Much like the first week in May when everyone in the thoroughbred world is in Louisville, during the first week in December, everyone in the contemporary art and design world is in Miami for the much-anticipated Design Miami.
This year’s Design Miami, the international design fair that accompanies Art Basil/Miami Beach, had some very interesting collaborations.
Calico Wallpaper, the sensitive and sensational husband-and-wife design team of Nick and Rachel Cope, joined artistic forces with London-based interior designer Philippe Malouin to create a three-dimensional “transient composition” that challenges the conventional use of wallpaper as a backdrop by placing it front and center, making the room feel more like an art immersion.
The whimsical and quirky collaboration between New York graffiti artist Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, and the Brazilian design company Estudio Campana makes for amusing, sensible and comfortable design with a variation on the Campana Brothers “Banquete” chair made of soft pink stuffed toy animals on steel frames.
The time-honored Italian design house of Fendi and Dutch-born designer Sabine Marcelis collaboration is a perfect 10. With Fendi’s dedication to preserving the iconic fountains of Italy in mind, Marcelis designed 10 fountains honoring the 10 years of Fendi’s presence at Design Miami and the 10-year anniversary of the crowd-pleasing debut of its peekaboo bag. All the fountains share the same travertine stone and polished resin materials, but it is the image of the classic bag in its a-typical positioning that attracts the eye with it pastoral elegance.
Learn more › designmiami.com
