High 5: Design Miami

Jan 04, 2022 By IIDA HQ

Highlights from Design Miami including limited edition pieces, virtual tours, programming covering equity, design as social practice, and more.

By IIDA HQ Jan 04, 2022

(Above: ATRA's Earth 2100 for Design Miami, image courtesy of ATRA)

Design Miami/ returned for a 17th edition this month in Miami for a hybrid event featuring presentations from 40 international galleries, talks, satellite spaces, and collaborations alongside digital features like 3D tours of the fair, click-to-buy pieces, and a companion app offering access to digital programming. The theme for this year’s event was Human·Kind, a reflection on design as social practice, showcased behind-the-scenes into a ceramicist’s work, and furnishing from the future.

A Veritable Mecca of Interior Design and Homeware

Featuring one-of-a-kind and limited edition works by established and emerging designers, DM/BX, Design Miami’s newly-opened online shop, tends to the next generation of design lovers. From design objects and quirky homeware, to lighting, sculpture-like candles, jewelry, and furniture, the store is more than your one-stop design shop—it’s a place that spotlights great design and educates new audiences.
Shop here

Fantastic Fungi, Dara Schaefer, image courtesy of Wonderground Studios

Design Miami Challenges the Design World to Create a Better Future

In an effort to bring in a greater diversity of voices, the 17th edition of Design Miami/ explores the theme of Human·Kind spotlighting design-led visions for a more equitable and interconnected future. And what better way to bring this to life than by providing a digitalized and democratized design experience in the form of curated 3D virtual tours that allows access to the fair floor and exhibitions, from the comfort of one’s living room. Fear of missing out no more.
Browse the tours here

Extraño 1, Tanya Aguiñiga, image courtesy of Volume Gallery

An Exploration of Design as Social Practice

Aiming to expand the definition of design, Deem Journal Co-Founder and Creative Director, Nu Goteh, and interdisciplinary artist, designer and activist Tanya Aguiñiga, discuss design as social practice as part of the fair’s digital conversation series. Touching on issues of culture, migration, gender, and identity, the two connect over creating across disciplines, the importance of community, and reshaping the creative world at-large.

Watch here

Lana Chair, Agnes Studio, image courtesy of AGO PROJECTS

Behind-the-Scenes Into a Ceramicist’s Work

Zizipho Poswa makes large-scale, totem-like sculptures that are as much a nod to her heritage as they are a bold declaration of African womanhood. Glazed stoneware, bronze, terracotta, and black clay, bring together the old and the new, in her brightly hand-painted work. The Cape Town-based ceramicist shares her personal experiences as a Xhosa girl and the ways they informed her creative practice with the fair’s Editor-in-Chief Anna Carnick.

Watch here

Zizipho Poswa in studio working on her iLobola series, 2021. Photo by Christof Van Der Walt; courtesy of Southern Guild

Photo by Photo by Christof Van Der Walt; courtesy of Southern Guild

Zizipho Poswa in studio working on her iLobola series, 2021. Photo by Christof Van Der Walt; courtesy of Southern Guild

Photo by Photo by Christof Van Der Walt; courtesy of Southern Guild

Furnishing From the Future: ATRA's Earth Year 2100

Bringing their vision of the near-future to life, Mexico City-based design studio and gallery, ATRA, creates collectible furnishings and luxury interiors that blur the lines between cutting-edge and welcoming. Warm colors and hi-tech materials come together to create tranquil vignettes where mid-century and post modern furniture coexist. Welcome to the future.