Inside Design Miami
The scene at Art Basel Miami Beach was familiar: palm trees swayed, champagne flowed and collectors streamed into air-conditioned exhibition halls. But among the air kisses and blue chip art pieces, Design Miami, the platform for collectable design, showcased high quality pieces for the home that put craft and materiality to the fore. Organized around the curatorial theme Elements: Water, this year’s exhibiting galleries explored the mysterious substance that is increasingly threatening and under threat. Meanwhile artists staged site-specific installations on the beach, Design District, and museums around town using Miami’s landscape as both material and muse.
Words: Sophie Kalkreuth
Teresita Fernandez: Elemental at the Perez Art Musuem Miami, courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong and Seoul
Elements by Teresita Fernandez (Above)
Cuban-America artist Teresita Fernandez’ survey ‘Elemental’ at the Perez Art Museum included works that explore environmental catastrophe through an unconventional use of materials. ‘Fire’ uses thousands of hand-dyed silk threads to construct flame patterns, while ‘Fire (United States of America)’ creates a charred mosaic replica of the earth and an American continent ravaged—the piece appears to suggest—by both environmental and political forces.
Coral Lamp by William Coggin
First time Design Miami exhibitor SCENE OUVERTE explored the ethereal beauty of marine environments with ceramic works by designer William Coggin including Coral Lamps and Coral Coffee Table, pieces that blend the fluidity of organic form with the roughness of surface textures.
Pink Beasts by Fernando Laposse
To create the cheeky pink sloths that hung suspended from trees around the Design District, Mexican designer Fernando Laposse used natural sisal fibers from the Yucatan, and a natural dye called cochineal that the Aztecs once used to color everything from textiles to buildings. The installation served as a reminder that even flamboyant products can be crafted by hand using sustainable dyes and fibers.
Null by Studio Buzao
The seas and skies of the Pearl River Delta inspired the hues of Null, a collection of laminated glass lamps, tables and benches shown by LA-based Gallery All. The series, designed by China’s Studio Buzao, is treated with gradients of opacity that shift from a deep blue to a translucent blue and ultimately to near invisibility.
Aqua Alta by Virgil Abloh
Some designers were explicit in their exploration of water as an environmental threat. Carpenters Workshop Gallery showed designer Virgil Abloh’s Aqua Alta series of “sinking” furniture featuring chairs and benches dissected at different points to appear as if they are sinking into the floor. The collection draws from the tide peaks that regularly affect Venetian life and, increasingly, Miami’s.
Leandro Erlich, Order of Importance(2019), commissioned by Miami Beach City, US, 2019. ©Greg Lotus, courtesy Leandro Erlich Studio
The Order of Importance by Leandro Erlich (Above)
Anyone who sat in gridlocked traffic during Miami Art Week appreciated Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich’s life sized sculpture of a traffic jam. Located on the beach, the series of sixty-five cars and trucks entitled ‘The Order of Importance’ was commissioned by the City of Miami Beach and transformed the beach itself into an eerie tableau where the expertly rendered vehicles both distort and sink into the low-lying sandscape.
Balenciaga Sofa by Harry Nuriev
Other designers took a hands-on approach to environmental quandaries by experimenting with closed-loop production cycles. Russian born designer Harry Nuriev, founder of Crosby Studios, collaborated with Balenciaga on an L-shaped polychromatic sofa stuffed entirely with colorful Balenciaga discards.