DESIGN:Design Miami/Basel 2018
Each edition of Design Miami brings together the most influential collectors, gallerists, designers, curators and critics from around the world in celebration of design culture and commerce. Occurring alongside the Art Basel fairs in Miami, USA each December and Basel, Switzerland each June, Design Miami/ has become the premier venue for collecting, exhibiting, discussing and creating collectible design.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Design Miami/Basel Archive
Each edition of Design Miami balances exclusive commercial opportunities with progressive cultural programming, creating exciting collaborations with designers and design institutions, panels and lectures with luminaries from the worlds of design, architecture, art and fashion, and unique commissions from the world’s top emerging and established designers and architects. For its 13th edition Design Miami/ Basel featured 47 gallery presentations and 10 Curio installations as well as Satellites, Collaborations, Talks, and exclusive events. At the core of Design Miami/ is a marketplace for collectible design, where the world’s leading design galleries present curated exhibitions of museum-quality furniture, lighting and objets d’art. Design Miami/ regularly attracts the highest level of private and public collectors of historical and contemporary design. The galleries invited to exhibit at Design Miami/ deal mainly in exceptional design objects from the advent of Modernism (circa 1900) to the present day, with select galleries specializing in outstanding eighteenth and 19th Century antiques. Galerie Jacques Lacoste featured a low table created as a part of a unique sixpiece garden furniture set by Jean Prouvé and Jacques André originally presented at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques in 1937. Galleria Rossella Colombari featured a 1940 side table designed by architect Franco Albini for the entrance of the Neuffer family villa in Ispra, on the coast of Lake Maggiore. At Galerie Patrick Seguin, a lift-up table by Jean Prouvé from 1943 was on view, the only example of this design he ever created. A 1955–56 lacquered metal and ash table by A.R.P. (Pierre Guariche, Joseph-André Motte, Michel Mortier) at Galerie Pascal Cuisinier is the only known model. Galerie Matthieu Richard showcased a one-off architectural cabinet from 1958 by Mathieu Matégot that originates from his own home and studio at Bourron-Marlotte, near Fontainebleau. On the more contemporary end, Magen H Gallery exhibited a large-scale sculptural wall piece, The Gold Grotto, created by Pierre Sabatier in 1999 for the famousnightclub Jimmy’z in Monte Carlo, on view for the first time. At Galerie Mitterand, Claude Lalanne’s masterpiece bed, made on a special commission in 1999, will be revealed for the first time. For the fourth year running, Friedman Benda presented a solo exhibition at Design Miami/ Basel, this time by the celebrated Japanese design firm nendo, founded in 2002 by Oki Sato, which debuts Watercolour Collection, an 18-piece metal furniture collection inspired by the effects of watercolor paint on a paper surface. Elisabetta Cipriani featured a wall installation of a debut line of necklaces by Ania Guillaume. Olivier van Herpt, a young designer from Holland, developed 3-D printed porcelain vases inspired by traditional Delftware exclusively for debut at Galerie VIVID. After three years of exhibiting at Design Miami/, The Future Perfect debuted at Design Miami/ Basel with brand new works from Chris Wolston and John Hogan––Wolston’s aluminum wall installation made a distinct statement, while Hogan’s latest collection of glass furniture showcased the artist’s ability to transform the material. At MANIERA, architect Anne Holtrop presented his Barbar tables, made entirely of Italian silver travertine. Todd Merrill shows new work by John Procario made specifically for Design Miami/ Basel, furniture and sculptural lighting composed of micro-laminated, cold-pressed bent wood. Galleries offered a rich and diverse selection of textile works, including many incorporating innovative materials and mixing traditional techniques with contemporary influences. At Hostler Burrows, Louise Hederström’s oversize installation (part wall hanging, part rug) was designed in collaboration with Kasthall and investigates both the naiveté and creativity of adolescence. R & Company had on view two carpets from Dana Barnes’s “Woven Forms” series, in which she manipulates the surfaces of ca. 1900 Persian carpets with a unique felting technique. Cristina Grajales Gallery showcased Betil Dagdelen’s bench and ottoman set that combines traditional weaving techniques with innovative materials and improvisational patterning. At Lebreton, sculptor and fiber artist Magdalena Abakanowicz’s 1964 work in woven sisal and horsehair is featured. Maria Wettergren showed Astrid Krogh’s “Layers of Ambiguity”, 200 meters of handwoven computer cables stripped of their insulated coating, revealing layers of highly reflective silver and copper wires. Galerie Régis Mathieu is known for its exceptional collection of chandeliers and presented a ca. 1900 brass chandelier equipped with an inverted gas system by Gustave Serrurier-Bovy. Studio BBPR’s unique “Ceiling Lamp Mod 2045” was originally installed in Milan’s famous Sforza Castle in 1963. Galerie kreo featured the largest Gio Ponti ceiling light ever produced, a brass and frosted blown glass chandelier from ca. 1965. Inspired by Renaissance-era cabinets of curiosities, Curio installations are small-scale, immersive installations presented by brands and other institutions alongside the gallery program. Galerie Meubles et Lumières presented an exhibition of French lighting from the 1950s to the 1980s by designers like Boyer, Michel Buffet, Guariche, Mathieu, Michel Mortier, and Ben Swildens. Satellites are exhibitions presented by museums, bookstores, brands, and private collectors, the exhibitions are organized around a single curatorial theme or educational perspective. This year Stuart Parr presented selections from his collection of classic 1970s Italian motorcycles.
