Design Miami/ 2018 Exhibitions Feature a Reinvention of Industrial Materials, Playful and Whimsical Designs, a Focus on Craft and Process, and Immersive Environments / 33 galleries and 12 Curio presentations represent 12 countries from around the world / Works made from discarded flowers and destroyed firearms show innovative use of materials / Vivid use of color is seen in many works, particularly from Latin America / Galleries to show works created using cutting-edge methods like 3-D printing and robotics

Miami, November 14, 2018/
This year’s exceptional and diverse gallery program at Design Miami/ features thirty-four exhibitions accompanied by eleven Curio presentations representing venues from twelve countries around the world. Never-before-seen contemporary works will shine among the program offerings, re- discoveries of historic material long considered lost, and several trends uniting the design on view this year. Among the trends on view will be the use of industrial materials and processes; a sense of playfulness and whimsy; a focus on craft; modular designs; immersive installations; and Latin American design.

“This year’s gallery presentations showcase the best in collectible design from rare mid-century pieces to contemporary works using experimental materials and processes. As the fair grows in reach and in depth, it is a delight to offer collectors and institutions alike, this range and quality of material. Design Miami/ has become the premier platform for collectible design thanks to the leading market experts engaging in the development of each edition. These extraordinary researchers, curators and authorities in the field are at the core of Design Miami/. We hope visitors discover and experience each presentation with enthusiasm, for our fourteenth year in Miami Beach,” says Jennifer Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, Design Miami/.

Contemporary Debuts and Commissions/
An innovator of materials, Marcin Rusak debuts his Perma Collection at Sarah Myerscough Gallery. A series of furniture made from discarded flowers sourced from florists that are bound in resin that is cut lengthwise, the work reveals colorful cross sections of the petals, stems, and buds when on display. Kasmin brings never-before-exhibited furniture by Mattia Bonetti that merges the more ornate aspects of seventeenth-century European architecture and sculpture with the surrealist visions of early twentieth-century painting while employing cutting-edge methods such as 3-D printing and robotics.

A sculptural stool and bench made of solid sandstone by Najla El Zein can be seen as two silhouettes wrapped in an embrace––the work was recently acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art where it was shown for the first time before coming to Design Miami/ with Friedman Benda. A new addition to Katie Stout’s infamous “girls” furniture, Triple Girl Floor Lamp, is on view at R & Company, along with a five-thousand-pound marble tub by the Haas Brothers. Southern Guild launches a number of new works in bronze commissioned for the fair, including a biomorphic table by Kenyan-born sculptor Stanislaw Trzebinski; a pair of zoomorphic seats by rising star Atang Tshikare; Xandre Kriel’s reductive Vos Altar table, featuring folding steel legs and a softly textured bronze slab; and a near-abstract, monolithic console by Dylan Lewis, known for his bronze sculptures depicting African wildlife.

Reinventing Industrial Materials and Processes/
Sang Hoon Kim’s foam furniture series at Cristina Grajales Gallery is informed by his family’s three- generation foam factory. Kim pushes the material’s boundaries, layering foam and experimenting with ratios of chemical solutions––the result is vividly colored sofas, chaises, chairs, and tables. At Functional Art Gallery, Théophile Blandet’s works exemplify his belief that plastic will be banned entirely in the near future––he uses primitive tools to break, chop, burn, and melt a variety of industrial plastics to create furniture that seems to exist in another era.

Michael Young’s MY Collection debuts at Gallery ALL––this furniture set, including a chair, side table, desk, coffee table, console, and lounge chair, is composed of hollow stainless-steel extrusions capped at each end with white enamel, creating a surface pattern and overall decorative appearance that is integral to their structure. At The Future Perfect, illustrative aluminum works from Chris Wolston employ body and jungle motifs inspired by his studio surroundings in Medellín, Colombia. In addition, Florian Idenburg (SO––IL) presents a stainless-steel bench resembling a deconstructed chain link fence at Friedman Benda.

Playful and Whimsical Design/
Salon 94 features Gaetano Pesce’s 54 Arm Lamp, one of his most iconic works, which allows the user to shape each arm according to his or her desire, demonstrating the designer’s humor and imagination. At Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Nacho Carbonell’s handcrafted, organically shaped, semitransparent cocoons are illuminated from the inside, encapsulating the designer’s imaginative impulse––the floor lamp is particularly striking due to its immense size, encompassing several lights attached to steel “branches” that expand to a height of more than two meters.