g.t. rietvelds

unique black painted wood with gold necklace | louise nevelson | c 1960s | didier ltd.

“One of my favorite pictures of Louise Nevelson is the Richard Avedon photograph of her from 1970s wearing a black festooned hat and cape and layers upon layers of handmade necklaces. I love the idea that she made and wore her own jewelry and that it went hand-in-hand with her sculpture making process. The photograph of her is fearless, and her necklaces act as both her shield and badge of honor.

The Nevelson necklace offered at Didier has this same kind of resonance. It is a unique necklace composed of separate painted wooden parts contained in a gold framework. The necklace mixes unorthodox materials in the refined vocabulary of a fine jewelry setting. It is both elegant and bohemian, and when I tried it on I felt fearless and privileged to walk for a moment in the artist’s shoes.”

Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, Curator & Collector

mutation lounge | maarten de ceulaer | 2012 | industry gallery

“I like the mutation lounge by marteen de ceulaer, because of its pleasant organic forms, its function and its material: rubber. As a mother of three kids ages 4,6 and 8, this kind of child friendly but design driven furniture speaks to me – at the moment.”

Nadja Swarovski, Creative Director, Founder of Swarovski Crystal Palace and Member of the Swarovski Executive Board

linelight | johanna grawunder | 2012 | carpenters workshop gallery

“Johanna’s work always confounds expectation. She delights in upturning convention and creating work that prompts a response from the user. Linelight is no exception. At once poetic, I love the atmospheric play of light created between the panels, which both reveal and conceal the light source behind.”

Zoë Ryan, John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design, The Art Institute of Chicago

bookshelves | charlotte perriand | 1963 | galerie downtown – françois laffanour

“The upcoming Design Miami Fair will present a lot of fascinating pieces of furniture, that being said I guess my taste is somewhat dated. I choose the book shelves  by Charlotte Perriand as my favorite  work, for the simplicity of the design and it’s place in history as a design classic.”  

Richard Meier, Architect

desk | giò ponti | 1955 | galleria rossella colombari

“I’m always attracted to functionality so I can appreciate this desk. The use of different materials such as the red plastic laminate and brushed brass on steel worked really well for me as well”

Pharrell Williams, Artist

red and blue chair | g.t. rietvelds | 1918 | this is a reproduction | galerie vivid

“The Red and Blue chair is perhaps one of the most iconic design object of the twentieth century. They way the wooden members appear to ‘slip’ past one another while floating effortlessly in space, the way the primary colors suggest a spatial extension into a larger environment, the way it single-handedly embody the idealism of the De Stijl movement, is as refreshing and current today as almost a century ago since its inception.  

What makes this particular Red and Blue chair especially intriguing is seeing it alongside its original crate; an object reminiscent of another furniture series by Gerrit Rietveld, designed slighter later, slightly less well known, but equally revolutionary: the Crate system furniture. Made from the recycled packaging material crate wood; Rietveld responded to economic crisis of the 1930’s with the Crate series that could be sold as a kit, easily shipped, affordable, and of utmost simplicity and beauty.

Together, the Red and Blue chair and it’s crate turns into an art object of its own; one that encompasses two ends within spectrum of design – one abstract and ideal, paradigmatic and heroic; the other concrete and everyday, pragmatic and anonymous – ethos that were important at the dawn of twentieth century design as they are today.”

Mark Lee, Architect and Collector

coffee table | wendell castle | 1966 | r 20th century

“I’m really drawn to this Wendell Castle stack-laminated coffee table. Beyond it being one of his pioneering simultaneously functional and sculptural works, the beautiful biomorphic lines remind me of a favorite piece of furniture from my childhood home in Argentina: an almost-sculptural squat wrought-iron tractor seat bench from an unknown designer from San Antonio de Areco, a small town in the Argentine pampas, who created beautiful organic furniture objects from parts of discarded farm machinery he found in that rural farmland region of Argentina. I can’t help but think of the similarity between that region of Argentina and the rural farmlands of Castle’s native Kansas, and how growing up in that region must have been a source of inspiration for the timeless organic forms in Castle’s work.”

Sebastian Cwilich, President and COO Art.sy

kangourou lounge chair | pierre jeanneret | 1960 | galerie patrick seguin

“Even though this Jeanneret chair is a work of clasical modernism, it is still atemporal…”

Fernando Romero, Architect

swan chair | datyendra pakhalé | 2012 | gabrielle ammann gallery

“We love the Swan chair and stool in marble from Gabrielle Ammann gallery – simply sublime and very poetic. One of our favorite things about the “Swan”chair is its simultaneously contradicting and complementary features. The seat flows and curves organically, appearing supple and soft, yet is of unyielding marble. Those same organic lines are themselves complemented by the regularity of the rectangular back, which forms a natural contour of one’s back.”

Robert Couturier, Interior Architect

rough sea | taher chermirik | 2012 | galerie bsl

“I love it. Architectural like Lapidus. Sculptural like Bertoia. Precision of a jeweler.”

Al Eiber, Collector

float | snarkitecture | 2012 | volume gallery

“Snarkitecture is a New York-based firm by architect Alex Mustonen and artist Daniel Arsham. Together they explore, push, and challenge the boundaries of material, scale, and space. Not only are they designing this year’s entry pavilion for Design Miami/ but Volume Gallery is also showing one of my favorite pieces by them: “Float”, a 450 lbs., 1 1/2 x 5 ft. bench-like construct made of cast marble dust.”

Felix Burrichter, Editor-in-Chief and Creative Director, PIN-UP

[ main gallery program ]
Caroline Van Hoek/ Brussels
Carpenters Workshop Gallery/ London & Paris
Cristina Grajales Gallery/ New York
Demisch Danant/ New York
Didier Ltd / London
Gabrielle Ammann // Gallery/ Cologne
Galerie BSL / Paris
Galerie Downtown-François Laffanour / Paris
Galerie Jacques Lacoste/ Paris
Galerie kreo / Paris
Galerie Patrick Seguin / Paris
Galerie VIVID / Rotterdam
Galleria Rossella Colombari / Milan
Gallery SEOMI / Seoul
Hostler Burrows / New York
Industry Gallery / Washington DC & Los Angeles
Jason Jacques Inc. / New York
Johnson Trading Gallery / New York
Jousse Entreprise / Paris
Magen H Gallery / New York
Moderne Gallery / Philadelphia
Mark McDonald / Hudson
Nilufar Gallery / Milan
Ornamentum / Hudson
Pierre Marie Giraud / Brussels
Priveekollektie Contemporary Art|Design / Heusden
R 20th Century / New York
Venice Projects / Venice

[ design on/site ]
Antonella Villnova / Florence presenting Delfina Delettrez
Booo / Eindhoven presenting Front
Carwan Gallery / Beirut presenting India Mahdavi
Design Space / Tel Aviv presenting Michal Cederbaum and Noam Dover
Erastudio Apartment- Gallery / Milan presenting
Victor Hunt Designart Dealer / Brussels presenting Slyvain Willenz + CIRVA
Volume Gallery / Chicago presenting Snarkitecture

[ schedule of events ]
public show | 5 > 9 december 2012
preview day | 4 december | collectors preview 12 > 6p | vernissage 6 > 9p
Design Miami’s cultural programme, including Design Talks, Design Performances, and Design Satellites, as well as the 2012 Designer of the Year, will be announced in the coming weeks.

[ about design miami/ ]
Design Miami/ is the global forum for design. Each fair brings together the most influential collectors, gallerists, designers, curators and critics from around the world in celebration of design culture and commerce. Occurring alongside the Art Basel fairs in Miami, USA each December and Basel, Switzerland each June, Design Miami/ has become the premier venue for collecting, exhibiting, discussing and creating collectible design. [ design miami/ ] [ design blog ]