Design Miami

November 8th, 2017 Miami, Florida – Maison Gerard, a leading design gallery based in New York, will be presenting a highly curated selection of important contemporary and historical works at Design Miami. For its debut at the show, the gallery will articulate the range of periods and styles represented in its collection. With a focus on quality, form, and the timelessness of beauty and utility united, the gallery will showcase some of the best examples of cutting edge design created in the latter half of the 20th century. “We are very pleased to present these works at Design Miami. I have been observing this fair for nearly a decade and the number and level of sophisticated, knowledgeable, and genuinely interested visitors only continues to rise,” states Benoist F. Drut, gallery principal.

The centerpiece of this year’s exhibition will be Maurice-Claude Vidili’s Isolation Sphere. The piece was considered consummately modern when created in 1971; and it remains exquisitely beautiful today. Maison Gerard’s is one of fifteen made and one of the few known to exist still. (Another is held in the permanent collection at the Art & Design Atomium Museum, Brussels.)

Composed of four lacquered polyester shells fused together to create a maximum of silence, the sphere features plush seating for three and is outfitted with ample storage, electrical power, and a radio (which is retro-fitted to connect to an iPhone). Vidili's goal was to revolutionize leisure and design—he hoped to carve out a part of the home in which consumers could insulate themselves from a world grown unwieldy and clamorous. Not only did the sphere offer privacy at a time when space and quiet were in short supply, it also forever wedded the designer’s fresh conception of leisure to a brand new, alluring aesthetic—one of plastics, paneling, and comfort—an aesthetic influenced by technological developments, the sweeping successes of science fiction, and the end of the counter cultural revolution.

The gallery is also presenting an extremely rare, hand-woven, tapestry designed by Maison Leleu. This dramatic, 13-foot tapestry is from an important collection that was specially designed for the Villa Médy Roc, located on the exclusive “Billionaire’s Row” of the Cap d’Antibes. Maison Leleu was commissioned by the owner to make all the furniture, lighting, and carpets for the estate’s public spaces in 1957. This was one of their most significant post-war commissions. The inimitable style of Paule Leleu is full of joyous motifs and glorious, vibrant colors, and brings a whole new vision to bear on the distinctive Art Deco aesthetic. This tapestry remained at Villa Médy Roc for more than half a century, and when the private estate changed owners in 2007, Maison Gerard was able to acquire much of the collection.

Additional highlights include:

• A monumental, never-before-seen, Whalebone sofa in cowprint upholstery by William T. Georgis. The piece, which curves into a semi-circle of more than 180 degrees, features a detachable backless ottoman and an accompanying round coffee table. Included in the AD 100 many times over, William T. Georgis Architect has designed and completed numerous residential, institutional, and commercial projects in the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. “This is the largest commission for a Whalebone sofa we have placed to date and the bronze coffee table is, itself, an architectural feat,” adds Drut.
• A rare, curved bar cabinet designed by Maxime Old in 1971. The artist specially designed this sophisticated piece, with its shimmering, anodized aluminum finish and smoked glass top, to be mounted on the curved wall of the Paris offices of the Porte Autonome de Marseille on Rue Cognacq-Jay in Paris.
• An ethereal installation of five new light sculptures, the latest in Ayala Serfaty’s remarkable Soma series. To create these sculptures, informally known as “clouds,” the Israeli artist applies a self-webbing, diaphanous membrane over a unique structural frame of thin, glass rods. Serfaty’s work can be found in the collections the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Arts and Design, New York; the Indianapolis Museum of Art; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.