TOP 5 BOOTHS AT DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL 2015
Design Miami/ is the global forum for design. Each fair brings together the most influential collectors, gallerists, designers, curators and critics from around the world in celebration of design culture and commerce.
This event is more than a marketplace for design, where the world’s top galleries gather to present museum-quality exhibitions of twentieth and twenty-first century furniture, lighting and objets d’art. Each show 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 worlds top emerging and established designers and architects.
Today I am going to share with you the highlights of this years show!
Demisch Danant, Jousse Entreprise
Demisch Danant has dedicated its space to the exhibition Radical Rabat: Nomadic French Style of the 1970s, featuring, and inspired by, a series of major works by artist Sheila Hicks, created for her 1971 exhibition in Rabat, Morocco, and not seen publicly since then.
Southern Guild
Hailing from Cape Town in South Africa, Southern Guild is focusing on designers from five African countries (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, and South Africa), underlying the creative vitality of the continent, which is also being feted right now at the Vitra Museum with a dedicated exhibition. Most of the pieces are created by hand the designers. Of note is a funky “fish” pod by Porky Hefer, the white earthenware of Astrid Dahl, and the ceiling lights of David Krynauw.
Jousse Entreprise
The Parisian Jousse Entreprise has an interesting booth that focus on modern design with stalwarts like Jean Prouvé and Charlotte Perriant. Highlights include a toad (crapaud) armchair by Francois-Xavier Lalanne, dating 1968, and Zombie armchairs by Roger Tallon, dating 1967, along with the designer’s Cockle armchair module 400, 1965.
Galerie Patrick Seguin
Galerie Patrick Seguin, with its prime position at the start of the fair, never disappoints, each year promoting the demountable houses of Jean Prouvé. This year, the gallery commissioned Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) to adapt a 6 x 6 m demountable house by the French architect and designer, furnishing it with his designs. Smelling of fresh pine, the small holiday home is based on the original plans with some modern living facilities added, including tiny pods playing as external bathroom and kitchen, and a four-glazed-panel entrance that enhances the living space and opens onto a new external decking platform that can be lowered.
Galerie Steinitz
Amidst all this contemporary design, Galerie Steinitz is almost an anachronism. But the renown antiquaries is holding its own with a small, but beautifully decorated booth dedicated to the Japonisme art movement of the late 19th century and the designs of Edouard Lievre. Taking center stage is a high rosewood table by Lievre replete with gilt bronze and a griotte marble top. The table used to belong to academic and military painter Edouard Detaille, today forgotten but renown in his time. Another highly decorative piece by Lievre on offer is a stunning large jardinière in cloisonné held by bronze dragons, along with an impressive carved wood fireplace (dating from around 1870) by cabinet maker Gabriel Viardot that mixes Japanese, Chinese, and Indian influences all in one.