Today’s art world is so much more than just fine and video art. Design is also an integral part of this versatile environment. Thus, a world-known art fair devoted to design and art installation projects – Design Miami/ Basel – attracts attention of hundreds of art fans and experts from around the globe. This year’s edition took place on June 11-16 in Basel – the city hosting numerous internationally significant venues, from Baselworld (luxury watch and jewelry exhibition) to Art Basel (global modern art fair). Let’s take a closer look at one of the most exciting art installations at Design Miami/ Basel 2019 that the festival showed off this past June.

Design Miami/Basel represents an international design forum. It is a place for the most influential gallery owners, designers, and critics of the art world to gather and praise the culture of design and business. Apart from the Art Basel shows, this event became the focal point for the collection, exhibition, discussion, and creation of collectible design.

The global fair consists of three main sections. The first section includes gallery stands – there were 45 of them from 12 different countries this year. The second section is Curio consisting of curatorial projects and solo exhibitions of individual artists. The third and one of the most spectacular sections is Design at Large, which presents large-scale art installation and design projects. All of them were carefully selected by Aric Chen — the first art director of the fair. Nine projects reflected the assigned topics of human impact on the environment in the era of the Anthropocene – “Elements: Earth” – each in their own way. Besides the prominent NYC-based art galleries, such as Cristina Grajales Gallery and Jason Jacques Gallery, Design at Large included a remarkable art installation by Joseph Walsh Studio – “Magnus V.”

The Irish furniture maker and self-taught designer Joseph Walsh is known primarily for the high exclusivity of his design objects. It is quite simple to distinguish Walsh’s work from many others. The designer has a pronounced, one-of-a-kind style, in which objects made of wood (Walsh’s primary working material) acquire a futuristic appearance and look almost alive due to their soft interlacing and out-of-space shapes.

At Design Miami/Basel 2019, Joseph Walsh Studio presented the most extensive art object from his famous “Magnus Celestii” series – a massive art installation titled “Magnus V.” It features the designer’s signature spirals and weaves and is produced from olive ash wood distinguished by a unique, beautiful pattern. Because of such handy integral properties of this wood as wear-resistance and flexibility, Joseph Walsh and his colleagues at Joseph Walsh Studio created a large-scale piece of art. “Magnus V” is characterized by graceful and smooth ribbon-like geometrical forms, representing an extraordinary art object that can be adapted to daily human needs.