Reviews of Miami

Judd Tully for ARTINFO vs. Julie Taraska for The Fast Company

In their respective articles, Judd Tully and Julie Taraska present strikingly contrasting views of this year's Design Miami, which, together, offer an interesting report on the event.

Despite having only 14 international design galleries exhibiting compared to the 23 that showed last year, attendance was up by 15% at Design Miami with a total of 20,000 visitors between the 1st and 5th of December.

In the article ‘Design Miami: Small Is Good’, Judd Tully gives a range of interesting figures from various galleries and dealers present at this year’s fair that suggest the event was ultimately a success, and according to Tully, the atmosphere was generally enthusiastic.

In the article, Tully sites Johnson Trading Gallery as having done particularly well with collectors this year. One of their represented designers, Max Lamb, designed the installation for the entryway to the tent, and works by Lamb on offer at the Johnson Trading booth (priced between $4,800 and $20,000) sold ‘briskly’. R 20th Century Gallery also faired well selling Jeffrey Zimmerman’s unique, pod-cluster chandelier, and dramatic ‘wall drawing’  for $60,000 and $50,000 respectively.

Overall, Tully  claims that ‘compared to past years, Design Miami was much more cutting-edge and contemporary.’   READ FULL ARTICLE

It is important to note that Design Miami 2009 was not without its share of mixed reviews. In her article ‘Design Miami 2009: Laser Guitars, Rockshelves, Corporate Patronage’ for the Fast Company, Julie Taraska describes this year’s event as ‘a cherry on the international design circuit: a nice topper to the year, but no substantial meal.’

In contrast to Tully, Taraska describes this year’s fair as being ‘about cultivating moneyed collectors, not breaking new work... the preference was for the tried and tested. Big-name pieces commissioned by Design Miami partners... upstaging -- and perhaps even atoning for -- the sparse number of exhibitors and satellite events.’

In this article, Taraska highlights what she felt were the ‘bright moments amid the fray.’
READ FULL ARTICLE

In the end, no matter what the personal feelings towards the selections on view may be, the fact that pieces were selling and attendance was up should be an encouraging sign for the industry going into 2010.