Gallery Highlights and Emerging Themes At Design Miami/ Basel 2014
June 17 – 22 '14
Basel
Design Miami/ Basel returns with a gallery program that balances contemporary practice at its most cutting edge with strong historic works by some of the world’s leading designers and craft ateliers. More than 50 galleries from 13 different countries have been selected to participate, and this growing international scope in exhibitors is reflected in the increasingly diverse provenance of the works on show.
Compelling themes are already emerging from this year’s gallery program. These include resonant investigation of ancient materials in contemporary works, contributions to the field of design by twentieth-century sculptors, the crossover of craftsmanship and aesthetics between designers in Europe and Asia, and historic works of extraordinary provenance. A number of participating galleries have commissioned new pieces specifically for this June’s show, the first details of which will be published throughout the week on DeTnk.
Today's design trend that will be seen at Design Miami/ Basel is working with ancient materials.
Deploying ancient techniques for working with volcanic materials developed in the Mount Etna region of Sicily, Formafantasma’s De Natura Fossilium melds starkly contemporary forms with vital and expressive materials. Jewelry works by the artist Rebecca Horn likewise combine ancient materials and craft methods to new ends – fossilized snail shells are set using Etruscan-influenced lapidary to create spiritually potent new works. Fur, feathers, leather, cording and the symbolic arsenal of the shaman find their place in the works of young Icelandic designer Brynjar Sigurðarson, whose pieces for the home owe perhaps as much of a debt to anthropology as they do to design history. At the more purely sculptural end of the scale, Rowan Mersh uses tiny, tubular, tusk-shaped dentalium shells to create captivating architectural elements.
Gallery Libby Seller London Satina by Studio Formafantasma in 2014
Gallery Libby Sellers London Big Pillar by Studio Formafantasma in 2014
Gallery Elisabetta Cipriani Medusa by Rebecca Horn in 2011
Galerie Kreo Dining table by SIGURDARSON Brynjar in 2013
Gallery FUMI Placuna by Rowan Merch in 2014
R &Company New York Unique Debbie Hairy, Dromedary, double- hump bench from the Beast series, with Wyoming Buffalo fur, poseable tail and Chester Cheetah feet by The Haas Brothers in 2013
R & Company New York Unique Chinoiserie candlestick with tortoise in bronze and porcelain blossoms by David Wiseman in 2013
