The 10 Best Booths at Design Miami/

The Miami milieu appears to have rubbed off on the collectible design to be had at Design Miami/, the pre-eminent U.S. design fair, which opened to the public on Wednesday. From pastel hues (like those that grace the nearby Art Deco architecture) to latex chandeliers to velvet-fur loveseats, some of the best booths at this year’s edition take inspiration from the palette and irreverence of the fair’s host city.

R & Company

GALLERIES Section, Booth G08

With works by Rogan Gregory, The Haas Brothers, Sergio Rodrigues, Joaquim Tenreiro, David Wiseman, Thaddeus Wolfe, Jose Zanine Caldas, Jeff Zimmerman, Wendell Castle, Finn Juhl, Johnny Swing, Lapo Binazzi, Katie Stout

R & Company’s booth reads like a greatest-hits inventory of designers that pass through the TriBeCa mainstay’s home base. Haas Brothers aficionados will recognize their pastel-hued vases as well as “Hex” stools, which the duo originally developed in 2013. New pieces by the ever-inventive twin pair include a hand-carved walnut dining table, going for $180,000; it echoes the humorous tone, critter-motif legs, and exacting craftsmanship of the “Hex” series. Elsewhere in the booth, new works from Katie Stout’s “Girl Lamp” (2016) series (all of these table lamps are handmade, and all of them are gloriously obscene), were also very popular with collectors.

FENDI

Collaborations Section, Booth X02

With works by Cristina Celestino

FENDI has held a presence at Design Miami/ since 2008, and this year’s booth from the Italian fashion house features the work of Milan-based architect and designer Cristina Celestino. Dubbed “The Happy Room,” the full-scale interior display features a color and material palette that figures prominently throughout the fair, punctuated by idiosyncratic details that make the booth: For instance, a curvilinear yellow-velvet loveseat finished with a fur base. Elsewhere in the booth, grey marble is contrasted with pink plastic, brass, and wood—all common enough in contemporary luxury interiors—but punctuated with an oversized rivet in the shape of an earring-back. The booth is one of few non-selling presentations at the fair; the design serves instead as the brand’s first travelling VIP room.

Salon 94

Galleries Section, Booth G04

With works by Gaetano Pesce

The wittiest booth at this year’s fair is devoted to Italian architect and bon vivant Gaetano Pesce, whose cabinets are among the most charming pieces in the whole of the fair. Done in polyurethane resin and completed from 2006 through 2016, these pieces are more narrative than functional; one wood-and-gold leaf piece is rendered as a horse’s behind.

Friedman Benda

Galleries Section, Booth G14

With works by Andrea Branzi, Calico Wallpaper, the Campana Brothers, Wendell Castle, Byung Hoon Choi, Paul Cocksedge, gt2P, Misha Kahn, Chris Schanck, Adam Silverman, Faye Toogood, Marcel Wanders

According to gallery partner Jennifer Olshin, this year’s booth is split in two: One side is given over to “organic” pieces, like a pair of blush pink Amazonian fish-skin chairs by the Campana Brothers, while the other side contains expressive, “zany” objects like brand-new pieces from Brooklyn’s Misha Kahn and Detroit-based Chris Schanck. Kahn, a bricoleur whose February solo show at the gallery received near-universal critical acclaim, is perhaps the gallery’s most popular designer at this year’s fair; a day in, all of his works (two lighting fixtures and a wildly pieced-together storage cabinet) had sold.  

Moderne Gallery

Galleries Section, Booth G23

With works by Harry Bertoia, David Ebner, Wharton Esherick, Gyokusendo, Estelle Halper, Sam Maloof, George Nakashima, Toshiko Takaezu, Makoto Yabe

This Philadelphia-based gallery’s booth is devoted to studio furniture of the highest caliber, chiefly pieces produced by eminent 20th- and 21st-century woodworkers. An especially impressive Wharton Esherick couch anchors the booth, and items like the 1952 cherry-wood Long Chair by George Nakashima further assert the gallery’s commitment to promoting the handmade work of highly talented artisans and craftspeople. A 1961 Sam Maloof lounge chair carved from California walnut wood is reupholstered in an eggplant-hued textile by Jack Lenor Larsen—gallery owner Robert Aibel acquired some of the legendary mid-century fabric designer’s last stock when Larsen closed his business, and has since been reupholstering period pieces in the material.

Giovanni Beltran

Galleries Section, Booth G28

With works by Jonathan Gonzalez, Jonathan Nesci, Lex Pott, Deon Rubi

The Miami-based gallery features the fair’s most commanding digital element: a monumental LED screen that spans the width of the booth and displays rotating computer-rendered environments as context for the furniture pieces on view. Standing in front of a rendered snowscape, a slender towel rack-cum-tower designed by Miami designer and architect Jonathan Gonzalez appeared pixelated at the edges, taking on the cartoonish quality of the scenography.

Patricia Findlay

Curio Section, Booth C02

With works by Alberto Biagetti and Laura Baldassari 

Titled “NO SEX in Miami,” Patricia Findlay’s booth is transformed into a Freudian analyst’s office by Milan-based design studio Atelier Biagetti (the husband-and-wife design team previously staged the “NO SEX” show in Milan). Gone are the whips and chains, though the fetish theme is omnipresent; instead, the display includes clinical finishes like a pink latex curtain chandelier (going for €27,000).

Patrick Parrish Gallery

Galleries Section, Booth G18

With works by Kristin Victoria Barron,Bec Brittain, Huy Bui, Guy C. Corriero, Crosby Studios, Fort Standard, Cody Hoyt, Doug Johnston, Kasper Kjeldgaard, Ian McDonald, Jonathan Nesci, Soft Baroque, Ian Stell, Brian Thoreen, Marcus Tremonto, Julian Watts, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, Chris Wolston

At Patrick Parrish’s eclectic booth, the emphasis is on experimentation with materials. A slew of completely new pieces—all but a couple pieces were produced specifically for this year’s fair in Miami—testify to inventive applications of everything from terracotta to soapstone. Among the most arresting items is Chris Wolston’s clay Magdalena Plant Chair (2016), complete with potted cacti peeking out from its back. More minimalist in impulse but no less impressive, Huy Bui’s two sidetables—in which a brass frame holds sculptural wood burl that functions as the table-top—sold for $4,800 early into the fair’s five-day run.

Chamber

Galleries Section, Booth G27

With works by Dimitri Bähler, Hilda Hellström, Mimi Jung, Markéta Kratochvílová & Tadeáš Podracký, Ika Künzel, Azuma Makoto, New Tendency, Jirí Pelcl, PlueerSmitt, Niek Pulles, Studio Job

In Miami, the New York City design emporium is hewing to the theme of collage and assemblage, the focus of its third Chamber Collection presentation, which was curated at its home base by Matylda Krzykowski. If the theme suggests a grab bag, it’s for the better, as the booth’s contrasting contents are highly varied. In a nod to the season’s defining hue, the booth includes a bubblegum-pink leather daybed by Berlin-based studio New Tendency. Nearby, the curvilinear Botanical Sofa and Table (2012) by Azuma Makoto are rendered in neon-green AstroTurf.

Galerie Patrick Seguin

Galleries Section, Booth G01

With works by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Jean Royère