Jason Jacques Gallery
Kim Simonsson’s Mossboys and girls series (2016),
$15,000-$25,000
The New York-based dealer Jason Jacques has collaborated with Digifabshop to create a treehouse-like display for contemporary ceramics by international artists including Beate Kuhn, Gareth Mason and Eric Serritella. Most at home are the Finnish artist Kim Simonsson’s mossy ceramic sculptures of children wearing feathered headdresses. They peer down eerily from their shelves “like little wood sprites”, Jacques says.
Laffanour—Galerie Downtown
Jean Lurçat’s Claire’s tapestry (1965), €180,000
Although most of the Paris gallery’s stand is devoted to furniture by classic names such as Pierre Jeanneret, Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé, a massive tapestry by the French artist Jean Lurçat dominates one wall. He started out as a painter and an engraver, but Lurçat embraced textiles in the 1920s and 1930s, creating costumes and decorations for ballets as well as tapestries. A second version of the piece on Laffanour’s stand is in the collection of France’s Cité International de la Tapisserie d’Aubusson museum.
Plusdesign Gallery
Colombian picos: Lo Maximo (2015), €19,000, and
Garnacha (2015), €9,000
The sounds of Colombia’s street carnivals can be heard on the stand of Milan’s Plusdesign Gallery, which has two examples of picos: highly personalised, dayglo portable speaker cabinets. Families across the Caribbean coast, from Barranquilla to Cartagena, have their own versions. “You can wheel it into the back of a truck and have a pop-up dance party,” says the fair’s exhibitions director, Brandon Grom. The gallery also invited the contemporary designers Jonathan Nesci and Nathalie du Pasquier to create new interpretations of the objects.
Hostler Burrows
Frida Fjellman’s Lustre series (2016), $26,000-$58,000
The New York gallery started out in 1998 with a strong focus on classic 20th-century Nordic design but has expanded its programme to include more contemporary work, especially by female artists. Dangling in a velvet-lined corner of the stand, as if in an oversized jewel box, is a series of pendant sculptures by the Swedish artist Frida Fjellman. Hand-blown into moulds to resemble faceted gemstones and strung up by delicate gold chains, the clusters can be lit from within to serve as a luxe chandelier.
Salon 94
Gaetano Pesce’s Cabinets (2006-16), $85,000-$125,000, and Tree Vases (2016), $5,000-$20,000
The New York gallery is showing at Design Miami for the first time, with a stand dedicated to the 76-year-old Italian artist and designer Gaetano Pesce. Examples of his vibrant works made from resin include Do You Still Love Me? Cabinet (2007), a cabinet shaped like two faces in profile. The gallery has also installed a miniature forest of his most recent sculptural series of Tree Vases. “Abstraction is over,” Pesce says. “These objects tell you what they are.”
Friedman Benda
Misha Kahn's Scrappy Cabinet (2016) $10,000-$35,000
The recent RISD graduate Misha Kahn created this series of piecemeal cabinets after a trip to Swaziland on the southeastern coast of the continent. They are fabricated with the help of local African artisans, using upcycled detritus and found materials, including hair extensions, car parts, cow bones, soda cans, and even a busted iPhone.
Patrick Seguin
Jean Royère, Royère salon (1930s-60s), $40,000-$200,000
One of the founding dealers of Design Miami, the Paris and London-based Patrick Seguin has created a fully furnished living room with pieces by Jean Royère. Works by the French modern designer do not often come onto the market, since they were often commissioned directly for collectors’ homes and can stay in the family for decades. The works at the fair were sourced from different original owners, but you can find everything from a gilt Flamme wall lamp, to complete set of oak and velvet soda and armchairs from around 1955, to a gorgeous wrought iron, brass and ash Tour Eiffel table from around 1963.