Design Miami/ maintains strong links to its past while stepping boldly into new realms of design

In its 10th edition, Design Miami/ pays tribute to the evolution of the collectible design market with its founding galleries and celebrates the growing interest in work from the 1970s and 80s, classic and contemporary American design and the materials of the moment alongside new works commissioned for the fair.

Design Miami/ 2014 brings together 35 leading design galleries from around the world to present beautifully conceived and highly individual exhibitions for which the fair has become renowned. Highlights this year include special anniversary presentations from those galleries that have been part of the fair since its 2005 debut, alongside a blend of exceptional twentieth century pieces from the US and Europe, the launch of new works by some of the most exciting design talents working today, and the inaugural edition of the Design Curio program, which pushes beyond the traditional boundaries of collectible design.

Founding Galleries/
11 of the galleries at Design Miami/ 2014 are among those that participated in the first year of the fair in 2005. Several of these founding galleries present special exhibitions that celebrate the growth of the collectible design market over the past decade. These include a display dedicated to public commissions in France from the 1960s and 70s from Demisch Danant; an exhibition on the functional, durable furniture created for universities by Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé and Le Corbusier from Galerie Patrick Seguin; a monograph on Rick Kauffman’s New York Art et Industrie gallery and the creative crossover surrounding it from Magen H Gallery, and newly commissioned works debuting at the fair with Cristina Grajales Gallery, Galerie kreo, R & Company and Nilufar.

New territories in North American design/
This December’s fair celebrates the blossoming of interest in collectible design in the US with galleries showing works from across the country, as well as the recipient of this year’s Design Commission: Minneapolis-based designer Jonathan Muecke. For the first time since its inception, the fair is very proud to present a local Miami designer showcased by a Miami-based gallery, with a solo exhibition of new work by Emmett Moore exhibited by Gallery Diet. Volume Gallery presents works by Muecke, as well as Tanya Aguiñiga, RO/LU, Jonathan Olivares and Leon Ransmeier. Edward Cella Art+Architecture focuses on the ceramic work of Adam Silverman, and Johnson Trading Gallery presents furniture by Chris Schank, Jack Craig, Katie Stout and the architecture studio Aranda\Lasch. The focus on US design continues with a tribute to the American Studio Craft Movement at Moderne Gallery along with a nod to the design heritage of the Pacific Northwest with the fair’s Collectors Lounge designed by architects Olson+Kundig.

Special Commissions/
Design Miami/ 2014 features a significant number of special commissions, including works in glass, stone and acrylic. ammann//gallery presents the Sakala vase by Satyendra Pakhalé, his first work in blown Murano glass; Galerie VIVID presents commissioned works by Finnish-born designer Janne Kyttanen, which take the designer’s 3D printed aluminum Sedona Bench as their point of departure; Max Lamb creates a granite lamp for Johnson Trading Gallery made over six days using stitch drilling, and jeweler Ted Noten unveils a table – his first foray into furniture – at Ornamentum.

A Bronze Age/
It may have associations with the earliest days of human craft, but bronze is very much the material of the moment at Design Miami/. From artist jewelry to monumental decorative works, via furniture and lighting, the cast metal is deployed across multiple formats at this year’s fair. Casati Gallery introduces the work of Chicago-based designer Steven Haulenbeek with a collection of bronze mirrors, furniture, lights and objects all distinguished by the ‘chaotic texture’ produced by casting in ice. Carwan Gallery debuts furniture pieces combining bronze, onyx, mother of pearl, resins, fine inlaid wood and silver-plated brass by Italian architect Vincenzo de Cotiis. Carpenters Workshop Gallery shows a new collection of iconoclastic architectural-themed bronzes from Studio Job; and new furniture pieces and jewelry by Claude Lalanne are exhibited by Louisa Guinness Gallery.

Cabinets of curiosity/
Spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Design Curio/ presents four immersive environments of objects, textures, artifacts and ideas that truly challenge and contextualize familiar design narratives. This first edition, in celebration of the fair’s 10th anniversary, emphasizes surprising installations of scientific research alongside handcraft and creative production. These include oceanic art and design endeavor Coral Morphologic’s Blue Room, offering a coral-eye view of Miami’s aquatic waterscapes; Beijing’s Gallery ALL presenting Naihan Li’s latest installation from her I AM A MONUMENT series, recreating Beijing’s cityscape to a scale of 1:100 with billowing smog rising amongst buildings reimagined as furniture pieces. Koenig & Clinton and Joe Sheftel Gallery partner to present a collection of Sottsass objects interacting with works by the Memphis group in a jewel-box space; Patrick Parrish Gallery invites visitors to experience the vertiginous grid-based exhibition: Surfaces On Which Your Setting and Sitting Will Be Uncertain, displaying a group of sculptural furniture objects by RO/LU with matching clothing designs by Various Projects.