This year’s edition of Miami Art Week was a vehicle (tragically hindered by traffic) for creativity that delivered design across many scales and mediums throughout the coastal city. Activations, exhibitions, and installations from notable artists, architects, and designers spilled out across South Beach and over into the Design District, Wynwood, and beyond creating myriad opportunities for inspiration for local creatives and the tens of thousands of visitors that flood Miami this week every year.
The largest concentration of design lived in Pride Park under the sizable tent of Design Miami/, where 50 gallery and curio presentations came together around the year’s theme, The Golden Age: Looking to the Future. Collaborations across the worlds of design, architecture, fashion, art, music, cuisine, and more made for an excellent show that landed at the thought-provoking crossroads between neo-futurism and traditional craftsmanship. Here are a few standouts:
Tel Aviv–based lighting studio Aqua Creations presented Light on Water by Albi Serfaty, a curio installation of cellular, gathered silk luminaires suspended in compelling arrangements. The exhibition served as the debut of the five-piece Lakes Collection which was designed to bring the conversation of global freshwater inequality to the world of design.
Bathroom products manufacturing giant Kohler partnered with Lebanese designer Nada Debs to present Transcendence, the first hammam bath to display at Design Miami/. The cerulean tiles, custom-designed by Debs in conjunction with the Kohler WasteLAB team, utilize material that originates from Kohler’s manufacturing waste streams.
The Trashbag Sofa marked Paris- and New York-based designer Harry Nuriev’s 6th solo presentation at Design Miami/. Sitting solitary at the center of a chrome box, the collection of 15 drawstring “trash bags” were sown together to poke fun at the wastefulness of the luxury consumer culture that attracts fairgoers each year.
Mark Grattan’s Leopard Skies collection continues the chrome motif in an installation by Cristina Grajales Gallery. The futuristic bedroom vignette also included pieces from Randy Polumbo and Hechizoo Textiles.
Through a colorful, vegetated curio exhibition, Italian design brand Gufram debuted the Shroom CACTUS®. Produced in collaboration with American musical artist A$AP Rocky, Shroom CACTUS® kicked off the launch of Rocky’s new decor brand, HOMMEMADE, and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Gufram cactus, designed originally in 1972 by Guido Drocco and Franco Mello.
Against a poignant purple backdrop, Gallery All exhibited a glimmering collection of both new and well-known works from Los Angeles–based art and design duo, the Haas Brothers. On the walls, new tapestries complement a composition of Zoidberg mirrors that speak directly to the new Dripped Ghost collection, which includes a glimmering dining table, side board, coffee table, side tables, benches, stools, and chair.
With its celebration of craftsmanship and natural materials, Sarah Myerscough Gallery’s presentation of Material Shores tied for the fair’s Best Gallery award. Drawn in by the sizeable, plant fiber chandelier from Angela Damman at the booth’s entrance, perhaps our favorite pieces were and tucked behind a partition wall. ICE Shapes, a series of sculpturally carved wood by Egeværk complemented the Sycamore and resin Ethereal Double Console by Marc Fish, which seemed to defy gravity with its delicate, swooping form.
Beyond the fair, purveyors of collectible design, furniture, and art displayed their wares throughout a series of venues that hearken back to the vibrant character of the city.
In mainland Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, Mexican stone supplier ARCA collaborated on two of the week’s most eye-grabbing installations. Inside the warehouse, Los Angeles–based interior architect and designer Kelly Wearstler made her Miami Art Week debut with Nudo, a series of knotted furnishings carved from internationally sourced natural stone. In a fun-house-like setting of pipe and draped vignettes, mirrors, and checkered carpet, the collection challenges the hardness of marble through a sculpturally soft design that evokes the process of weaving.
Outside, ARCA’s bold facade was complemented by a surreal installation from Polish visual artist, Alicja Kwade. Pretty Pity consisted of four melting ice cream scoops carved from monolithic pieces of millennias-old stone that represent a commentary on global overconsumption and the climate crisis.
Throughout the Design District, Germane Barnes realized his winning installation, Rock | Roll. Presented by the Mia
mi Design District, this Annual Neighborhood Commission proposal was selected for its references to Miami Carnival, the city’s celebration of Caribbean culture, in honor of the BIPOC communities that continue to shape Miami. A series of eruptive seating capsules are peppered throughout the pedestrian corridors of the Design District, at one location crowned by a free-floating dome reminiscent of a disco ball.
Debuting at HOLLY HUNT’s sprawling Design District showroom, The Forward Collection marks a new chapter for Vladimir Kagan Design Group. Designed by Kagan’s long-time apprentice and now Director of Design and Production Chris Eitel, the six-piece capsule incorporates classic Kagan elements—lucite bases, fluidly hand-carved wood, artful cantilevers—in a contemporary and forward-looking expression of the future of the brand.
In an ode to carbon-neutral design, architect Suchi Reddy of Reddymade partnered with Lexus to produce Shaped by Air, a public installation on display at the ICA Miami Sculpture Garden. The installation draws inspiration from the Lexus BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) Sport conveying the collaboration’s shared vision for an electrified future.
A celebration of interior architect and designer Nina Magon’s surface collaboration with Cosentino, Dreamcloud consists of a series of arches clad in each color way of Magon’s Dekton Onirika collection and is illuminated buy an iridescent system of globes from Studio M Lighting. The experiential installation intended to capitalize upon the power of material and light to invoke a dream-like blurring of reality.
South of the city in Coconut Grove, the nautically-inspired Mr. C Hotel was host to A Surrealist Stay, a curation of art and sculpture from Mexico City gallery JO-HS. Playful ceramic food from Ramiro Luna Gonzalez paired well with the colorful canvases and larger-than-life sculpture from Demit Omphroy. The vibrant curation was a fine complement to the hotel’s soothing, yacht-inspired interiors designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio.
Last but not least, a quintessential 1930s art deco home in northern Miami was host to a number of design events throughout the week. A show house renovated and maintained by New York–based total-concept design store AVENUE ROAD, the Miami Villa served up a picturesque debut of Yabu Pushelberg’s Amanu Collection of outdoor furnishings for Belgian design house Tribù. Inside, 5oz. presented Kristian Kragelund’s first solo exhibition in North America, Artefacts. Colorful compositions of recycled semi-conductors from Silicon Valley’s mass of tech manufacturers adorned the white plaster walls.
