Moore and Design Miami/Basel

Design Miami/Basel

November 8, 2021 | 11:00 pm CUT

Apical Reform & ZEEL Studio make their fair debut with a Curio titled Emotional Rocks, representing the impact of intangible aspects of emotions on hard objects

The hottest trade show ticket of the design industry – the one you want to land on your desk and not your colleague’s – is that for Design Miami. The one that takes you to its sunny namesake city in the month of December, when most of us are shivering into our hot chocolates. The one that shares some of the most exciting design-art adventures of today’s, yesterday’s and tomorrow’s masters while inviting you to party on South Beach and rub big shiny shoulders with America’s glitterati. Only this year, in our world of fun-zapping, travel-banning pandemic, there is also the option to sit at home with your spangles and take it all in over the steamy chocolate.

The Bedroom, 2021, by Harry Nuriev will be central to his sixth Curio presentation. A silver Ryokan-style mattress, within a zen-like cube represents the bedroom as a space to escape reality and meditate

A hybrid happening

The 17th edition of Design Miami, taking place between 1–5 December and led by new Curatorial Director, Wava Carpenter, will be a hybrid affair, taking place in physical and digital form. All the works on the show floor will be available to buy at designmiami.com for a limited time, and an online programme of design talks and 3D virtual tours will keep you – partially – from feeling left out.

The celebratory air on the ground, however, will not falter. The theme running through all the various happenings is 'Human Kind' and like other recent fairs, expect the coming together to be a trigger for big conversations about how design can lead the way towards a more inclusive and interconnected future.

Chairs by Lebanese designer Khaled El-Mays at HOUSE OF TODAY. They form part of a solo exhibition entitled New Nature, featuring five works made in collaboration with craftspeople from Mexico City

Collectables from the past, present and future

Setting up shop in Pride Park, the fair will host over 35 gallery and 19 Curio exhibitions (total environments of objects, textures, artefacts and ideas designed to challenge conventional design narratives) alongside partnerships and collaborations across the neighbourhood. As ever, the galleries will show a mix of rare and exclusive pieces of 20th-century design, and never before seen contemporary work. Moderne Gallery’s strong selection of mid-century collectables includes, for example, George Nakashima's first furniture design: the Karuizawa chair (1935), made for St. Paul's Catholic Church in Karuizawa, Japan.

Exciting new gallery work includes Martin Rusak’s Flora Contemporaria collection at Twenty First Gallery featuring four limited-edition cabinets that are modern reinterpretations of Josef Frank's iconic Flora cabinets. HOUSE OF TODAY will install a solo exhibition of work by Lebanese designer Khaled El-Mays showing work made in collaboration with craftspeople in Mexico City; the five-piece series, entitled New Nature, features two mirrors, a bar, bench and the designer’s first-ever chair, made from leather, wood, raffia, and wicker as well as ceramics.

Ceramics will have a good showing, with the Southern Guild presenting an exhibition of pieces commissioned for the fair from four of South Africa’s standout clay artists, Andile Dyalvane, Zizipho Poswa, Madoda Fani and Chuma Maweni, while Mindy Solomon presents ‘Free Flowing Geometry’, a striking show of works by John Gill, Kelsie Rudolph, and Minkyu Lee.

Friedman Benda gallery hosts a brand new collection of glazed stoneware by Nigerian American ceramicist and sculptor Ebitenyefa Baralaye. Pictured here: Portrait III, 2021

New blood in the lineup

First-timers to the platform include British fashion designer and artist, Samuel Ross, who with Friedman Benda will turn a booth into a quasi-industrial setting. Also debuting with a Curio presentation are Apical Reform & Zeel Studio. Emotional Rocks is their joint venture, and along with Blurry Stars Kinetic Benches, they will be installed across the fair’s common spaces. There will also be Curios from PELLE, Bohinc Studio, James de Wulf, and Tuleste Factory.

Public installations are staples of the fair and will include Tomorrow Land from winners of the 2021 Annual Design Commission, Studio Probia and Enjoy the Weather. An interactive playground dispersed around the site, it features playful sculptural pieces that double as seating and ornamentation and comes with a digital app allowing visitors to collect and customise their shapes and create their own custom totems around the neighbourhood. Bruno Munro’s Forest + Field of Light meanwhile is taking over two acres of Pinecrest Gardens filling it with 6,000 fibre-optic illuminated glass spheres on stems.

Whether at home or under the Florida sun, there’s plenty to get design hearts racing.