the best of Design Miami

Design Miami’s 2024 edition (until 8 December) has a sunny disposition. The décor-centric mainstay’s curatorial theme, “Blue Sky”, offers what curatorial director Glenn Adamson calls “a welcome dose of optimism”, showcasing bold, bright designs. In its promise to tell a story of the discipline’s “past, present and future”, Design Miami feels artistically capacious, marrying beauty and brains with luxury to spare. Unexpected juxtapositions reign supreme this year, creating maximum visual impact through textural sleight-of-hand—a mountainous chair, a melting table, a sofa covered in soft, bright fur. Here are the biggest standouts from this edition.

Yinka Shonibare, Windy Chair (2014), Carpenters Workshop Gallery, $290,000

Carpenters Workshop Gallery features a blustery chair by the British artist Yinka Shonibare, whose sculptural work uses traditional African textile patterning to comment on the legacy of colonialism in the UK and beyond. Windy Chair sports a unique Dutch Wax-inspired print.

Andy Paiko, Fragile Gardens 1 (2024), Wexler Gallery, $58,000

The Portland, Oregon-based glass artist Andy Paiko has joined forces with the legendary tattoo artist Dr. Woo in a stunning display of craft prowess. After a year of studying classical glassmaking techniques in Venice, Paiko produced an eight-foot-tall reliquary jar, updating centuries-old methods with Dr. Woo’s signature flair for single-needle detail.

Fredrikson Stallard, Armchair species II (2015), David Gill Gallery, $71,000

A craggy neon-pink mass begs the question—armchair or alien visitor? Armchair Species II, a rubber and flocking seat from 2015, hails not from a far-off planet but the London studio of the avant-garde designers Fredrikson Stallard.

Roham Shamekh, Pharrell’s Echoes (2024), Design Miami Curio Section, $18,000-$20,000

In 2014, the Iranian artist Roham Shamekh made a video with friends dancing to Pharrell’s song Happy, after which Shamekh was arrested and flogged by religious police. Pharrell took to social media to point out the injustice, helping to suspend Shamekh’s sentence. The handmade seats of Pharrell’s Echoes centre the process of manifestation, drawing attention to Pharrell’s serendipitous intervention into the artist’s fate.

Piero Fornasetti and Riley Walzer, Rare Display Cabinet (1950), Donzella LTD, $225,000 (cabinet) and $4,800 (vase)

For anyone looking to show off their fair-week loot, the post-war furniture specialists at Donzella LTD offer a stunning walnut display cabinet for collectibles—decorated in 1950 with maps of Venice by Piero Fornasetti, the legendary Milanese artist and designer. At the cabinet’s centre sits a glazed-porcelain vase by the contemporary artist Riley Walzer.

Damien Wright, 2:22pm 2/2/22 Mono-block (2022), Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert, $35,000

The Australian gallery takes visual abutment to new heights with 2:22pm 2/2/22 Mono-block, an arresting work by the Melbourne-based craftsman Damien Wright. Wright has embedded a plastic lawn chair in a piece of 10,000-year old red river gum tree unearthed from a quarry near Wodonga. The material clash draws attention to the cycle of transformation as wood becomes oil and, eventually, plastic.

Junko Mori, Pistia (2024), Adrian Sassoon London, $75,000

Two of the Japanese metalworking innovator Junko Mori’s chandeliers stop visitors in their tracks—Mori’s unique process of hand-hammering forged and cast metal creates subaqueous accumulations that bristle and bloom in three dimensions. These powder-coated steel creations toe the line between flora and fauna.

Sudheer Rajbhar and Camille Bastien, Stitch Chair (2024), Aequo, $10,500 each

The Mumbai-based gallery highlights a recent collaboration between Sudheer Rajbhar and Camille Bastien—the brand Chamar, a reclamatory reference to the derogatory term used for members of the Dalit community. Rajbhar’s chairs posit rubber as a durable alternative to leather to benefit the religious milieu of his region.