Lexus, LF-Z Electrified concept car at Design Miami.
Tomorrowland sculptures by Studio Proba outside of the Design Miami tent.
Miami is no stranger to the charms of design. Its seductions are obvious in every gaze and activity. Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco and Modern architecture are famously prominent.
New Star-chitect buildings pop up like blender buttons on the landscape: Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Herzog & de Meuron and Frank Gehry followed Morris Lapidus, L. Murray Dixon and Henry Hohauser onto the map. The design team of Arquitectonica kicked up sand into the heady "Miami Vice" days. Custom cars, sleek boats and unprecedented hotel designs are splashed all over fashion covers internationally.
Design Miami, Art Basel’s sister show exists during Miami Art Week in a fair tent across the street from the Miami Beach Convention Center on, oddly, Convention Center Drive. You know how siblings can be, always there by your side, keeping up with family pride.
New Nature Chair by Khaled El Mays (Photo Courtesy of House of Today).
The 2021 version does not disappoint. If the esoteric nature of contemporary Art Basel is not your glass of Champagne, check out the more practical nature of everyday objects blasted onto new ideas to tickle fancy, eye and ease. This years theme? “Human Kind,” as seen through the lens of design.
And if you have your crypto coins handy, Jennifer Roberts, Chief Executive Officer revealed that 2021 Design Miami is the first major fair to accept payment in cryptocurrency.
British designer Samuel Ross (founder of A-COLD-WALL mens design) shows his new selection of sculptural furniture at Gallery Friedman Benda. The works are beautiful yet cool in nature, often bringing to mind other functional objects with each bend, angle and formation.
Miami-based interior designer Bea Pernia (Bea Interiors) explores the overlap where sculpture and functional design meet. Her work is clean, soothing, sharp and soft all at once.
Room 57 Gallery, miamiartzine.com art reviewer Irene Sperber "borrowing" artist /designer Vincent Pocsik's Chair #6 (as a replacement for reviewer's broken foot).
You say you need an active design? How about playing ping pong on “Spin Love," a many faceted ensemble of mixed media by Atelier Lionel Jadot. The piece is created by 15 artists and designers from Zaventem Ateliers. I can see getting distracted as you gnip gnop through a game.
Admire Lexus new design coming out soon. The automaker’s LF-Z Electrified concept car was designed by architect and University of Miami professor, Germane Barnes and his team. At the fair you can gaze into the full size 3-D metal line drawing awash in colored lighting.
Don’t forget the talks. DM is ready to provide any info you need “from VR to AR, and from NFTs to the metaverse, our panelists get into it all.”
Check out the schedule here: https://shop.designmiami.com/pages/talks
This is a fair that collectors, gallerists, designers, curators and critics deem the best in show. It’s fun, quirky, deeply insightful in where the world is headed for design, fashion and function. (FYI: The outfits draped on visitors is worth the price of admission. )
Gaze at the new Miami Beach Convention Center on your way out, front and center across the street by Fentress Architects and its collaborators, West 8 and Arquitectonica. Lounge in the deeply relaxing and soul restoring Miami Beach Botanical Garden nearby, designed by Raymond Jungles.
“ Make it simple, but significant.” Don Draper, fictional character on Mad Men.
Design Miami runs through Sunday, Dec. 5
Convention Center Drive and 19th Street
Miami Beach
noon to 8 p.m. except Sunday until 6 p.m.
