Design Miami/ 2019 Achieves Record Attendance in Newly Completed Pride Park Opposite Art Basel

Design Miami/ concluded its fifteenth anniversary edition Sunday, December 8, with a major increase in visitor numbers and a newly oriented tent opposite the Miami Beach Convention Center, which is home to Art Basel Miami Beach. Situated in the recently inaugurated Pride Park, the fair drew collector and visitor numbers totalling 42,000 this year, to round out a defining decade for the collectible design market. In the first hours of the fair, Friedman Benda sold its entire presentation by artist Daniel Arsham and contemporary New York galleries the Future Perfect, Salon 94 Design, and R & Company saw sweeping sales.
 
Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Design Miami/, said on the conclusion of the fair, "We have been looking forward to the completion of Pride Park for several years, but the reception has been overwhelming, and a wonderful endorsement of the fair. The profile and volume of collectors and institutions as well as the students and members of the public that visited has made this fair one of the most rewarding for all involved, and we are thrilled with the result."

As part of this edition's inaugural presentation of the juried Best of Show Awards, dealer of twentieth-century furniture CONVERSO, of Chicago, received the Best Gallery Presentation designation and sold a number of works from its solo show of the late Italian architect Osvaldo Borsani. The booth design, imagined by interior designer Billy Cotton, was representative of an emergent trend in the gallery program to present work in immersive environments or conceptual spaces. Recipient of the Best Contemporary Work award was a series of sculptural chairs made of objects hand-wrapped in leather by Jay Sae Jung Oh at Salon 94 Design. All three chairs sold. The winner of Best Historic Work was Galerie VIVID for its rare yellow varnished Beugel chair (1927) by Gerrit Rietveld, and Brazil-based ESPASSO gallery exhibited the award-winning Curio presentation Fine Tuning by Claudia Moreira Salles, a series of lamps that combine exotic reclaimed woods with niobium, a rare metal used in technology products.
 
Vetting committee member and lead award jurist, architect and collector Lee Mindel, said this year's gallery edition "continues to raise the bar of exhibitor content that is brought to Design Miami/ and to place it in a historical context."  
 
Robert Aibel, of Philadelphia-based Moderne Gallery, said of the collecting activity this edition, "Our eighth year at Design Miami/ was among the most rewarding, in terms of the very positive, even exciting response to almost everything we exhibited. We had hundreds of serious conversations with clients from a dozen or more countries. The attendance and energy on the show floor was clearly at an all-time high with especially serious interest in historic and vintage works."

Major Sales and Acquisitions/
Rare historic works by Jean Royère led a robust Collectors Preview with nine pieces sold by Galerie Patrick Seguin alongside a sofa set by Pierre Jeanneret and the 1954 Tokyo bench by Charlotte Perriand. Moderne Gallery sold a unique pair of Paul Frankl's Speed chairs for $250,000. First-time exhibitor AGO Projects of Mexico City sold a Pedro Reyes chair to a New York–based collector for $20,000, an Emmett Moore shelf to a major Chicago collection for $20,000, a Daniel Valero rug to a prominent art advisor, and all their Fernando Laposse pieces. New York–based R & Company sold five Haas Brothers pieces, two large Katie Stout Girl lamps, and two Jeff Zimmerman globe lamps. John Keith Russell, leading American dealer of Shaker furniture, exceeded all previous fairs in sales with a number of works selling to major collections. Dealer of historic Japanese hand-woven baskets from New York, Erik Thomsen, sold seven baskets ranging in price from $3,000 to $55,000 each, including a Maeda Chikubosai square splayed-handle flower basket. 
 
Roberto Lugo, an artist with Wexler Gallery of Philadelphia, said, of the opportunity to exhibit at Design Miami/, "Exhibiting through the Curio program has allowed me to connect to a new audience with a fresh perspective. The relationships that have started here will be very beneficial and the experience has given me an assurance that there is support for artwork like mine in the world."

Notable Attendees/
Bella Hadid, Leonardo DiCaprio, Pharrell Williams, Elle Macpherson, Nina Dobrev, Luka Sabbat, Rosario Dawson, Jesse Metcalfe, Peter Marino, Travis Scott, Vita Sidorkina-Morabito, Danielle Bernstein, Daniel Lee, Kelly Behun, Brett Ratner, Juanpa Zurita, Jonathan Cheban, Laurel M. Lee, Thom Filicia, Zoë Ryan, Adam Lindemann, Alan Faena, Amy Astley, Beth DeWoody, Carolina Melo, David Edelstein, David Gill, George Lindemann, Hans Ulrich Obrist, India Mahdavi, Julie Hillman, Justine Bateman, Marsha Soffer, Nicolas Berggruen, Piero Lissoni, Robert Wennett, Silvia Cubiñá, Tom Delavan, Whitney Robinson, Dame Glenda Bailey, and more.

Design Forum/
The official university partner of Design Miami/, the Savannah College of Art and Design presented the Design Forum, an immersive landscape for conversation among today's visionary artists, designers, and thought leaders. SCAD conceptualized and curated the environment of the Design Forum, which was enlivened by dynamic textile work by SCAD alumna Trish Andersen. Over the course of the week, the Design Forum hosted 18 events with nearly 70 featured guests, including Annabelle Selldorf, Yves Béhar, Thom Filicia, Wolf Burchard, Roberto Lugo, Fernando Laposse, Flavin Judd, Lucas Zwirner, Eames Demetrios, Humberto Campana, and Katie Stout. In the Design Forum's state-of the-art media suite, SCAD and media partners created original, social-first content, including podcasts, live-streamed conversations, and interviews with top designers. In addition to presenting the Design Forum, SCAD hosted a booth at the fair, featuring vibrant new work by alumni artists, including Andersen, Justin Armstrong, Andrew Greenbaum, and Maximilian Rauber.

Design Miami/ 2019 Curio Program/
ATRA presents Following Matter by Alexander Díaz Andersson
This new series of sculptural objects by Swedish-Mexican designer Alexander Díaz Andersson and his brother, artist Andreas Díaz Andersson, blends clean Scandinavian lines and whimsical elements of traditional Mexican design in everyday industrial and reclaimed materials.
 
Broached Commissions presents Broached Recall
Just as manufacturing companies recall faulty products, Broached Commissions is recalling the applied arts of the Victorian era, which have fallen out of favor, and reimagining them with a contemporary aesthetic.
 
Crosby Studios presents the Balenciaga Sofa by Harry Nuriev in collaboration with Balenciaga
Balenciaga and Crosby Studios teamed up to spread the message of sustainability through the Balenciaga Sofa, whose shape is inspired by an overstuffed recliner and is stuffed with unsellable clothing and off-cuts from the Balenciaga warehouse.
 
ESPASSO presents Fine Tuning by Claudia Moreira Salles
This limited-edition lamp collection combines exotic, richly grained reclaimed woods with niobium, a rare metal commonly used in the tech industry that transforms chromatically without any added pigments.
 
Harry Allen Design presents Portrait Vessels
These 3-D printed ceramic vessels are made from scans of real-life sitters that produce the exact likeness of the subject, referencing portraiture traditions from classical busts to selfies. Collectors could sit for a 3-D scan on site at the fair and customize their vessel's form and finish.
 
Honey, Sophie, and Oscar Humphries present MINI: Kids Furniture, 1930–1960 
This showcase of furniture for children by key mid-century designers, including Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Isamu Noguchi, Harry Bertoia, and Alvar Aalto, highlighted modernism's ambition to enrich the living spaces of whole families, not just adults.
 
Karen Swami presents When the Earth Fractures
French ceramicist Karen Swami finds inspiration in the very surface of the Earth. Dry, fractured, and cracked ground is her essential point of reference, as she revives similarly "injured" surfaces of her works with washes of pure gold.
 
Kerr Fine Art presents Africa: Traditions-Art-Design by Reynold C. Kerr
This installation showcased African sculptures that adorn daily life and address various social needs, such as maintaining social order or territorial integrity and fostering social cohesion by reinforcing belief systems, praising deities, or modeling ideals of behavior.
 
Luis Pons Design Lab presents Tangara Collection by Luis Pons
A collaboration between Vermeil and Luis Pons Design Lab, the works in this collection are assembled by interlocking wood or composite panels to build cabinets that can be grouped together to create multiple configurations. 
 
Mindy Solomon Gallery presents Diasporic Voices: Redefining Our Cultural Perspectives through Design
These four artists rechannel their cultural stories through their work: Basil Kincaid is interested in quilting as a way to collaborate with ancestral energy and as a method of empowerment. Linda Lopez's work reimagines utilitarian objects. Donté K. Hayes's sculptural works pay homage to materials that would have been used in African ceremonial headdresses. Lee Kang Hyo has brought back a Korean stoneware production tradition that dates to the fourteenth century. 
 
Peter Blake Gallery presents A Return to Form | French Modern Design: A Survey Exhibition of Antoine Philippon and Jacqueline Lecoq
Antoine Philippon and Jacqueline Lecoq pioneered twentieth-century French functionalist design. The award-winning design and architecture duo mastered the ability to graft the industrialism of postwar design with the aestheticism otherwise left behind in early twentieth-century design.
 
Rooms Studio presents In Circulation by Nata Janberidze and Keti Toloraia
Rooms Studio gives a second life to iconic public benches from the Soviet era with two bus stop benches, one composed of reclaimed wood that visitors could interact with by carving their own names and messages, and one made of stone in collaboration with Georgian hip-hop and visual artist Max Machaidze. 
 
Sarah Myerscough Gallery presents White Perma by Marcin Rusak
Marcin Rusak explores the beauty of botany in the latest variation of his Perma furniture collection. Off-white resin is sliced lengthwise to reveal a world of natural adornment: petals, stems, and buds appear like veins in marble or cavities in fossilized stone.
 
TAKT PROJECT presents glow grow : pottery
This project uses changing light emitted by programmed LEDs to harden and solidify resin. The resin, growing like an iceberg, shows various expressions in the changing lighting, growing into a new shape. In a process that incorporates the principle of nature into artificial operation, this real-time installation created a new "crop" that is neither natural nor artificial.
 
Wexler Gallery presents Street Shrine 1: A Notorious Story by Roberto Lugo
This immersive installation by Roberto Lugo, which seamlessly fused high design, graffiti, hip-hop, craft history, pop culture, and porcelain, consisted of two large-scale funerary urns, a ceramic teddy bear, and graffiti-inspired wallpaper that evoke the makeshift memorials for victims of gun violence often found on the sidewalks in the neighborhood where Lugo was raised.

Design Miami/ 2019 Collaborations/
Instagram's @design presents #designforall
Instagram launched its @design account with the goal of bringing creativity to a wider audience. For the first time, the platform showcased its campaign #designforall in real life, highlighting innovative design in the realms of science, computing, and illustration. Projects by ALLELES Design Studio, For All Womankind, Kano, and Yona Care were housed under a bubble-shaped structure by Studio Swine.

Perrier-Jouët presents Metamorphosis by Andrea Mancuso of Analogia Project 
Maison Perrier-Jouët, with Italian designer Andrea Mancuso, presented a collection of six champagne glasses that unite traditional craftsmanship with modern technology. The collection was displayed in a singular setting created from thousands of ceramic pieces mimicking the scenography of Perrier-Jouët's renowned vineyard cellars.

FENDI presents Roman Molds by Kueng Caputo
Roman Molds, a collection from Zurich-based design studio Kueng Caputo, combines FENDI's iconic, supple Selleria Roman leather and versatile, unpretentious terracotta brick in ten pieces meant to be building blocks that in multiplication create a series of intimate "rooms" for socializing, escaping, and working on the grand loggias of FENDI's iconic Roman headquarters, the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana.

Lexus presents The Sunshower by Nao Tamura 
This installation—curated by Design Miami/ Curatorial Director Aric Chen and Milan-based curator Maria Cristina Didero—evoked the magic of sunshowers and reinforced the brand's commitment to omotenashi (hospitality), takumi (artisans), and the indoor-outdoor philosophy of engawa. Guests were invited to experience The Sunshower, relax in the space, use its charging stations, and sample Ooho, the innovative new water capsules made of edible seaweed extract. The sunshowers highlighted the same qualities in the Lexus LC Convertible Concept, a vehicle that dazzles in rain, sun—or both.

Delta Air Lines and The Sacred Space Miami present ROOTS by Atelier Marko Brajović curated by Ximena Caminos and produced by architect Alberto Latorre 
After witnessing first-hand the fires that ravaged the Amazon in 2019, Brazilian architect Marko Brajović envisioned ROOTS as a cultural and artistic response to alarming changes in nature and the environment. The pavilion took the shape of a cocoon of mangrove roots surrounding a gathering space where visitors experienced the immersive documentary SACRED COCA. The Sacred Space Miami powered a series of interactive wellness experiences to awake our conscious lifestyle practices and elevated respect for home, Mother Earth.

Swarovski presents Water 
Water is fundamental to the Swarovski business, which was founded in 1895 in Wattens, Austria, near the Alpine rivers that provided the energy and fresh water supplies essential to crystal production. In 2000 the company established Swarovski Waterschool, a community investment program that inspires present and future generations to practice sustainable water use. This installation explored Swarovski's longstanding and extensive work in water stewardship and education.

Lonely Whale, Point Break Foundation and VLM present Tick Tock
Lonely Whale and Point Break Foundation have partnered with VML, an award-winning ad agency, to create "time bombs" made from beach trash collected across twelve countries to reflect the reality of our plastic waste problem. The Tick Tock team collaborated with an artist to shape each sculpture as a representation of the coast from which it was collected, symbolizing the ticking time bomb that explodes on our beaches and marine ecosystems every day, all year long, regardless of the countless beach clean-ups conducted. Learn more about the project here. Please contact hello@lonelywhale.org for all inquiries about the project and sculpture availability.
 
evian presents One Drop Can Make a Rainbow by Virgil Abloh 
evian and visionary designer Virgil Abloh partnered on a series of limited-edition designs for a collection of stylish, collectible items that expand ways to hydrate sustainably. Abloh's designs for evian are inspired by one of nature's most beautiful and simple phenomena, the rainbow. Abloh said of the project, "The notion that one drop of water can create a rainbow served as the inspiration and metaphor to drive my first project as evian's Creative Advisor for Sustainable Innovation Design." 
 
Louis Vuitton presents Objets Nomades
Louis Vuitton debuted the Swell Wave Shelf by Andrew Kudless––undulating, smoothly polished oak shelves––the designer's first piece created for the Louis Vuitton Objets Nomades collection, an ongoing series of limited-edition, collectible furniture imagined by some of the most creative designers of our times. 
 
Gemfields presents GEOCHROM by Sebastien Leon
Gemfields, a world-leading supplier of Zambian emeralds and Mozambican rubies, partnered with Whitewall to present GEOCHROM by Sebastien Leon, an immersive installation set to captivate and educate visitors through a multitude of sensorial elements. The result is an artistic experience that brings to life the inimitable beauty of responsibly sourced gems, celebrating the story in every gemstone.

Design Miami/ 2019 Satellites/
Bas Fisher Invitational and Bridge Initiative present Coral City Camera by Coral Morphologic 
Bas Fisher Invitational and Bridge Initiative presented Coral City Camera by Coral Morphologic, the culmination of years of studying the ecosystem of Biscayne Bay, continuously monitoring one coral community utilizing a 360-degree livestreaming underwater camera installed at PortMiami.
 
Les Ateliers Courbet presents Please Be Seated 
Fairgoers got a glimpse at French filmmaker Jacques Tati's humorous satire on modern lifestyle, consumerism, and our built environments at large as portrayed in his acclaimed 1958 film Mon Oncle in an installation that pays homage to Tati's visionary designs and whims with a limited edition of three visually appealing but completely impractical seats.
 
Miami Design District presents Pink Beasts by Fernando Laposse 
The Miami Design District has chosen the London-based Mexican designer Fernando Laposse for their 2019 Neighborhood Commission, where he debuted Pink Beasts: long, pink sisal tassels, hammocks, and sloths suspended through the trees. Laposse explores materials and techniques native to Mexico and has collaborated with likeminded designer Angela Damman as well as local artisans in Sahcabá, Yucatán. Visitors at Design Miami/ had a chance to encounter members of the sloth family up-close. 
 
Institute of Contemporary Arts x Artek presents Untitled (Kiss) Stool 60 by Barbara Kruger
The Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, presented newly commissioned multiple works by conceptual artist Barbara Kruger produced in collaboration with the Finnish furniture company Artek. Kruger's Untitled (Kiss) formed the starting point of a new collaboration between the ICA and Artek, a series of artists' customizations of Stool 60, Alvar Aalto's iconic piece of modern furniture design. Untitled (Kiss) offered a humorous, feminist perspective on commerce and identity.
 
Panerai presents The Submersibles 
Panerai's Submersible collection—survival instruments for modern heroes—inspired the theme of its exhibition, the exhilarating underwater playground where the brand was born. The submersible assortment is the only stand-alone collection focused on professional diver watches, high-tech materials, and patented pioneering innovations. The collection has three distinct traits: professional diving specialization, precise survival instruments, and conscientious material innovation, all targeting the world's adventurers.

Stephen Webster presents Vertigo 
Vertigo is Stephen Webster's concept borne of illusory deception, the perils of quick judgement, and constant uncertainties. A fine jewelry collection for our times, Vertigo is a playful material response to the dizziness that many of us are currently feeling. Inspired by radical architecture, Vertigo combines technology with tradition and the mixed materials of titanium and ceramic enamel, precious metals, diamonds, and exotic baguette-cut spinels.
 
Sevan Bıçakçı presents Inspiration Room 
This installation was Sevan Bıçakçı's attempt to deconstruct his soul and share it through art. The craftsman designated interior designer Yesim Dilaver to curate a space that takes visitors through visual vignettes that bring his homeland to life. Nestled within are Bıçakçı's one-of-a-kind jewels and timepieces, which are infused with the nostalgia surrounding both modern-day and ancient Istanbul's stories. The Inspiration Room included photographs and illustrations, rare Ottoman toys, tiles, collections of locks and keys, calligraphic art, antique textiles and shoes, furniture, and jewelry boxes. 
 
ONE, ALL, EVERY presents See A Clean Future with Ugo Rondinone and RVS Eyewear 
ONE, ALL, EVERY is an art and environment initiative born out of the belief that art can and will move mountains. OAE presented See A Clean Future, a line of sustainable eyewear designed by Vidal Erkohen of RVSSustain and internationally renowned visual artist Ugo Rondinone. The frame shapes have different color lenses representing the four elements: Earth (green), Fire (red), Air (grey), and Water (blue), and each is inspired by the work of an environmental pioneer: Jane Goodall, E. O. Wilson, Sylvia Earle, and Wangari Maathai. 
 
USM Modular Furniture presents On Display with De Vera 
USM Modular Furniture celebrated the North American launch of On Display, its Haller E line of lighted furniture, in a presentation made in collaboration with de Vera, which unfolded over the course of the fair's six days as USM's modular Haller E system reconfigured to illuminate curiosities from Federico de Vera's storied collection of antique Venetian glass, eighteenth-century figures, and unique jewelry creations.
 
Joseph Walsh Studio presents Elements 
Joseph Walsh Studio presented functional and sculptural works made in response to Design Miami/'s yearlong theme of Elements. The installation included works from the Enignum series in ash, the Lumenoria series in ash and cast resin, and the Eximon series in green marble from Connemara, Ireland, all representing an ambition to advance material science through an innovative pursuit of research and development that enables new forms and compositions.