Marketplace | Design Miami: Some Ceramic Gems but Fair’s Size Blunts Adventure

Design Miami, America’s premier showcase rolls back into town again for its annual big tent presentation. The problem remains that its tent is becoming too small and as the roster of exhibitors and galleries barley changes from year to year. There is little to offer surprise. As we see same the same designers and artists year after year some develop and others don’t. While new is not a virtue by itself, the show would benefit greatly from being larger with more encouragement to show cutting-edge designers who may horrify as well as intrigue.

Maybe some sponsored booths for third world and socially beneficial design would add another more humanist dimension. The confrontation with radicalism is what is missing even though it is often present at Art Basel Miami across the street. This would transform this exceedingly polite parlor show into something more meaningful and unpredictable. Maybe the corporate presentations by Swarovski and others are meant to give us that sense of adventure. They do to an extent, but their board-approved branding exercises, while high glam, feel too safe. Design Miami needs a blast of raw. Until then enjoy some great pieces we scouted from around the show, leading off with the ever amazing Takuro Kuwata.

Garth Clark is Chief Editor of cfile.daily.

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