GROUNDBREAKING
Looking to AMERICA Design Miami exposes the growing shift among collectors toward American design. By Raul Barreneche
T
his year’s edition of Design Miami, titled Satisfy Your Curiosity, puts the spotlight firmly onto American design—and not just work from the well-known (and overexposed) midcentury modern period. From the studio craft movement of the 20th century to emerging practitioners of truly multidisciplinary design, Design Miami’s eighth and largest installment (on view December 5–9) promises a remarkable range of work by both legendary and up-and-coming US-based designers. This preponderance of American work coincides with what dealers and gallery owners note is an increasing interest in American design, especially among collectors abroad. Robert Aibel, owner and director
of Philadelphia’s Moderne Gallery, a first-time Design Miami exhibitor this year, has recently sold a number of works by Wendell Castle and George Nakashima, a specialty of the gallery, to buyers in London and the Middle East. “I think people are starting to realize there’s a history to American design beyond the contemporary work coming out today, and [they’re] wanting to learn more about the whole period after the midcentury,” Aibel says. His Moderne Gallery will be exhibiting several blue-chip Nakashima pieces, as well as rare and important furniture and sculptures by the lesser-known Pennsylvania artist and woodworker Wharton Esherick, a pioneer of the studio craft movement, and sumptuously sculptural wood pieces by
Split, cast marble, 2012.
David Ebner, Robert Worth, and Sam Maloof. Zesty Meyers, a partner in New York’s R 20th Century gallery, agrees that there’s growing worldwide interest in collecting American design. “In Europe, which controlled the decorative arts for hundreds of years, designers were trained to make drawings that were then
RENDERING COURTESY OF SNARKITECTURE (TOP); PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF VOLUME GALLERY
Snarkitecture’s Drift Pavilion for Design Miami 2012.
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