Last week, Design Miami—the world’s preeminent design fair—swapped Southern Florida for Southern California, setting up shop in a historic Los Angeles mansion by late architect Paul Williams. It was a landmark event: not only is the fair’s expansion a testament to the growing interest in the decorative arts, but it also challenged the event’s traditional format. While most trade shows are held in convention centers, Design Miami chose a residential setting where lamps, chairs, tables, and more were displayed in real rooms lived in by real people. (Some art was even put in the shower.)
“Frankly speaking, just as an outsider, when I go to other art fairs they’re typically in a convention center, a tent, or an armory,” chairman Jesse Lee previously told Vogue. “It’s not necessarily the best experience in terms of envisioning the pieces in your home or your apartment. We feel like this is a more natural state where collectors can envision what [the artworks] would look like in their home. It’s also equally important for galleries to be able to show in a space that’s a bit more organic.” (Lee, as well as his C.EO. Jen Roberts and curatorial director Ashlee Harrison also aimed to make the fair, well, fun: Virgil Village bakery Sqirl turned the kitchen into a café, while a bar was set up on the rolling grounds.)
So which artists—and pieces—had everyone talking? Below, find Vogue’s pick.
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At TEFAF New York and Design Miami L.A., it felt like everyone was talking about California-based artist Carmen D’Apollonio, whose home decor pieces feature playful riffs on the human form. The former assistant to Urs Fischer makes lamps that look as if a contemporary Venus of Willendorf was discovered in West Hollywood, as well as Greco-Roman planters with a twist. (Phoebe Philo loved them so much that she put them in her Celine boutiques.) This May, she has a solo show, “Hallo Its Me Again,” at Friedman Benda in Los Angeles.
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California native Eric Roinestad, represented by The Future Perfect, turns a folksy eye on the oh-so-’80s neon road signs of West Hollywood. Making casts of the placards for famous nightlife haunts like the Chateau Marmont, Whisky Go Go, and On The Rox, he quite literally cements their iconic emblems. Even presented out of context and in muted Bauhausian colors—stripped of their Sunset Boulevard glow—the viewer can still sense the L.A. energy.
The New York-based Bower Studios and artist Genesis Belanger collaborated on a series of mirrors whose reflections somehow both reveal and obscure: flanking the glass is a bronze curtain pulled back by a pair of manicured etched hands. (Even if you’re just seeing your own reflection, you won’t feel alone.) It’s just Belanger’s latest artistic exploration of femininity, which she often interprets through a lens that recalls 1950s American advertising.
“I aim to captivate human attention, provoking feelings, and emotions,” the Gen-Z Barbora Žilinskaitė says in her artist statement for her “Mr. Judgy” mirror, sold through Friedman Benda. Now, all art is subjective—but Mr. Judgy does seem to provoke an equal sense of boldness and fun.
Stout describes her style as “naïve pop.” Her vase at R Company s booth at Design Miami Los Angeles is indeed that—but it’s also extremely beautiful, with gilded pastel flowers protruding out of a baby blue facade. “Vessel” comes right after her solo exhibit at Nina Johnson in Miami. While Stout has always been known for her claymation-style “Girl Lamps”, after becoming pregnant with her first daughter, she found herself embracing vases: she told Vogue that she “became really fixated on vessels and jugs because I’m a vessel.”
