DESIGN MIAMI HAS PANDEMIC PLANS,
Dinosaur skeletons, a whimsical rooftop lounge and a cloud of man-made butterflies flitting in gossamer globes are among the crowd-friendly exhibits planned for Design Miami/. Sans the crowds, of course.
In the social-distancing age, Design Miami/ returns to its original home in the Miami Design District, this year inside the three-story Moore Building and across the open-air district with a show called Design Miami/ Podium.
The safety-conscious design fair includes both virtual and in-person presentations — this year called Design Miami/ Podium — over a longerthan-usual 10-day span to allow for capacity limits. All work shown within the fair can also be seen online.
Show details revealed Thursday include a robust roster of historical objects — including rare 19th Century Hopi kachina dolls and skeletons of Camptosaurus and Allosaurus dinosaurs unearthed in Wyoming — immersive installations (a rooftop lounge designed by Takashi Murakami for Perrier, and talks on “Architecture and Blackness in America” (by New York’s Museum of Modern Art) and Shaker aesthetics (by the Shaker Museum).
Design enthusiasts and collectors will find 20th century works by George Nakashima, Gio Ponti and Jean Royère, and contemporary works by Haas Brothers, Studio Job, Katie Stout, Isaac Scott and Johnny Swing. While works from the Americas get special attention, objects by Central Asian artisans will be showcases, along with a collaboration between Nigeria-based architect Tosin Oshinowo and British-Ghanaian textiles designer Chrissa Amuah.
Under the fair’s safety protocols designed with the University of Miami Health System, fair goers will be required to pass temperature checks and wear masks to enter the Moore Building space.
Public access runs Nov. 28 - Dec. 6. Timed tickets are required and cost $22.50 at designmiami.com.
Elsewhere in the Design District, Chilean design collective Great Things to People (gt2P), winner of this year’s annual design competition, will install a series of playground-inspired activation named “Conscious Actions.”
Several of the top-name galleries that are staples of the Art Basel Miami Beach fair will offer pop-up spaces — some running through the winter. Look for gallery spaces from LévyGorvy in collaboration with Salon 94 Design; Mitchell-Innes & Nash; Jeffrey Deitch and a second Miami outpost of David Castillo Gallery.