Five of the Best Installations at Alcova Miami
Alcova has swapped Milan for Miami, filling an old motel with international designers. We select our favorites.
Five of the Best Installations at Alcova Miami
Alcova has swapped Milan for Miami, filling an old motel with international designers. We select our favorites.
An old motel on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard isn’t necessarily where you’d expect to find a world-class line-up of independent design. But for the next week, rooms are filled with emerging talents and cross-disciplinary objects, with visitors transported into the worlds of the creatives involved.
The quality of what is on show comes as no surprise, though. The exhibition is hosted by Alcova, the Milan-based platform founded by Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima. Launched during Milan Design Week in 2018, Alcova has gone on to become the number one stop on the schedules of those visiting the city. It seems, according to Instagram at least, that that same energy has crossed the ocean with Ciuffi and Grima, and is making the Miami show a must-see too.
For the Miami edition, the founders wanted to showcase the best international design to the US audience, while also championing the creatives on home soil. “The show represents a monumental expansion of Alcova beyond its Milanese roots,” the founders said. “Our core mission remains unchanged: to transform unique spaces into immersive platforms for groundbreaking design.”
Read on for our highlights.
Dry Garden
Objects of Common Interest
Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis of Objects of Common Interest have created an installation that takes the context of Miami into consideration. Its vibrancy is reflected in a series of rock-light stools, which are produced in a rainbow of shades and have been crafted from resin. The surrounding space is blue-purple in tone, representing the twilight hours when the “city comes alive”.
French Getaway at the Seaside Motel
Meillart and Polcha
This brighly hued show brings together two seperate entities: Meillart, a platform for exception furniture ounded by Marie d’Hoffschmidt and Alfred de Franssu, and Polcha studio, founded in 2021 by Pauline Leyravaud and Charlotte Tarbouriech. “Through this collaboration, we wanted to highlight the key pieces of tomorrow, fashioned using ancestral arts and crafts techniques,” said We wanted to reveal the ability of artcrafts to reinvent traditions and work on highly expressive and decorative universes like Polcha, building on their foundations: working with the hand.”
Uncharted
Caleb Ferris, Forma Rosa Studio, NJ Roseti, Studio Sam Klemick, Tristan Louis Marsh and Wallpaper Projects
Uncharted is the work of a supergroup of sorts. Featuring work of distinguished diesigners, the exhibition brings together an eclectic mix of styles and materials, all within a setting that is described as “moody and ethereal”. Each of the designers has explored the concept of the uncertainty – creating mementoes representative of their research process. “Rather than a definitive statement on the outcomes of exploring unmapped realms, Uncharted presents an open-ended meditation on the multitudes possible in the process of discovery,” the designers add.
Trophy Room
Objects for Objects
The tongue-in-cheek nature of the Objects for Objects exhibition made it an instant standout. Aptly named the “Trophy Room”, the sintallation is filled with functional furniture made out of ceremonial objects. Inside the room, which is based on that of a 1970s high school trophy room, there is a shelf, table, chair, mirror, floor lamp, and two sconces completely made out of traditional trophy parts. “The presentation reinterprets traditionally tacky materials and symbolic forms as objects worthy of appreciation and practical use,” the designer says.
Raworkshop by Rich Aybar
NYC-based designer Rich Aybar makes the most of materiality through his work. For his Alcova show, he has crafted objects in a gold-toned rubber, including lamps, vases and benches. There’s something almost prehistoric-looking about the amber-toned monoliths, which – despite being crafted from rubber – appear entirely natural. “The collection provokes an inherent attraction to this mysterious, polymorphic substance triggering our associations with both the materiality and iconography of the chosen medium, rubber,” the designer says.
Alcova is on show during Design Miami until December 10. Check out our pick of must-see’s here.
