DESIGN MIAMI/BASEL 2015 Report

ANIMALS AND GEOMETRIES

This year’s edition of Design Miami/Basel, the second year under the auspices of new director Rodman Primack, appeared more defined and mature than previous fairs. Elegant, as always, but with a clearer focus. The show ran from June 17 through 22 in a two-year-old exhibition hall just across the Messeplatz from Art Basel.

Metal Low Chair, 2014, by Aranda/Lasch at Gallery ALL (Design Miami Basel)

The galleries offered some of the greatest industrial design-inspired mid-century works, with pieces by George Nakashima, Jean Prouvé, and Mathieu Mategot leading the pack, followed closely by the art-influenced works of ceramicists George Jouve, André Aleth Masson, and Roger Capron.

Jousse Entreprise’s booth with pieces by Jean Prouvé, among others. (Design Miami Basel)

Watches, jewelry and a collaboration between the fair and French textile brand Pierre Frey added a touch of the day-to-day-ness that is design at its core. And design with art at its core was very much present in pieces by Harry Bertoia, François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, and Julia Lohmann.

Design Miami x Pierre Frey/ Chromatropic. Photograph by James Harris. (Design MiamiBasel)

One interesting visual theme at this year’s Design Miami/Basel was a notion of geometry as pure form. This was visible not only in the works themselves — including Karen Chekerdjian’s minimal metal light fixtures at Carwan Gallery, or Kristin McKirdy’s ceramics at Pierre Marie Giraud — but also in the linear layout of objects within the gallery spaces.

Full Rainbow 2014, by Karen Chekerdjian at Carwan Gallery (Design MiamiBasel)

Another visual theme, animals, present at both Design Miami/Basel and Art Basel, was an exciting primal counterpoint, and made this fair one that referenced the basics of sacred geometry and nature.

Toad Armchair, 1968, François-Xavier Lalanne at Jousse Entreprise

Boullée Table, 2015, by Brooksbank & Collins at Gallery Fumi (Design MiamiBasel)

London-based designer and architect Philip Michael Wolfson reported on Design Miami for MODERN Magazine.