Welcome to The Buzz, our monthly roundup of design world news and inspiration for Design Miami’s discerning community of creatives and collectors. Enjoy!

This month, the Vitra Design Museum presents the first major retrospective of acclaimed Dutch photographer Iwan Baan’s oeuvre. Moments in Architecture reflects Baan’s wide scope by gathering together images depicting global architecture in the early twenty-first century.

Throughout his work, Baan highlights the connections between buildings, their surrounding environments,  and the people who engage them—a humanistic approach that gives his architectural subjects a wonderfully accessible quality. October 21, 2023 to March 3, 2024

Congratulations to our dear friends at Wexler Gallery on their gorgeous, newly opened gallery and office space in Philadelphia!  Set within a former pretzel factory perfectly transformed by the architectural firm DIGSAU, the 11,5000 square foot space in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood features a bright, open floor plan that highlights the  raw industrial character of the building elements—a perfect setting for presenting the gallery’s incredible roster of established and emerging artists. We’re thrilled for the wonderful team—and can’t wait to visit!

Now showing: London’s Gallery Fumi presents British designer Max Lamb’s latest body of work, Box. Crafted entirely from upcycled cardboard, the new collection of tables and chairs demonstrate the 40-something’s steadfastly poetic, process driven approach. Making use of the piles of cardboard accumulating in his studio, Lamb cut, scored, folded, crushed, and reassembled  with bolts, screws, paper gum tape and a home-made wheat-based glue (flour and water), building up volumes of cardboard, layer by layer, into familiar, functional forms. And while sustainability is nothing new for Lamb, Box centers this narrative by transforming discarded scrap material into gallery-quality offerings. On view ’til November 18.

Later this month,  the festival We Design Beirut makes its debut in the heart of Lebanon. Following the deadly explosion that took place at Beirut’s port in 2020, the historic city is in the midst of both rebuilding and healing, and the new event intends to spotlight the local creative community’s role in that evolution. In that spirit, We Design Beirut has taken on a three-part focus sure to inspire: “We empower. We sustain. We preserve.” Over four days, Lebanese art, architecture, and artisans will be honored in exhibitions, workshops,  talks, and more throughout the city that embrace these aims. (Our very own Anna Carnick will moderate the event’s kick-off conversation, spotlighting Lebanese craft and design, on the 27th). Open October 27-30

This weekend, Brussels-based Pierre Marie Giraud launches a solo exhibition dedicated to French ceramicist Jean Girel. The artist’s latest works—marked by subtle textures and exquisite, harmonious colorways—demonstrate his renowned technical mastery and innovative experimentation with reactive glazes, which, when subjected to temperature variations, create unique and delicious patterns and surfaces. Inspired by nature,  Girel’s works represent his ongoing aim to interpret the sense of awe he has upon encounters in his environment—be it a sunset or a salamander—into his expert creations. Open October 7 - November 10

In New York, RISD grad Shaina Tabak has her first solo show at the always fresh Superhouse Vitrine. On Object Tendency features sculptural works that toy with form and materiality to blend the grandeur and luxurious attention to detail of 17th-century Dutch Baroque art with our current golden age of digital manipulation, where technology is often used to influence and deceive. As artist Kat Chamberlin explains in the exhibition’s insightful accompanying essay, entitled A Perspective Warp: "Using the machines and language of computer assisted milling technologies, Shaina Tabak is carving a tool path for a new kind of digital Baroque aesthetic.” The resulting pieces challenge viewers’ perceptions and ask questions about the nature of reality. Case in point? Tabak’s sculptural table, River Cuts Through Rock, “pays homage to the ‘vanitas,’” a Baroque genre of still life in which symbols of death were worked into bountiful, tabletop scenes. Tabak’s take employs a realistic carved fish skeleton, draped over an undulating wood surface, “mimic[king]...the texture of a sieve-like sponge.” Until November 5.

In Paris, Galerie kreo presents Echosystems, a dynamic group exhibition curated around the inspiring vision of the late multitalent Virgil Abloh. In addition to presenting the final works Abloh created for the gallery before his untimely passing in 2021, visitors can encounter an array of two and three dimensional works from an exciting mix of artists and designers, including Marcel Duchamp, Keith Haring, Tom Dixon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Erwan Bouroullec,  among others.

The eclectic grouping evokes the role that sampling played in Abloh’s prolific career. As Abloh  explained in a 2020 interview with Maurizio Cattelan for Flash Art: “It was during my early days in architecture school that I was told that an architect should be a jack-of-all-trades. That was all I needed to hear. From that point on, I realized that I did not need to abandon my love for Wu Tang, Green Day, Alien Workshop, and Mies van der Rohe, but could apply them all together.” On view ’til November 1.

Today in Paris, Mouvements Modernes launches New Space, French designer Tim LeClabart’s first solo exhibition. The show introduces a furniture collection of the same name, featuring functional works that elegantly oscillate between sculpture and art. The collection is composed of natural materials such as wood, lava stone, and washi paper, and inspired by the infinity of the space—“a place where we can still allow ourselves to dream, a utopia with an untarnished mystique.” If you’re in Paris this week or next, be sure to come by. This stellar show is open just ’til October 14.

The fifth edition of EDIT Napoli opens today, kicking off its annual three-day celebration of  independent designers and producers.  This year’s edition includes over 100 local and  international exhibitors, with work ranging from ceramics and  textiles to furnishings, surfaces, and lighting—all championing a quality over quantity mentality. The 2023 edition opens in a new venue in the heart of Naples’ historic center: the Archivio di Stato di Napoli, based within the monumental SS. Severino e Sossio complex. This new space presents an exciting new backdrop in which to explore the event’s signature conversations between historic architecture and contemporary design and craftsmanship. Open through Sunday the 8th.

This month, Manhattan’s Emma Scully Gallery presents EJR Barnes: A Room on East 79th Street, the London-based artist and designer’s debut solo exhibition. Framed as “a place more than a showcase,” the presentation skips/eschews the traditional pedestals and opts instead for an immersive experience,  that sees the designer tackle everything from furniture to lighting, tableware, and textiles. As gallerist Emma Scully  observes, “Elliot’s practice reads more like a piece of music rather than a catalog of objects. There’s a certain quality of consciousness and context – how he uses humor and the juxtaposition of material and form – that offers something new, an aesthetic language of his own design.” Open October 12 - December 15

Finally,  we’d be remiss not to mention the number of exciting design weeks opening around the globe this month—including Dutch Design Week, Mexico Design Week, Prague Design Bock, and Lagos Design Week, among others. There’s so much design to discover this month—enjoy!