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

Tanya Aguiñiga: Swallowing Dirt at Volume Gallery

Chicago’s Volume Gallery presents Swallowing Dirt, a solo show by award-winning artist, activist, and craftsperson Tanya Aguiñiga. The LA-based multitalent’s latest works are conceived as unconventional portraits—symbolic abstractions of the human experience incorporating cotton rope weavings and ceramic renditions of body parts—and a continuation of her investigations into identity, place, and craft. Raised in Tijuana Mexico, Aguiñiga crossed the border daily as a child to attend school in San Diego, and her binational experience continues to influence her practice today. By using clay from Mexico and the US, Aguiñiga addresses issues such as colonization, commodification, and ownership of land. Til June 17

R & Company cofounders honored with Iris Foundation Award

Evan Snyderman and Zesty Meyers, the dynamic duo behind legendary design gallery R & Company, have been named “Outstanding Dealer” by the Iris Foundation Awards at Bard Graduate Center for their 25 years in business championing collectible design. The award recognizes persons who’ve made outstanding contributions to the study and appreciation of the decorative arts and thereby help sustain the cultural heritage of our world. Congratulations Evan and Zesty for this very well deserved honor—following over two decades of celebrating rising talent, deepening scholarship, and developing new avenues to support our industry’s growth—and thank you for your ongoing dedication and passion supporting the design community! 

Zizipho Poswa’s Solo US Debut at Galerie56

New York’s Galerie56 and Cape Town’s Southern Guild announce the debut US solo exhibition of South African ceramic artist Zizipho Poswa.  iiNtsika zeSizwe (Pillars of the Nation), presented at Tribeca’s Galerie56, will feature the artist’s first collection of work made entirely in bronze. Poswa’s monumental, hand-coiled sculptures are bold declarations of African womanhood inspired by her Xhosa heritage and the life-sustaining roles that African women play in traditional and contemporary life. iiNtsika zeSizwe expands on the thematic interests of Poswa’s first series of major ceramic sculptures, titled Umthwalo, which stacked abstract forms on top of voluminous bases to create totems of female strength and resilience. The new sculptures elevate the everyday practice of umthwalo– the isiXhosa word for load – whereby women transport heavy items on foot by carrying them on their heads. May 16 - July 30

“To me, the practice of umthwalo signifies the balancing act African women play in both traditional and modern society, and their resilience and generosity which so often go unspoken. It is an immense honor for me to convey the power and capacity of the women in my community to an international audience.” —Zizipho Poswa

Side Gallery Spring Show

Now showing: Side Gallery’s annual springtime exhibition at Casavells, a picturesque Spanish estate in the idyllic countryside of Empordà – Costa Brava. The latest show presents a selection of work intended as a snapshot of the current state of design, and features pieces by 11 international designers, including Francisco Jaramillo, Elissa Lacoste, Willem van Hooff, Sabine Marcelis, Oliver Sundquist and Frederik Nystrup-Larsen, Marjan Van Aubel, Jonas Lutz, Charlotte Kingsnorth, and Johan Viladrich. Open through the summer.

David Adjaye and Wonmin Park at Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Carpenters kicks off two high profile shows this month. The gallery’s new London space makes its debut with Yaawa, an exhibition of bronze furniture by acclaimed Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye. Meanwhile in New York, South Korean designer Wonmin Park marks his first US solo show with Unding: Restoration of Existence.

For Yaawa, Adjaye explored techniques of hand casting, oxidizing, patinating and polishing bronze, to reveal the metal in a new light. “My work is always about an idea, a material and about exploration. It’s about pushing craft forward,” Adjaye says. In New York, Park’s show takes its title from the concept of Unding, meaning “non-object,” coined by German-Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han. Park’s works respond to Han’s theories through material negatives and opposites—consisting of two series, one composed in volcanic rock and industrial steel, the other in colored resin and glass. Unding is on view May 9-July 27; Yaawa is open now through June 10.

Glithero’s You, Me & Everyone We Know at Gallery FUMI

This week, London’s Gallery FUMI opens You, Me & Everyone We Know, experimental design studio Glithero’s latest solo show, presenting vessels composed in collaboration with 100 friends, neighbors, family members, and collaborators. Conceived as a testament to community, the pieces are the latest result of Glithero’s ongoing research into photographic processes on three dimensional objects, and bare hundreds of handprints achieved by treating the vessels’ surface with a light-sensitive chemical and then inviting collaborators into an improvised dark room. Previously, the duo has focused on ephemeral plant life imagery; inspired by their experiences of the past few years, the focus on human connection was natural. As designers Tim Simpson and Sarah van Gameren note, their larger aim is to “to foster a deeper understanding of the value that is created in the moment of making.”  May 5-June 24

Samuel Ross and Misha Kahn at Friedman Benda

Friedman Benda presents a pair of exciting shows in its NYC and LA locations. Samuel Ross: Coarse, opens in its Tribeca outpost on May 10 and features new works by the British designer that “represent spaces of commune, community, generosity, and tenderness.” Evolving from Ross’s ongoing interest in the historic visual languages of West African furniture, post-industrialized Western culture, modernism, and brutalism, the works point to links between body, material, meaning, and memory.  Meanwhile, in LA, Misha Kahn’s latest exhibition, Staged,  exuberantly fills the gallery’s new LA space with work composed through a fearless combination of materials and processes that demonstrate the designer’s acclaimed dexterity. As Kahn describes it: “These past few years have been about accepting the way I work, learning to love my chaos rather than trying to escape it, ignoring friends’ thoughtful tips to limit a show to one or two more tailored series and instead welcoming you into my vortex.” Coarse is on view til June 17; Staged is up until June 2.

Matérialités at Galerie Revel

Though only in its third year, Bordeaux's Galerie Revel is definitely one to watch, having already secured a deep roster of emerging talents from around the globe. Its latest show, Matérialités, presents pieces by 20 artists and designers whose relationship to material is at the heart of their creative process. Framing material as a key narrative tool, organizers tell us, the exhibition presents pieces in mediums outside the traditional European canons—textiles, wood, rope, paper, and more—along with sometimes unconventional processes, raising questions of representation, gender, and politics. Participants include Bisila Noha, Mathieu Frossard, Kartini Thomas, Humberto da Mata, and Xanthe Somers, among others. On view May 11-July 30

Roberto Sironi at Carwan

Italian designer Roberto Sironi’s latest collaboration with Carwan, entitled Aphanès, debuts this week at the gallery’s Athens outpost. Drawing inspiration from Stone Age megalithic architecture, the collection’s forms are reminiscent of dolmen (prehistoric stone-table structures), and the pieces—composed of stones extracted decades ago from quarries that are no longer active, and featuring exquisite patterns and colors—are marked by a material reverence. Handmade in Verona, the finishings expose the beauty hidden within the marble—and inspired the title, aphanès (αφανές), an Ancient Greek word meaning that which does not appear—enabling what nature has crafted over millions of years to shine through. May 6-June 18

Joseph Dirand at Pierre Marie Giraud

Now showing: French interior designer Joseph Dirand’s latest exhibition at Brussels gallery Pierre Marie Giraud showcases a collection of elegant, new limited-edition furniture. Dirand began his career as an architect, drawing inspiration from modernist architecture, and, as organizers note: “[His design objects] are a testimony of Dirand’s vision, presenting a love of materials and function; almost like architecture in a miniature form.” Until May 20

Tellurico at Spazio Leone

Spazio Leone presents multidisciplinary studio Tellurico’s first London solo show. Tellurico: Modernissimo features new and existing pieces by Tellurico—the rising star, Eindhoven-based studio of Italian-born designer Francesco Pace—in conversation with the gallery’s own historical collection. The exhibited works blur the lines between functional objects, furniture, and sculpture, all with a keen focus on the possibilities of texture. Founded a little over five years ago, Tellurico has quickly established itself as a dynamic emerging talent, having already exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven, and Beirut Design Fair, among others. Through May 7

Melbourne Design Week

From New York to Venice, Australia, and beyond, this month brings multiple highly anticipated festivals. We’re especially looking forward to the latest iteration of Melbourne Design Week, the country’s largest annual design event, presenting exhibitions, talks, films, tours, and workshops. Its centerpiece, Melbourne Design Fair, is curated by the National Gallery of Victoria and delivered in collaboration with Melbourne Art Foundation, and is Australia’s largest presentation of contemporary and 20th century collectible design by Australian and international practitioners. This year’s fair presents over 150 designs and 60+ exhibitors exploring the theme “Design The World You Want.” May 18-28

Hot Cities at Vitra Design Museum

As the effects of climate change make themselves felt, cities around the world must adapt to the realities of rising temperatures. Curated by Ahmed and Rashid bin Shabib, the traveling exhibition Hot Cities: Lessons from Arab Architecture considers examples from 20 Arabic-speaking cities that span different time periods and architectural styles, presenting case studies that investigate many of the questions now raised by climate change, and building on the curators’ ecological research, which earned them the Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture for their contribution as authors of the book Anatomy of Sabkhas. The show is on view at Vitra Design Museum Gallery until November 5.

Charlotte Kingsnorth at Objective

On May 4, Objective Gallery kicks off Animalistic Tendencies, the first NYC solo show of London-based artist-designer Charlotte Kingsnorth. Known for work that blurs the line between the natural and synthetic worlds, Kingsnorth’s pieces are presented in varying states of metamorphosis—functional objects, often imbued with anthropomorphic elements, that include “chairs in transition, engulfed sofas, and species-shifting tables.” Kingsnorth is fascinated by the psychological and physical connections between people and objects, and her practice questions definitions of beauty alongside accepted object archetypes. Til June 30

“It’s interesting to pinpoint what it is that makes something animated and play with that. It can be a kink of a leg or the suggestion of an ear and then suddenly it becomes alive. I am fascinated by what we assume to be absolute or to be a true representation of reality.” —Charlotte Kingsnorth