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Design Miami

Design Miami's monthly, can't miss roundup of design world news and inspiration

Welcome to The Buzz, our monthly roundup of design world news and inspiration for Design Miami’s discerning community of creatives and collectors. Enjoy!

 

The Debut of Melbourne Design Fair

Totem M by Marta Figueiredo, on view at Melbourne Design Fair. Photo by Jonathon Griggs

The inaugural  Melbourne Design Fair, the continent’s first contemporary collectible design fair, launches this month as part of the ongoing Melbourne Design Week (now in its sixth iteration). Work by over 100 Australian designers and makers will be on display in presentations staged by galleries, studios, and design organizations, alongside a highlight exhibition curated by the NGV department of Contemporary Design and Architecture. The new fair, set in an industrial warehouse in Duke Street, Abbotsford, is an initiative of the NGV and presented in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation. Open from March 16th to 20th.

 

Monumentality at Jason Jacques

Work from Monumentality, including pieces by Gareth Mason, Morten Løbner Espersen, Nick Widdell, Jean-Michel Cazin, Auguste Delaherche, Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer, Royal Copenhagen, Manufacture Nationale de Sevres, Ingeborg + Bruno Asshof, and Ernest Chaplet. Photo © Jason Jacques Gallery

Now showing: New York’s Jason Jacques Gallery presents Monumentality, a virtual exhibition centered around size. The show features an international selection of small-scale historical and contemporary clay-based works—the largest, a 9.8-inch long-necked porcelain vessel by Royal Copenhagen (c. 1910); the smallest, a 2.3-inch milky white cachepot painted with green clovers by Auguste Delaherche (c. 1920)—all of which demand a closer look. As Jacques observes, there’s something fabulous and fascinating about an object “small enough to be held in one’s hand yet too exquisite to touch, something which seems bigger than itself.” Explore the show online through March 31st.

 

Garmenting: Costume as Contemporary Art

DMZ Performance (performance still) by Ayoung Yu, 2020—included in Garmenting at MAD. Photo © Matthew Yu; courtesy of the artist

This week, The Museum of Arts and Design in New York debuts Garmenting, an exhibition spotlighting artists who investigate the relationship between our physical bodies and the clothing that adorns and protects them. Featuring work by 35 international artists who engage with clothing as sculpture, installation, and performance—including Sanford Biggers, Louise Bourgeois, Nick Cave, Enoch Cheng, Jakkai Siributr, Saya Woolfalk, and Andrea Zittel—the show is organized into themes that explore the role of dress in shaping aesthetic practices, identities, and relationships within social, economic, and political arenas. The exhibition will be complemented by a series of live performances at MAD by Enoch Cheng, LexyHo-Tai, and Ayoung Yu. On view March 12th to August 14th.

 

Momentary Pause at Casa Perfect Los Angeles

Installation view of Momentary Pause at Casa Perfect Los Angeles, featuring works by Rachel Shillander, Jason Koharik, Floris Wubben, Bradley Bowers, Ian Collings, and Kazunori Hamana. Photo by Elizabeth Carababas; courtesy of The Future Perfect

In 2020, The Future Perfect launched its latest, fabulous residential concept gallery, Casa Perfect Los Angeles, sited in a 1971 Beverly Hills mansion designed by local modernist architect Raul F. Garduno. The space’s current show, Momentary Pause, was conceived as an invitation to contemplate and reflect—an undeniable gift these days—and features a mix of bold, often dreamy work by materials-focused contemporary studios like Bradley Bowers, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, Floris Wubben, John Hogan, Jason Koharik, Olivia Cognet, and Reinaldo Sanguino, among others. The resulting combination of of-the-moment pieces and the property’s gorgeous California light, dark wooden accents, exposed stone wall, and orange-hued carpet is at once calming and seductive. On view through March 18th.

 

Pieter Maes: Continuum

The Dolm Table by Pieter Maes; watercolor sketch by the designer. The table has been fabricated by the stone crafters of Il Granito and woodcrafters from 3DW. Photo courtesy of Les Ateliers Courbet

On March 16th, Les Ateliers Courbet unveils Continuum, a collection of limited-edition furniture by Pieter Maes. The Belgian-born, Paris-based designer collaborated with four European ateliers—Dutch master woodcrafter Rutger Graas, French upholsterers Jouffre, stone artisans Il Granito, and 3DW—to create new work that evokes both monolithic artifacts and 20th-century abstract art. According to Maes: “There’s something powerful about the serenity and mystery of these essential shapes. I have become obsessed with making simple, unfussy work that triggers something very ancient and dormant in people, no matter where they come from.” Continuum is an early iteration of the NYC gallery’s Editions Courbet program, dedicated to supporting the world’s master-craftsmen through annual international, guest artist collaborations. The show is on view through May 10th. 

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