Header: Half ball vases by Gaetano Pesce for Meritalia at Design Miami. 2024 (Image courtesy of Meritalia)
Design Miami has announced the programming for the Miami Beach fair’s 20th edition, when it returns to its flagship location at Pride Park from December 4-8, 2024, with Preview Day on December 3. Under curatorial director Glenn Adamson’s chosen theme, Blue Sky, over 45 world-leading galleries are set to present contemporary and historic highlights that demonstrate the power of a “blue sky thinking” approach to design—past, present, and future.
“We are thrilled to be returning to our home roots for our flagship 20th edition, following a momentous year that started with our inaugural Los Angeles edition in May, before a successful Basel fair in June, and our return to Paris in October. This edition’s curatorial theme, Blue Sky, places a spotlight on design that exceeds expectations. This embodies the very mission of Design Miami, to bring together like-minded members of our global community to celebrate design’s greatest thinkers and makers.”
Jen Roberts, Design Miami CEO
Design Miami 2024 Gallery & Curio Highlights
This year’s theme, Blue Sky, invites exhibitors to exceed expectations through bold leaps of imagination, thoughtful material innovation, and a respect for the natural world that houses us all under one, shared sky. Under this shared theme, several key thematic threads can be identified:
Optimistic Design: Radical Invention
Taking a “blue sky thinking” approach, the theme celebrates design as a fundamentally optimistic human activity, giving way to radical invention through conceptual and material innovation.
The Future Perfect (New York), one of the exhibitions curated by galleries at the fair, will reflect on the curatorial theme “Blue Sky” with almost 100 new works from over 20 artists and designers, including Anina Major, Laurids Gallée, Olivia Cognet, Vikram Goyal, and Sophie Lou Jacobsen. The exhibition space will serve as a continued exploration of bifurcation, leveraging the concept of day and night occurring under a singular sky. One half of the booth will be dedicated to showcasing an exhibition of works from a myriad of emerging and established artists, including the likes of Chris Wolston, Floris Wubben, Jane Yang-D’Haene, John Hogan, Lindsey Adelman, and Thompson Street Studio. This constellation of objects comprises pieces made especially for the fair alongside works that feel familiar in origin but represent massive leaps in skill and practice. The second side will be centred around the work of New Delhi-based designer Vikram Goyal, who is making his United States debut at Design Miami. Trained as an engineer, Goyal’s work is based on Indian artisanal techniques, using them to create modern and contemporary designs.
Charles Burnand Gallery (London), another exhibition, celebrates futuristic thinking and the limitless possibilities of creative expression by showcasing the remarkable array of materials by a selected group of designers. The space’s spotlight will be on an otherworldly, six-meter-wide lighting installation created by Korean artist Heechan Kim, made from ash wood veneer and copper wire. Other works include a monumental limestone dining table worked by the hands of Steven John Clark for denHolm, a cabinet crafted in wood, washi paper, and urushi lacquer from Yanxiong Kim, and the eco-conscious and highly innovative pieces of Studio Furthermore. The beauty of recycled dichroic glass by Dawn Bendick, intricately crafted woven metals, wood, and traditional Korean ottchil lacquer from Kyeok Kim, and an inventive set of works crafted from hurricane-felled mahogany by Reynold Rodriguez will also be presented.
The Southern Guild (Cape Town/Los Angeles) exhibition returns to Design Miami with a presentation of contemporary ceramics by 12 artists from Africa who are shaping the discourse around the medium’s international resurgence. The work on show considers ceramics’ ancient origins while showcasing progressive approaches to form, technique, symbolism, and utility. The medium of ceramics occupies a unique position across the continent, being among the most enduring and relevant forms of material culture in Africa. Ceramic objects reveal evolutions in technology, belief systems, ritual, aesthetics, and domestic life, helping us to understand shifts in geography, history, politics, and society. The gallery will present furniture, sculptures, and vessels by leading ceramic artists, including Belinda Blignaut, Andile Dyalvane, Madoda Fani, among others. Furthermore, additional works by Rich Mnisi, Jesse Ede, and Ange Dakouo will also be on show. Highlights include an edition of a ceramic lamp first made for Loewe by Zizipho Poswa, whose practice pays intimate homage to the women within her extended community, honouring the passing of knowledge through generations.
Meanwhile, the winner of the Design Miami 2023 Best Gallery Presentation award, Gallery FUMI (London), will present a celebration of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary works with a number commissioned especially for the fair. The designers spotlighted include Max Lamb, Eelko Moorer, Emma Witter, and Sam Orlando Miller.
Living with Design
The main theme also puts a focus on exploring the multitude of ways design offers an insight into our personal living habits.
Sarah Myerscough Gallery (London) will delve into the forms and dimensions of the bedroom space and how it is intricately connected to the needs of the human body. Catering to activities such as rest, daydreaming, dressing, and solitude, these spaces and furnishings have a profound impact on our daily lives and can even reveal the imprints of familiar routines and enduring use. With this in mind, the exhibition will showcase a curated collection of works from designers and artists, all centred around furnishing a bedroom. Highlights include an ethereal bed and accompanying side tables by distinguished designer Marc Fish and an opulent mirror reminiscent of the Rococo design created by Tadeas Podracky, an experimental designer based in the Czech Republic. Complementing these pieces will be a monumental cleft wardrobe by Peter Marigold and Tadanori Tozawa and a number of specially commissioned works by a diverse array of designers—including the likes of Gareth Neal, Lin Fanglu, Diana Scherer, and Nic Webb.
Lamb Gallery (London) will make its debut in the fair’s Curio program with an immersive environment that will welcome visitors into a living room setting. The exhibition, titled Magnetic Midnight Maison, will unveil Lucía Echavarría’s newest capsule collection, a personal anthology of Colombian craft that draws inspiration from Miami’s surrounding coastal palette and Art Deco design cues.
Colour Investigations
Amongst the highlights of this year’s 20th edition of Design Miami is a celebration of colour and its role in expressing and evoking an emotional response to design.
Marking its Design Miami debut, Theoreme Editions (Paris, London) will explore themes of materiality and colour by showcasing a selection of furniture and objects conceived specifically for the fair. Each piece is expertly crafted by hand, from onyx, mohair, and plaster adorned with white gold leaf and a new shade of translucent blue resin.
Meanwhile, Todd Merrill Studio (New York) will exhibit a dynamic presentation of contemporary design and objects, each work pushing the limits of traditional techniques and materials. Multidisciplinary design studio Draga & Aurel will play a central role in this presentation with an expansion of the Flare Series—including a monumental resin cabinet and dining table, as well as a new body of work, the Ribbon Lamps.
David Gill Gallery (London) will explore themes of form, material, and colour through the lens of French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s quote, “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”. The gallery will place a spotlight on the colour blue, investigating its connection to human emotions. To achieve this, the rippling surface of Zaha Hadid’s Liquid Glacial stool will spark a dialogue with British designer Barnaby Barford’s cloud-like ceramic mirror, and, meanwhile, Mattia Bonetti’s signature blue-fur armchair, Big Jim, will introduce a surrealist touch to the presentation.
Nick Thomm (Los Angeles, Melbourne) will return to Design Miami’s Curio program by exploring abstract image construction and modern colour systems. Visitors will be able to discover designs that merge traditional craft with technology, resulting in a hypnotic combination of form and colour.
The Power of Nature
In approaching the curatorial theme, many galleries chose to explore how design harnesses the power of the natural world, offering a platform to place a spotlight on eco-conscious designers and their works.
Ateliers Courbet (New York) will present a group exhibition titled SCULPT that explores the synergy between natural and manipulated forms and textures. The presentation will demonstrate how inspiration drawn from the natural world undergoes a transformation when interwoven with human ingenuity, and the result is a collection of the works of 13 international designers, including the likes of French sculptor Philippe Anthonioz, Belgian designer Pieter Maes, and seventh-generation Japanese marquetry master, Shuji Nakagawa, amongst others.
Galerie Negropontes (Paris) will return to Design Miami with an exhibition exploring natural elements and materials. Highlights include a series of sculptural furniture designs by Gianluca Pacchioni, featuring metal silhouettes punctuated with large pieces of onyx, and Benjamin Poulanges’s Origine series, created to push the boundaries of traditional ceramic craft by transforming the material into canvases on which to paint his exuberant forms.
Mindy Solomon Gallery (Miami) will present works that speak to the cool, blue-grey, and earthy terrain of the Patagonia region. The highlight is the works of Inchin Lee, recognised for his use of taking a contemporary spin on traditional pottery practices, who was inspired by the imagery of thatched houses and mountain ranges. Meanwhile, Australian designers Tanya Singer, Errol Evans, and Trent Jansen will present a cross-cultural design collaboration titled Kurunpa Kunpu | Strong Spirit, which adopts a critical, research-led design approach inspired by the climatic conditions experienced in the centre of Australia.
Ukrainian artist Victoria Yakusha (Antwerp) returns to the Design Miami Curio program to present her new collection, Grun. Known for her fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design principles, Yakusha created a series of works that evoke an emotional response and an authentic connection to the natural world, inspired by the land of Ukrainian Polissia. Each design presents a unique geometry that mirrors its natural inspiration, whilst dark green upholstery evokes moss-covered forest hills covered in morning dew, symbolised by accent beads.
Iconic Design: Past, Present, and Future
In celebration of Design Miami’s 20th edition, designers offer insights into iconic eras of design history spanning past, present, and future epochs.
Los Angeles-based design studio NUOVA (Los Angeles) presents Time Travel, an experience-based work first previewed at Milan Design Week 2024. Blending elements of multi-sensorial exhibition and immersive performance, the work debuts an interpretation of America’s first time travel portal, inviting guests to embark on a journey to 1971. Combining sensory elements of fragrance, music, gastronomy, and theatre, NUOVA promises “momentary escapism” within the context of Miami’s rich design history.
Tracing key moments from presentations across the decades, R & Company (New York/Los Angeles) showcases a combination of iconic works by historic designers such as Wendell Castle and Verner Panton, as well as a selection of contemporary artists including Stephanie Sayar & Charbel Garibeh, Roberto Lugo, among others, offering a truly cross-generational approach.
Likewise, Galerie Patrick Seguin (Paris) presents some works by Jean Royere, including the Sphere coffee table, the Persan floor lamp, and the Sangles sofa. Meanwhile, Friedman Benda (New York/Los Angeles) investigates several geographic regions and generations to highlight iconic designers from Carmen D’Apollonio to Raphael Navot, and Fernando Laposse to Javier Senosiain, among others.
Showcasing within this year’s Curio program, Meritalia (Milan) will present a curated exhibition titled Le Edizioni del Pesce, giving the spotlight to one of the great Italian design masters, Gaetano Pesce. A thread throughout previous editions of Design Miami, Meritalia connects Gaetano’s impression in the United States with his roots in Italian design, presenting a wide range of items—from umbrella racks and coat hangers to mirrors and lamps.
Under One Sky: A Global Outlook
The theme also draws on the concept of our global community living under one sky, with galleries from across the globe coming together at Design Miami to spotlight artistic voices from around the world.
Based in Mumbai, æquō Gallery (Mumbai) highlights a blend of India’s traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design to present a curated selection of pieces focused on new explorations, narratives, and design dialogues. This year’s presentation will feature works by Frédéric Imbert, Valériane Lazard, and Florence Louisy, amongst others. Each piece embodies the essence of æquō’s philosophy: a balanced collaboration where both designer and artisan share equal prominence. Focusing on contemporary Japanese artists, Ippodo Gallery (New York) similarly places a focus on traditional materials or mediums, such as ceramic, metal, and wood, to trace the journey of recursive design, engineering, and prototyping across the years.
Looking to the Nordic regions, Hostler Burrows (New York/Los Angeles) will present new works by a selection of female contemporary artists and designers, including Stine Bidstrup, Yuki Ferdinandsen, and Astrid Krogh, among others. Diletante (São Paulo), on the other hand, will highlight iconic works by Brazilian furniture designers Lina Bo Bardi and Jose Caldas to explore concepts of modernity within Brazilian design. Mercado Moderno (Rio de Janeiro) will likewise focus on Brazilian design, spotlighting the works of Sergio Rodrigues, Percival Lafer, Joaquim Tenreiro, Inês Schertel, Zanine Caldas, and Jorge Zalszupin.
A debut gallerist at Design Miami, Sally Dan-Cuthbert Art & Design Pty Ltd (New South Wales), will present a diverse range of works from significant Australian artists, highlighting central themes of environment, flora and fauna, and climate through a diverse grouping of designers and artists from different regions of Australia. The presentation will offer a fresh perspective on the intricacies of Australian design today, materialised by the likes of Olive Gill-Hille, Bonhula Yunupingu, Charles Travalyen, among others.
New Voices at Design Miami
A stage for emerging talent, this year’s fair will introduce an array of emerging designers and debut exhibitors, including BOCCARA GALLERY (New York) and it’s exhibition on Ossip Zadkine, a French painter and sculptor widely considered as one of the great masters of Cubist sculpture, Dobrinka Salzman (New York) and their unique LED light sculptures by Christopher Baker and ceramicist Jeremy Anderson. Adding to the focus on Brazilian design, JCRD Design (London) will showcase minimalism within Brazilian design processes, highlighting a selection of works by Lina Bo Bardi, Giancarlo Palanti, and Brazilian contemporary designer Lucas Jimeno Dualde. Meanwhile, Nader Gammas (Dubai) presents “VESSELS”, a work inspired by the artist’s hikes in the Blue Hills Reserve, Massachusetts.
“The choice to be led by the Blue Sky curatorial theme felt only natural for this 20th edition of Design Miami. The theme presents an opportunity to celebrate Design Miami’s role as a platform for the 21st-century avant-garde—showcasing the very best in contemporary and historic design for two decades. Design is inherently a speculative venture and also a collective one—a shared framework of reference at a time of global interconnection. The same sky is above us all.”
Glenn Adamson, Design Miami 2024 Curatorial Director
Partners & Additional Programming Highlights
Bottega Veneta presents The Ark
This edition of Design Miami will welcome Bottega Veneta’s The Ark collection, commissioned by Matthieu Blazy. Inspired by the Zanotta Sacco, the limited-edition lounge chair collection draws on the original 1968 chair silhouette, which shares the same softness, anti-formalism, and fluidity that characterised Bottega Veneta’s earliest bag designs. Blazy’s reinterpretation of the Sacco utilises the chair’s malleability, metamorphosing its shape into playful animal forms. Each iteration is an evocation of childlike creativity, summoning a wonder and boundless imagination, reflecting this year’s curatorial theme’s playful optimism. The collection, which debuted at Bottega Veneta’s SS25 Milan Fashion Week show, features 15 animals in a variety of colourways: dog, panda, rabbit, ladybird, snake, bird, chicken, dinosaur, otter, elephant, cat, fox, bear, horse, and whale.
FENDI Presents ænigma by Lewis Kemmenoe
FENDI returns to Design Miami to present ænigma, a new collection created in collaboration with London-based designer Lewis Kemmenoe. Inspired by an exploration of materiality, where natural materials are offset by the man-made, Kemmenoe uses his characteristic patchwork technique to present a collection of collectible furniture items, including two chairs, a cabinet, two wall panels, three lamps, and a coffee table. Kemmenoe has also reimagined FENDI’s iconic Peekaboo Soft bag: through a unique construction process, FENDI leathers were cut into a jacket pattern then patchworked together to fabricate the Peekaboo Soft bag. Timber used throughout the ænigma furniture collection forms the internal handbag bar, while silver and brass screws reflect the two prominent metals featured in the furniture.
Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council x Ricard Rendón
By blending the aesthetics of Mexico’s vivid landscapes and artistic expressions with the vibrant traditions of the United Arab Emirates, Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council and Ricardo Rendón present a collection that offers a new perspective on cultural artistry. Rendón’s Mexican influence, represented by the use of pinewood in dark ink and volcanic rock, is accentuated by vibrant belts of Talli and Safeefah, weaving tales of starlit oases, sandy deserts, and timeless Emirati traditions. The former shows the ruggedness and strength of pinewood, while the other, traditionally handwoven by Emirati artisans, brings in softness and colour.
Lasvit’s Herbarium Radiant, Magma, and Grain of Sand
A debut partner at this year’s edition, Lasvit unveils a three-part exhibition that starts with Herbarium Radiant, a large-scale glass and light installation made from a new type of glass made of rare lanthanide oxides extracted from recycled electromagnets that allows users to highlight or suppress certain colours in its light, revealing vibrant, ethereal hues. The installation’s organic form also pays homage to the fleeting beauty of the natural world thanks to organic materials that are delicately embedded into its molten glass. The second element is Magma, a series of unique vases inspired by the raw, transformative power of molten rock. The third part is titled Grain of Sand and captures the transformative journey of sand as it becomes glass, having been inspired by Miami’s coastal landscape.
Pearl Jam by Nicole Nomsa Moyo
The Miami Design District, in collaboration with Design Miami Curatorial Lab, presents Pearl Jam by architect and urban designer Nicole Nomsa Moyo, winner of the neighbourhood’s 2024 Annual Design Commission. Moyo brings a unique cultural perspective to Miami, presenting a contemporary tribute to Ndebele traditions by drawing on intricate patterns and bold colours to create a universal dialogue of creativity and identity. The installation showcases interactive, larger-than-life jewellery-themed experiences, including giant pearls, a deconstructable necklace, a sprawling bracelet, a cluster of pearls, and radiant earrings that will hang from trees. Central to the project is the artistry of indigenous Ndebele women from Southern Africa, who handcrafted over 1,000 earrings using locally sourced materials. Each intricately designed piece, embedded with vivid hues, carries a story of empowerment, symbolising the shared threads that bind diverse cultures globally.
Panerai presents LUMINOSITY
The luxury Italian watchmaker’s installation reflects a future-focused vision, pushing the boundaries of design, technology, and watchmaking expertise. As industry pioneers, Panerai has crafted unique timepieces for the Italian Navy since 1935, a detail that has become the foundation of the brand’s identity and runs through its innovation now and into the future. Harnessing Blue Sky as the backdrop to its curated booth, Panerai invites guests to an immersive, hands-on journey through the brand’s heritage, featuring its first mechanical and micro-engineering masterpiece, the Submersible ELUX LAB-ID.
Range Rover’s SV Candeo
For its Design Miami debut, Range Rover will present a space dedicated to its modernist design philosophy showcasing the Range Rover SV Candeo, a collectors one-of-one edition. This model expresses Miami’s natural beauty, drawing inspiration from the city’s famed sunsets, deep golden tones, and oceanic vistas. Range Rover will create an immersive experience, exhibiting the Range Rover SV Candeo against a cinematic backdrop storying Miami’s modernist landscape and oceanic views, alongside a curation of hero design pieces and an ethereal soundscape.
SCAD and its alumni
The official university partner of Design Miami, SCAD returns to present works by alumni in an orchestration of colour, texture, and craftsmanship. Artist Anya Molyviatis (B.F.A., fibres, 2021) will showcase a new series of her hallmark three-dimensional weavings within a site-specific installation that envelops the space in multicolour gradients. Designer Eny Lee Parker (M.F.A., furniture design, 2018; M.A., furniture design, 2016; B.F.A., interior design, 2011) will display tables made of glass and ceramic, exemplifying her approach to fundamental elements. Each work on view challenges expectations of form, finish, and materiality, together presenting a whimsically sophisticated environment that inspires wonder and tranquillity.
USM furnishes the Design Talks Theater
Swiss-based USM Modular Furniture has been providing timeless modular furniture designs suitable for both home and office environments for almost 60 years. Created from a few basic elements, the furniture system offers tailor-made solutions that can be expanded or reconfigured as needed, under the brand’s commitment to: Rethink, Redesign, Revalue. USM returns to Design Miami for its 2024 edition to furnish the fair’s Design Talks Theater, which will host a series of talks, programs, and listening sessions featuring a sound system by Devon Turnbull/OJAS for Tequila Don Julio.
Visionnaire presents Narrazioni Intrecciate by Draga & Aurel
Visionnaire will present Narrazioni Intrecciate in collaboration with multi-disciplinary design studio Draga & Aurel, a collection that features a number of Visionnaire’s design pieces reimagined in bespoke fabrics created by the design couple. As a whole, the collection consists of functional objects intended to reproduce a sensory and visual experience where the boundary between art and design dissolves, opening a dialogue between materiality, form, perception, and media. These new fabrics feature a blend of different yarns, designed to replicate Aurel’s distinctive painting technique, characterised by strong, vigorous brushstrokes that create new and unexpected descriptive elements. The collection includes special editions of the Aries armchair, the Muse room divider, the Lego console, the Sputnik suspension lamp, the Thessa separè, a large jacquard tapestry, and the artwork AKB_23_101.
Special Projects
Mathieu Lehanneur presents Flower Season
Upon entering the fair, visitors will be greeted by Flower Season, a special project by Mathieu Lehanneur inspired, of course, by this year’s curatorial theme. Mathieu Lehanneur unveils a triptych, a set of three pieces connected in meaning, around the notions of sky, cloud, and lightness where a cascade of handcrafted white tulips adorns the walls. Taking centre stage, the French creator presents the Pearls chandelier, resembling a cloud crafted from blown glass, whereas a pair of loose chairs seem to be carried away by the wind. A hand-carved wooden cabinet that reveals a radiant sky when its doors are opened, flooding the room with light, fulfils the scene. “I called it Paradise—nothing else seemed better fitting,” the artist reflects, capturing the piece’s ethereal essence. Mathieu Lehanneur’s show also runs at Booth P01, where he will be showcasing new creations such as the Spirit of a Wall sconce, which appears to float, and the Confetti Dresser, an aluminium monolith dusted with a myriad of “glass pollen”—multicolored glass rods that shimmer with every shift in light. New iterations of his signature pieces, such as Guernica suspension, Happy To Be Here tables, and Hug chair, will also be on display.
Instituto Campana x Friedman Benda presents Peludinho
Instituto Campana, in collaboration with Friedmen Benda, will present Peludinho, a set of whimsical stools made with only two materials: wood and the remaining cuttings of sheepskin from the studio’s Bolotas collection, created with Friedman Benda. All proceeds from this collection will be directed to support the Institute’s effort in developing Parque Campana, a project dedicated to integrating art, education, and nature in the city of Brotas (São Paulo, Brazil).
R & Company and Marianne Boesky co-present The Strawberry Tree by The Haas Brothers
R & Company and Marianne Boesky will co-present The Strawberry Tree by The Haas Brothers, which was previously showcased at the Nasher Sculpture Centre as part of the Brothers’ solo exhibition, Moonlight. This work embodies the designers’ celebrated fantastical vision through playful aesthetics and intricate craftsmanship, featuring a cast-bronze patinated trunk, hand-beaded Venetian glass leaves, and illuminated glass bulbs resembling strawberries.
il·lacions gallery & Inspired in Barcelona presents 12 out of 100K
Il·lacions Gallery, in partnership with Inspired by Barcelona, will celebrate Barcelona’s historical position on the global design map by placing a spotlight on 12 designers who exemplify the city’s vibrant pool of talent and rich tradition in design, architecture, and craftsmanship. Highlights include a booth mural by Cristian Zuzunaga, featuring 11 shades of blue to depict the seaside city, and the hand-drawn word ‘Barcelona’ in five blue tones. Works from Eliuripi, Max Enrich, Rosa Cortiella, among others, will also be on display.
