The one upside to Miami traffic being so bad is that Miami radio is so good.
Let’s back up a bit. Each December, the city’s infrastructure is pushed to its breaking point by Miami Art Week. The festival is anchored by Art Basel (an art world extravaganza perfectly encapsulated by this year’s Goya, a four-metre tall tornado sculpture by Alice Aycock), but it also encompasses dozens of other art and design fairs. The main draw of those is Design Miami, which spotlights the collectible design market and returned this year under the new ownership of online retailer Basic.Space.
For the second year in a row, a Miami edition of the popular Milan design exhibition Alcova also joined the week’s growing roster of design programming. This year, Alcova was based in a new venue: the Miami River Inn in the city’s Little Havana neighbourhood. Surrounded by swaying palm trees, the exhibition spread fun discoveries (including, appropriately for a beach town, furniture made out of sand) across four separate buildings. Compared to Alcova‘s massive Italian editions, the Miami event had a refreshing intimacy — but it appears to be steadily building momentum, too.
On the other hand, maybe momentum isn’t the best word. Combine all these events with an underwhelming transit system, and it is not unusual to spend more than an hour in a car just trying to cross the MacArthur Causeway connecting the Miami Design District to South Beach. Yet morale in Miami was never low, and energy was always high. It helped that during the daily congestion, my drivers were blaring everything from Val Halen’s “Jump” and Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” to Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” and Ed Sheeran’s “Bad Habits” (which, for the record, sounds completely different in a car with great bass).
All that to say, this is a city that embraces loudness — both in sound, and in aesthetic. And with so much to see, it doesn’t hurt to have a little time to process it all. (Sure enough, no matter who was on the radio, I couldn’t stop thinking about Pearl Jam. More on them in a minute…) Not to mention that even if traffic was often stalled, forward progress was everywhere you looked. As with last year, Miami showed a particular knack for translating cutting-edge sustainability research into fun spectacles — with Lexus leading the herd (more on elephants in a minute, too…) through its ongoing Lexus in Design partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami.
Now that I’ve dusted the sand off my camera, here’s my photo recap of the best of Design Miami (and beyond) 2024. I promise there aren’t any pictures of traffic jams.
1.
The Many Colourful Delights of Design Miami
While the theme of this year’s Design Miami was “Blue Sky,” the big attraction was a blue tree — a twisting cast-bronze work designed by the Haas Brothers (co-presented by Marianne Boesky gallery and R & Company). Featuring beaded branches, the arboreal sculpture played up its fantastical nature with a series of blown-glass strawberries — a fruit that usually grows on bushes.
The fun spectacles continued from there: The eccentric forms of the late Gaetano Pesce’s vases and Bottega Veneta’s animal beanbag chairs were right at home in this setting, as were rainbow-hued weavings by Anya Molyviatis and a polka dot-patterned Christopher John Rogers edition of Orior’s Lia chair. Both were part of a showcase of works by SCAD alumni — evidently, a group that understands the power of colour. Other designers were more devoted to exploring material, with Lasvit, Kutarq and Studio Sam Klemick delivering new takes on glass, aluminum and wood, respectively.
Click through the Design Miami 2024 gallery below for additional photos.
2
Nicole Nomsa Moyo Takes the Stage with Pearl Jam
The Design Miami party also extended outside thanks to a display of patterned “beads” by Toronto-based architect and artist Nicole Nomsa Moyo, who was born in Zimbabwe. But the fun cluster of spheres stationed on the lawn in front of the fair was ultimately just a small teaser for this year’s 10th annual Miami Design District design commission; on the other side of Biscayne Bay, the beads continued all throughout the city’s luxe shopping area. Below, Moyo talks us through “Pearl Jam,” which remains on display through next spring.
In conversation with Nicole Nomsa Moyo…
AZURE: You named this installation “Pearl Jam” — what does that name mean to you?
- NMM:
My concept started from the idea of jewellery, and how that ties into the Miami Design District as being this high-end space. And I saw myself and this work as a pearl in that space. And then the “jam” part is really reflecting this merger of cultures and spaces and patterns. It’s a very transcontinental project — some parts of it were produced in South Africa, where I was raised. So that’s how I got the name Pearl Jam — it doesn’t have anything to do with the band, although I also love the band. They were definitely part of my ’90s soundtrack.
How did you develop the pattern on the spheres?
I wanted to engage with the Ndebele women from my same cultural tribe in South Africa. Everything of ours has patterns on it, from our architecture to our clothing — it’s a very distinctive part of our culture. But I created my pattern as an abstraction of that. I didn’t grow up in that environment, so I wanted to develop something that was my own — in a way, kind of with one eye looking to the past and one reimagining the future, and reflecting myself as this transcontinental individual.
The installation’s larger spheres are made of aluminum, but the smaller “earrings” hung from the Miami Design District’s trees are covered in tiny glass beads hand-sewn by women artisans of the Ndebele tribe. What was that collaboration like?
It involved a series of connections, mainly made by my other, who gracefully managed a lot of the project in South Africa. Each earring that the artists there made is like a year’s worth of work, and requires so much patience. And each one has its own little touch — I gave them that freedom with the pattern. The outcome of their work is incredible, and just knowing how much it was going to their livelihoods was important.
3
Lexus Sets the Biomaterials Industry in Motion
Walk past any of the five-star hotels in South Beach, and you’re bound to notice some very flashy luxury cars parked out front. Miami may not be the fastest city to get around in, but it is definitely a city that takes its rides seriously. And if it is up to Lexus, it may one day become a city that takes its eco-friendly rides seriously. For the third year in a row, the Japanese auto maker mounted an installation in the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami sculpture garden to translate the latest sustainability research into a sculpture of its upcoming Lexus LF-ZC (Lexus Future Zero Catalyst) battery electric vehicle concept car.
Following up on last year’s exploration of photovoltaics by Marjan van Aubel, this year Lexus enlisted Bratislava-based Crafting Plastics Studio to demonstrate the exciting possibilities of bioplastics and responsive technologies. Building on this installation, “Liminal Spaces,” Lexus also partnered with four other designers — Germane Barnes, Michael Bennett of Studio Kër, Suchi Reddy and Tara Sakhi of TSAKHI — to introduce a capsule collection of 26 design objects, including vases, a candleholder and an incense. These objects were on display both in the lobby of the ICA Miami as well as at Alcova Miami.
While I was in town, I sat down with Vlasta Kubušová (who leads Crafting Plastics alongside her partner, Miroslav Král) to discuss her ongoing biomaterials research. Look for our full conversation in AZURE’s upcoming March/April print issue. For now, here’s an excerpt about her latest venture.
In conversation with Vlasta Kubušová…
AZURE: What is exciting to you about this collaboration with Lexus?
- VK:
We are currently in this period where these kinds of biomaterials are ready to be used by pioneering companies. The freedom that Lexus gave us to explore something at this scale is really not that common. On the one hand, it would make sense if there were more political regulations and laws in place to direct people towards using these materials more — but for now, it will only happen if companies really want to do it. So this exposure is very exciting for us. I hope that biomaterials become standard very soon, and I think that when people see a company like Lexus interested in them, they will also get inspired.
Click through the Lexus in Design 2024 gallery below for additional photos.
4
Alcova Checks Into Little Havana
Alcova’s particular skill lies in facilitating the lost art of exploration — choosing off-the-beaten-path venues and spreading design throughout them in a way that makes you feel like you’re discovering something rather than being shown it. This year’s edition featured more than 40 international exhibitors spread throughout four villas at the River Inn hotel, as well as — in true Miami fashion — the hotel’s courtyard.
Click through the Alcova Miami 2024 gallery below for additional photos.
5
A Herd of Elephants Takes a Beach Stroll
A few days before I arrived in town, the Great Elephant Migration — a herd of 100 life-sized elephant sculptures stationed along South Beach — made headlines after one of the elephants was involved in a raunchy incident. (Perhaps someone had ordered one too many Sex on the Beaches that afternoon.) I received several text messages about this while I was in Miami. As with the portal that ran during this year’s NYCxDesign, this was a news story that crossed over beyond art and design media into mainstream media.
My own experience with the herd was a lot more wholesome. It is hard to understate the simple joy of watching people break into a giant smile as they approached the animal sculptures. Some people posed for selfies with them, while others pet them or gazed into their friendly eyes. The craft of each one was impressive, and evidently some of the beachgoers agreed. The sculptures were on sale, with prices ranging from US $8,000 for a baby elephant to $28,000 for one of the large ones — and the entire herd is now sold out. (Proceeds support the Coexistence Consortium, which supports habitat protection and conservation projects.)
But if you missed your chance to own a life-sized elephant, fear not. The herd installation (which previously popped up in NYC’s Meatpacking District this summer) has more stops in store: fresh elephants are currently being crafted for future editions in Houston, Browning, Jackson Hole and L.A. that are on the calendar for 2025.
Click through the Great Elephant Migration 2024 gallery below for additional photos.
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Plus a Growing Emphasis on Major Manufacturers
While Miami Art Week’s design programming has traditionally been led by design galleries specializing in experimental limited editions, many of Italy’s big brands are carving out their corner of the market, too. Across the Miami Design District, Cassina unveiled a limited-edition collection, Artemide opened a new showroom, and Poltrona Frau and Paola Lenti both debuted their new outdoor collections stateside. Meanwhile, back at Design Miami, B&B Italia and Flos partnered to furnish the fair’s collector’s lounge — with the latter offering another teaser of Formafantasma’s SuperWire collection, which was just named one of our favourite products of 2024 and will be launching in North America next year.
As I showroom-hopped throughout the Design District, I was eager to hear how other visitors see Miami fitting into the global design landscape and the ever-evolving fair circuit — so I asked them. Here are a couple responses.
In conversation with Carlotta de Bevilacqua, President & CEO of Artemide…
AZURE: What do you appreciate most about the Miami market?
- CDB:
Miami has this power in terms of listening to different languages and heritages and identities. Compared to other cities in the world, it maybe does not have as deep a history because it is always so fast in rebuilding everything — but in some ways, it’s incredible that it is always moving, like the sea, which is this great element here. All these things are interesting to me as part of a definition of a Miami fair.
Anna Lenti, CEO of Paola Lenti…
- AL:
I like that our strong material is very suitable for the difficult outdoor environment that we can have in Miami. But there is also something that is really unique about the vibrant atmosphere here, and the strong connection between design and art. Looking to the Hana-arashi collection that we are showing tonight in Miami, it was designed by Nendo, and I think at the beginning of designing this, Oki Sato was a little bit scared by colour. By the end, his studio said that he has never used as much colour as he did in this collection. He loves it, but it was not his first instinct. In Miami, it is maybe the first instinct. Miami is not afraid of colour.
Click through the Design District showroom gallery below for additional photos.
Design Miami 2024 in Photos: Beads, Bioplastic Cars and Elephants on the Beach
Our recap of three design-packed days in the sun, including highlights from Alcova, Lexus and an interview with Nicole Nomsa Moyo about this year’s Miami Design District commission.