The 10 Best Booths at Design Miami’s Stunning and Notably Eco-Conscious 2019 Edition

For 15 years, Design Miami has been
showcasing both the most functional and the most far-out concepts
in collectible design from around the world. In 2019, the annual
fair has taken on added timeliness with its theme of “Elements:
Water,” spotlighting a number of designers whose eco-consciousness
informs their artistry. Natural, sustainable, and reclaimed
materials dominate, but organizers still found space for some
classics.

Here are 10 of the most compelling
exhibits from this year’s show.

Ago Projects

Of all the featured designers in this year’s show, London-based
Fernando Laposse benefits from perhaps the highest profile, with
two separate booths exhibiting his works made of all-natural
materials from his native Mexico. Laposse’s whimsical pink beasts
greet visitors at the entrance to the fair, with an
Instagram-friendly family of hairy sloths. Sponsored by the Miami
Design District, the creatures are woven with sisal fibers culled
from Yucatan agave plants and colored with a natural dye derived
from Oaxacan insects. Meanwhile, emerging incubator Ago Projects,
based in Mexico City and New York, showcases the designer’s more
functional pieces, including a furry bench and a matching table
made from the same dyed fibers. Also on display: sculpted volcanic
stone pieces by Pedro Reyes and eclectic pine-wood chair lamps by
Fabien Cappello.

Southern
Guild

South African designer Porky Hefer is best known for his cozy
hanging “Molecules” pods, which are styled after various chemical
compounds. This year, Cape Town’s Southern Guild spotlights three
of Hefer’s newest orbs, including his largest one yet. Titled
Fluoroheliate Monoxide, it is spacious enough for two and
is priced at $130,000. Each pod is wrapped in brightly colored
leather, with an ultra-soft sheepskin interior. Also on display:
sculptor Justine Mahoney’s bronze statue of a part-robot goddess
and irregularly shaped cabinetry by Johannesburg’s Dokter and
Misses.

Salon 94
Design

The design-focused offshoot of New York gallery Salon 94 rolled
into Miami Beach this year with a new group of furnishings by South
Korean-born designer Jay Sae Jung Oh, whose “Savage” series makes
functional pieces out of old toys and other found objects. One
eye-catching lounger incorporates an entire bicycle, among other
things. Also on display: a series of rare drawings and resin skins
by Italian designer Gaetano Pesce.

Crosby
Studios

French fashion house Balenciaga makes some of the world’s finest
clothing, but inevitably, some of it goes to waste. Enter Russian
designer Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios, who repurposed unsold or
flawed pieces to create something completely different: an oblong
sofa, styled after overstuffed Lay-Z-Boy-style recliners. Each
section of the sofa is stuffed with off-cuts and obsolete items
from Balenciaga’s warehouse and is encased in transparent vinyl.
Intended as an example of eco-conscious design, this fully
functional sofa is also surprisingly comfortable.

Side Gallery

A vintage 1971 leather sofa by pioneering Brazilian designer
Ricardo Fasanello highlights a funky collection of Latin American
and European works from Barcelona’s Side Gallery. Fasanello’s
Fardos sofa combines three oversized rolls, wrapped in
suede and bound with canvas bands. A big success in its day, the
luxurious sofa remains in pristine condition and now priced at
$35,000. Also on display: an unconventional neon-and-metal
chandelier by Guillermo Santoma and a sleek onyx-and-cast resin
coffee table by Sabine Marcelis.

Gallery ALL

Perhaps the most mesmerizing piece in this year’s show comes
from experimental Gallery ALL of Los Angeles. Its kinetic wall
clock, titled A Million Times, by European designers
Humans Since 1982, prompted many passersby to stop and stare while
its multiple hands shifted from wildly out of sync, to perfectly
aligned at every minute mark. Also on display: a brass chair shaped
like an inverted human spine and other provocative objects by
Chinese sculptor Zhipeng Chen.

R & Company

This year, New York gallery R & Company divided its booth into
five distinct spaces, with the most prominent placement granted to
designer Jeff Zimmerman’s new collection of uniquely sculpted,
hand-blown glass pendant lamps and vessels. Created in
collaboration with glassblower James Mongrain at the Corning Museum
of Glass, the glassworks achieve their distinctive looks through a
labor-intensive Italian canning technique. Also on display: an
enormous bronze-cast mirror by Los Angeles designers the Haas
Brothers and an extraterrestrial-inspired marble-composite
fireplace with matching furniture by fellow LA designer Rogan
Gregory.

Sarah Myerscough
Gallery

London’s Sarah Myerscough Gallery dedicated its entire booth
this year to the works of multidisciplinary artist Marcin Rusak,
who takes real flowers and encases them in off-white resin, then
slices the material lengthwise to reveal natural complexities.
These floral-embedded slabs are then assembled into unique benches
and shelves as part of Rusak’s Perma furniture collection. It is
one of the most novel exhibits of the entire show.

Les Ateliers
Courbet

Unquestionably the most humorous exhibit at this year’s show
comes from New York gallery Les Ateliers Courbet and Thirlwall
Design. The entire installation is devoted to the absurd furniture
in French filmmaker Jacques Tati’s 1958 satire Mon Oncle,
a spoof on modern design. French craftsmen Domeau & Peres tapped
into Tati’s archives to recreate props from the movie, including a
rocking chair that too easily tips over and a sofa that offers no
support for one’s derriere. Unsurprisingly, some of these pieces
are still available for purchase.

Functional Art
Gallery

Berlin’s Functional Art Gallery specializes in designs that push
the boundaries of form and function. That approach is clearly
evident in this year’s exhibition of 12 distinctive chairs by
designers including Theophile Blandet, Finn Meier, and Ortamiklos.
The various seats make ample use of metals, fiberglass, and LEDs,
with very little fabric in between. Leo Orta’s imposing Lion
Dog-A notably incorporates old touch-tone phones and cords to
fill out its animal-like form.

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Notably Eco-Conscious 2019 Edition appeared first on artnet
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