art basel design miami

Art Basel is now over and Miami Beach can go back to the quaint fishing village it's know as for most of the year. But before we officially bid farewell, we look to the things Alexandra Peers noticed at the art fair about how the current economic crisis has affected the art world, along with a few other tidbits of wisdom picked up along the way, bottling it all up in "Seven Things We Learned at Art Basel Miami." Here's one not so good sign:

3. Even for the superrich, it's tough times. Halfway through a packed "Champagne and Canapes" brunch at the Cartier dome, the jeweler stopped serving Champagne. Gulp.

For more info on Art Basel, we recommend checking out our many insightful posts, of course. We've also been enjoying Art Info's complete coverage.

(Photo: Courtesy of Wolfsonian-FIU)

Tonight, on the eve of its hotly anticipated design marathon, the Wolfsonian-Florida International University museum hosts a "very Wolfsonian cocktail reception" to celebrate Francesco Vezzoli's "Democrazy" installation (first presented at last year's Venice Biennale) and "Gridnik: Wim Crouwel and Modern Typography," an exhibition in honor of the Dutch graphic designer's 80th birthday. Guests of the Wolfsonian and the Cranbrook Academy of Art (where, as it happens, we played many a middle school volleyball game) will be zipped around Miami in a fleet of eight Smart Cars customized with colorful graphics by Cranbook artist-in-residence Elliott Earls and quotes about democracy by artists, architects, and designers including James Rosenquist, Zaha Hadid, John Baldessari, Enrique Norten, and Ross Lovegrove. "Democracy: there is no alternative," opines Michael Graves, while Baldessari may well have text messaged his quote: "DEMOCRACY = 2B FREE 2B." Our favorite democratic thought comes from designer Konstantin Grcic: "Democracy for people=YES! Democracy in design=NO!" The Smart project complements the Wolfsonian's "Thoughts on Democracy" exhibition (on view through Sunday), for which more than 60 artists and designers created original works inspired by Norman Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" posters from 1943.

Art Basel Miami and Design Miami are like marathons, and by Saturday, overly ambitious fairgoers can find themselves exhausted, clutching their newly purchased canvases, melted footstools, and tattooed wooden gorillas whilst sobbing into a Marimekko cushion at The Standard. Avoid Art Basel burnout with a hefty helping of graphic design in the form of tomorrow's Design Marathon hosted by the Wolfsonian-Florida International University museum in South Beach. Moderated by Design Matters diva Debbie Millman (so you know it'll be good), the event will feature an all-star lineup of 25 artists and graphic designers, each of whom will take the stage for five minutes to "express themselves." Among those poised for the challenge are Neville Brody, William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand, Chip Kidd, Richard Tuttle, James Victore, and Lawrence Weiner. The "Five Minutes of Designed Freedom" slam kicks off at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow at the Wolfsonian, but get there early to catch photographer Martin Parr's book signing, which begins at noon. The museum promises that "special limited edition Wolfsonian Credit Crunch Portfolios" will be for sale—probably best to pay cash for yours.

While of course you should always turn to our very own Stephanie Murg to spill the beans on the happenings as Art Basel continues in Miami, like with her couple of great posts from yesterday. But for a terrific secondary source, we highly recommend reading the on-the-ground reporting from Caroline Stanley over at the newly opened Flavorwire. Where else can you get the skinny on the major money art fair, with sightings and reports on people like Benicio Del Toro, Brooklyn Museum director Arnold Lehman, and seeing Julian Schnabel leading a crowd to go see a Grace Jones concert? Plus, if you've ever wanted to see Stuart Parr in a strange, all-white Yves Saint Laurent standing on a couch, clutching a sharp knife, here's your chance. Go forth and learn how the other half of the art world lives.

(Photo: Alexander Williams for Areaware)

OK, so technically it's a gorilla, but we've always wanted to find a good reason to headline a post with that famous David Letterman-in-Cabin Boy quote. Since providing you with the first glimpse of the Design Miami Box Top Shop—stocked with goodies from I.D., Areaware, and Charles & Marie—we've checked in with the store's proprietors to see what's selling swiftly, and the Design Miami must-have is shaping up to be the hand-signed and numbered version of David Weeks' Hanno the Gorilla (pictured above). As if the signing and numbering weren't sufficiently special, each Miami Hanno sports an original laser-etched tattoo on its sustainably-harvested beech wood chest. We've advised the Box Top Shopkeepers that to further boost Hanno sales they join hands and perform the Magilla Gorilla theme song every hour, on the hour. Or at least have this hip-hop version by Michael Ungar playing on a flatscreen:

(Photo: Contrasts Gallery)

When it comes to furniture, where there's smoke, there's not necessarily fire, but there is Dutch designer Maarten Baas, who for his famed "Smoke" series of charred furniture took a blow torch (and lots of translucent epoxy resin sealant) to the iconic creations of everyone from Gaudi to the Campana brothers. The fiery fun continues in Baas' newest series, "Transformation," an appealingly oozy range of handcrafted wood furniture on view through Saturday at the Design Miami booth of Pearl Lam's Contrasts Gallery, which has outposts in Shanghai and Beijing and hosted a show of Baas' work last summer. "Transformation" was born from Lam's commissioning of Baas to make products with Chinese producers and, through Contrasts' residency program, investigate traditional Chinese craftsmanship, materials, and imagery. We hear the new work has collectors melting. Other cross-cultural combos at Contrasts include Constantin Boym's table that functions as a readymade still life and Studio Makkink & Bey's stainless steel dining table based on traditional Chinese boxes. Click "continued..." to see both pieces.

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(All Photos: Theo Richardson/Rich, Brilliant, Willing)

Find yourself wandering Design Miami discouraged by the price tags on the likes of Studio Job's Bavaria-inspired marquetry table (at Moss, booth 16)? Feeling inadequate in the midst of collectors writing five-figure checks for meta-art that makes your head spin, like Vik Muniz's photograph of a Cindy Sherman untitled film still (at Sikkema Jenkins, Art Basel booth D13)? Proceed directly to the Box Top Shop, which is chock full of limited-edition design objects that are much, much easier on the wallet than, say, Ai Weiwei's massive wedding cake-cum-light sculpture at Mary Boone (Art Basel booth F7). Box Top is no mere pop-up shop; it's a four-day retail experience. Open through Saturday in Miami's Design District (4141 NE 2nd Ave.), the ephemeral emporium is the collaborative effort of I.D. Magazine, Areaware (our favorite purveyor of extraordinary things), and "quintessential lifestyle navigator" Charles & Marie.

The interior of the 2,300-square-foot shop was designed by Rich, Brilliant, Willing, the Manhattan-based design firm of Theo Richardson, Charles Brill, and Alexander Williams (who also did the ever-so-lovely photography for Areaware's freshly redesigned website). It's a clever celebration of shipping materials, with multi-tasking cardboard boxes and tape serving as display surfaces, storage, and design elements while allowing the entire shop to be assembled in a single day.

So what's for sale? From Areaware comes 22-karat gold, copper, and chrome versions of Harry Allen's iconic Pig Bank, Rollerstop, and Banana Bowl, any of which should fit in one of I.D.'s limited edition of 300 tote bags ($50 each) that feature exclusive graphics by Konstantin Grcic, Tord Boontje, and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Meanwhile, Charles & Marie offers a new series of Yoga Chairs by Lucas Maassen made especially for the shop. Conclude your afternoon of design retail therapy by relaxing in the shop's lounge (furniture by Vitra) and knocking back a Bionade organic soda. Don't forget to tell them that UnBeige sent you.

Award-winning landscape architect David Font (at right) is the head of seven-year-old Font Designs, and so when presented with the opportunity to interview him on the eve of Design Miami, we had to begin with the obvious question: Does Font Designs ever get mistaken for a type foundry? "Yes, on occasion. Not very often though," he told us. "When we first opened the firm we also had several inquiries from people thinking we were graphic designers." That settled, we move on to the big news: Font's extraordinary exhibition design for "Beyond Organic: Design in the State of Nature," a themed satellite exhibition that is Design Miami's first foray into mixing contemporary and historical design.

Showcased in a 6,000-square-foot space inside The Collins Building, "Beyond Organic" is meant to be an "an exuberant, witty, and inspiring celebration of the natural world reflected through objects" contributed by the likes of Moss, Richard Wright + Arik Levy, and Demisch Danant. Font's exhibition design integrates the objects—here a Swarovski chandelier resembling cherry blossoms, there a pair of Max Lamb chairs sculpted from stone—into an organic environment that includes 50 pick-up trucks full of topsoil, more than 700 pieces of native and exotic plant material, and a large wall covered with patches of grass and slices of tree trunks. Below, Font tells us about how he approached the project, some of his favorite objects in the exhibition, and how he brings a little bit of the Italian Renaissance into the spaces of today.

1. How did you approach the assignment to create the interior environment for Design Miami's "Beyond Organic: Design in the State of Nature" exhibition? What were your inspirations?
I researched natural indoor environments as they related to the art world and tried to do something that hasn't been done. I didn't want the landscape design or the art pieces to overpower, outweigh, or compete with each other. I wanted to create a cohesive and integral environment that flowed while avoiding certain pitfalls of making it too manicured. I wanted to achieve an unstructured, natural environment.

In terms of inspirations, one was one of the design objects that I was creating the exhibit to showcase: the Michele Oka Doner "Tara" chandelier (pictured at left), which is a candelabra made out of bronze that is in the form of a cut down tree stump. That piece, in particular, was inspiring because it really depicted what the aesthetics and overall theme should reflect. One of the challenges in organizing the space within the Collins Building was taking a rectilinear box and giving it a free-flowing design to mimic what the landscape is doing. We accomplished this by creating a curvilinear stage and carrying it throughout, having that pattern radiate out from that center stage.

2. "Beyond Organic" includes 50 design objects. Any favorites?
I have so many favorites, but there are two that stood out in particular; the candelabra that I explained was also a source for inspiration of the exhibit and the eight-foot Zaha Hadid "Iceberg" bench (pictured at left), which I appreciate because I understand the work behind the intricate design that it requires to create something that appears to be unstructured and free-flowing. It was one of the challenges I faced in designing the space.

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With Design Miami, Art Basel, and a myriad of satellite events mere weeks away, we've got details on Design Miami's new home, a 43,000-square-foot temporary structure (it sounds much too cool to be called a tent) designed by New York architectural studio Aranda\Lasch. For Design Miami, the new venue highlights the inseparable relationship between design and architecture. "We've always staged Design Miami in wonderful historical buildings, such as the Moore Building in Miami and the Markthalle in Basel, but this year we decided to use our venue to make a bold architectural statement reflecting the future of design rather than the past," said Design Miami director Ambra Medda in a press release. "We see this project as the embodiment of today's spirit, in which traditional boundaries are becoming meaningless and creatives are working across the disciplines of art, architecture, and design. These ideas are also echoed inside the show, where we are seeing more limited edition design work created by architects and more gallerists carrying architectural drawings and maquettes."

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Based on our encounter with Fernando and Humberto Campana at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum earlier this year, we think it would be difficult for them to get much happier and more excited about design, but we're confident that they'll find a way. We've just learned that the Brazilian brothers will receive the Designer of the Year award at Design Miami in December. The Campanas will create a special installation for the fair as well as a VIP lounge for its principal sponsor, HSBC (and who better than VIPs to sit on stuffed sharks; lots and lots of stuffed sharks?).

The Campanas' Design Miami installation will be an evolution of their "TransPlastic" series (a chair from that series is pictured above), which Humberto previously described to us as "a battle of nature with plastic. It's the revenge of wicker!" Entitled "Diamantina," the December installation will introduce native Brazilian amethyst crystals into the woven structures, resulting in a series of biomorphic islands on which visitors can sit. "The inspiration for the name alludes to the precious stones incrusted into the piece, and is also the name of a small town in the central part of Brazil," commented the brothers in a statement issued this afternoon by Design Miami. "There, all different kinds of stones and crystals are sold like candy on the street markets. The city is ugly and seems as if it was lost in time, continuing to live quietly on the heart of Brazil."

Previously on UnBeige: