In pictures: Flora and fauna at Design Miami – The Art Newspaper

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Design Miami, and curatorial director Glenn Adamson has set the tone with the theme “Make. Believe.”—a nod to what he calls the “ongoing evolution of collectible design” and its limitless creative possibilities. The fair includes the tenth anniversary of the Design Miami Curatorial Lab Annual Design Commission, which features an animalistic carousel by the renegade ceramicist Katie Stout. Flora and fauna abound throughout the fair, spanning organic shapes, leafy accents and creeping creature comforts.

Bea Pernia, Octa Chair (2025), Bea Interiors Design, $45,000

Miami’s own Bea Interiors Design has brought the seaside to its stand with a stunning eight-armed assistant for your lounging experience. The shining chrome-and-stone chair, born of what Bea Pernia calls her “fascination with nature’s intelligence and its ability to adapt”, is part of the design house’s latest launch, the Bubble collection, which includes rotund solid-marble benches and a white-rock DJ booth.

Katie Stout, Bench (2024), R & Company, $165,000

This regal yet delicate bronze-and-glass throne is just one of Stout’s contributions to Miami Art Week this year; the artist is also inviting visitors to sit on her whimsical benches around the Miami Design District as part of her project Gargantua’s Thumb. And at Design Miami, she is also dazzling visitors with a mirrored carousel of floating floral orbs and dreamy, kinetic animal sculptures. “The project is about blurring the line between function and fantasy,” Stout says.

Pia-Maria Raeder, Sea Anemone Floor Lamp (2025), Todd Merrill Studio

The German artist Pia-Maria Raeder turns to nature to create charming, tactile pieces that blend form and function. This textural marvel takes the deep sea to the living room, inviting visitors into the center of its subaqueous glow.

Joyce Billet, Rising, Rooted and Woven (2025), Villa Albertine

The Miami-based, French American artist Joyce Billet has collaborated with the Villa Albertine French Institute for Culture and Education and Design Miami to create Rising, Rooted and Woven, a series of benches and sculptural installations that become homes for plants sourced from the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. To create the verdant seats, she transformed plywood through both hand-painted and digital processes.

Teemu Salonen, Tropicall Me, FI (2025), Todd Merrill Studio, $40,000-$60,000

The Finnish designer Teemu Salonen uses paint and polyester resin to imagine environments beyond his Nordic milieu. A dream of a colourful, florid alternative world, this blooming mirror is sure to thaw even the iciest of winters.

Jennifer Trask, Encroachment (2013), Wexler Gallery, $30,000

The Upstate New York-based artist Jennifer Trask uses nature both as medium and subject, sourcing materials as disparate and intimate as animal scapulas and quartz to craft her emotive creations. “This piece is like, ‘What if you stuck a Vanitas painting in a closet and forgot about it?’,” the artist says.

Roham Shamekh, Roots Sofa (2025), Roham Shamekh Studio, $140,000

Roham Shamekh’s striking couch of epoxy resin, melted aluminum and silk “embodies manifestation, meditation and growth through the leaves of the artichoke”, he says. The Dubai-based artist encourages visitors to “sit and connect with [their] roots, creating a shared journey to understand ourselves”.

Clotilde Ancarani, Follia Stool (2025), Giulia De Jonckheere Design, $17,200 each

This Parisian showroom is highlighting the delightful lilypads of the French designer Clotilde Ancarani, whose work uses bronze to bring the natural world into the human realm.