Miami Art Week Reveals How Imagination Transforms the World Around Us
A wave of boundary-pushing work will sweep through Design Miami and beyond as this year’s edition spotlights designers and artists reshaping materials in unexpected ways
Every December, collectors and creatives set their sights on South Florida and Design Miami, which marks its 21st iteration under the theme “Make. Believe.” Curatorial director Glenn Adamson frames it as a meditation on how the avant-garde has shaped our environment across the ages—a fitting concept for a city that thrives on reinvention.
Among the presentations, Spanish designer Álvaro Catalán de Ocón expands his acclaimed PET Lamp project with Gurunsi, a lighting tapestry crafted with Ghanaian artisans. Each example translates the architectural plans of the country’s traditional adobe dwellings into woven patterns of elephant grass and recycled plastic.
Kohler continues its legacy of artist collaborations with Pearlized, a glinting new finish developed with sculptor David Franklin for its Artist Editions sinks. Derived from a process he perfected while making large-scale installations of schooling fish during his Arts/Industry residency in Kohler, Wisconsin, the iridescent surface reveals shimmering depths.
Artist Francesca DiMattio reinterprets 18th-century Sèvres porcelain and aged frescoes as painterly murals for a new assortment of wallpaper with Calico. The brand’s advanced printing techniques magnify her hand-sketched floral and architectural motifs into sweeping panoramas that feel at once decorative and deconstructed.
Beyond the fair, in the Design District, Katie Stout enlarges hand-sculpted animal maquettes into an interactive carousel as well as fantastical benches. Ralph Pucci wraps his Wynwood gallery’s façade in a hypnotizing mural by Ruben Toledo. The Future Perfect carries that transformative spirit indoors at Villa Paula, a 1920s Cuban consulate reimagined as a showcase for collectible design. Each is an astounding emblem of the creative vitality that defines Miami’s well-earned Magic City handle.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Winter issue under the headline “Magic Touch.” Subscribe to the magazine.