What’s Happening: After making a name for itself in Milan, the roving design showcase continues its run as a vital incubator for young, experimental practices by bringing their work to a history-laden motel at Miami Art Week.

The Download: Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima launched Alcova five years ago to champion emerging designers who don’t quite fit the mold of Salone del Mobile or the medley of satellite shows that pop up during Fuorisalone. What was missing during Milan Design Week, they realized, was a platform for young practices wielding an experimental edge in what can be perceived as a slow-moving profession—a cross-section of new talents translating fresh ideas into one-of-a-kind collectible objects and innovative research. That, and unexpected settings like a derelict abattoir and military hospital to showcase the work. As the fair grew in scope, ambition, and acclaim, Ciuffi and Grima toyed with the idea of taking it elsewhere.

“We were looking for a place with a strong connection to design and an established audience,” Grima tells Surface. The duo brought this alchemy to the Magic City, where Alcova’s latest edition promises to be one of Miami Art Week’s buzziest places to experience new design. “We love Miami,” Grima says. “It has a strong identity of its own, much like Milan, and is attached to an idea of a certain lifestyle.” Few settings embody Miami’s sense of neon-hued hedonism better than Biscayne Boulevard’s iconic Selina Gold Dust Motel, a midcentury MiMo gem that looks plucked from an Ed Ruscha painting. Newly reborn as a boutique hotel, its location across from the old Playboy Club made it a popular hangout spot among the Rat Pack.

The history-laden hotel—and the work within its rooms—promise a wild ride through fresh ideas percolating within design. Among this year’s highlights is Alcova Project Space, where talents like Stefania Ruggiero and Ryan Decker plumb the depths of “digital ornamentalism” and translate its fluid forms into pottery and wooden stools. Solo presentations by the sustainable furniture purveyor Kalon Studios, the exuberant painter Kika Karolina Niemczyk, and material master Bonnie Hvillum speak to the show’s reach. “Uncharted” asked six artists (Wallpaper Projects, Sam Klemick, and Caleb Ferris among them) to explore the unfamiliar by implementing novel creative processes into their practices and presenting the results. It’s an apt metaphor for a rare adventurous show whose freethinking spirit promises something new.

In Their Own Words: “People who come here for art fairs are looking for inspiration and situations that will trigger their imagination and expose them to new work,” Grima tells Surface. “We feel design is moving very quickly. Alcova has always been interested in the bleeding edge of design—this is something we can contribute to Art Week here.”

Surface Says: The neon sheen of the Gold Dust’s heyday lives on.

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We know how inspiring it can be to take in the fairs before the crowds descend on Miami Beach. Starting on Dec. 5, Scope returns to the sands of Ocean Drive for a week of talks, wellness programming, installations, DJ sets, and, yes, art. This year’s edition counts more than 110 participants from 23 countries and 70 galleries among its roster. New this year is a partnership with Amsterdam’s STRAAT Museum to curate “Not So Black and White” at Scope Walls, a street art showcase that probes the polarized climate of our present day. Other highlights include BK Adams’ 25-foot-tall sculpture, blue collar horse, and a talk with Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova on the power of art to inspire action in the face of injustice.

Scope opens to American Express Platinum cardholders on Dec. 5, and for general admission starting on Dec. 6.

Though Balenciaga’s Resort 2024 collection suggested otherwise, creative director Demna rarely shies away from spectacle or social commentary. That approach hasn’t always served the label well—the harbinger of haute suffered a fall from grace after viewers claimed a disastrous campaign promoted pedophilia and its entanglements with Ye came under scrutiny following his public antisemitism. The scandals encouraged Demna to “question everything now,” he told Vogue earlier this year. “I will have a more mature and serious approach to everything I release as an idea or an image. I have decided to go back to my roots in fashion as well as to the roots of Balenciaga, which is making quality clothes—not making image or buzz.”

That wasn’t quite the case at Balenciaga’s Pre-Fall 2024 show, which was held on a pristine tree-lined Los Angeles block with the Hollywood sign looming in the distance. A not-so-subtle homage to Demna’s “favorite city in the world” and the relentless wellness and celebrity cultures it fosters, the looks mimicked typical Angeleno tropes. A ripped dude in gym shorts clutched an iPhone to his ear; ill-fitting velour tracksuits were paired with sunglasses to hide from the paparazzi lurking outside Erewhon. On that note, the label partnered with the cult grocer on logoed leather totes—so much for forgoing buzz—and a juice made with activated charcoal powder that was as black as the clothes worn by the A-listers perched in the front row. “I don’t know what’s in it,” Demna said about the juice, a tad too on-the-nose. “I just wanted it to be black.”

Lara Bohinc’s fantastical furniture often feels like it arrived straight from the future—or perhaps a distant universe. While the Slovenia-born talent has been a Design Miami/ standout in years past, she’s now bringing her otherworldly creations to Miami Art Week for all earthlings to enjoy. Mushrooming across the Miami Design District with a kind yet mysterious presence is “Utopia,” a series of bulbous sculptures Bohinc created to evoke cellular life forms, mycelium, and even the geometry of Buckminster Fuller’s nearby Fly’s Eye dome.

Commissioned by the Design Miami/ Curatorial Lab to illustrate a future-focused vision of sustainable living, Bohinc fashioned stools, armchairs, tables, and solar panel–equipped light sculptures from cork—a natural, waterproof material native to Portugal—and built them using a 5D robotic milling machine. She then hand-painted each in pastel pistachio, aqua, lavender, cherry blossom, and eggshell blue hues, an homage to the color palette of Miami’s Art Deco architecture. The centerpiece? A seven-foot-tall elliptical sculpture that nods to the 900 egg-shaped birdhouses interspersed among the Design District’s tree branches as part of the series. Make sure you also catch them at the entrance to Design Miami/, which opens today.

This past weekend, the Brooklyn artist empowerment organization celebrated its annual Goodtimes Gala from its recently opened headquarters and production space. Guests gathered for the denim and disco soirée to toast the past year of exceptional growth for the nonprofit, along with its inaugural class of artists in residence: Jannick Deslauriers, Alicia Mersy, Karina Sharif, Maryam Turkey and Mark Wilson, Jr. Attendees were given a first look at large-scale works by the residents, as well as a performance by Samora Pinderhughes and The Healing Project Choir. After dinner, DJ Nicky Siano inspired guests to dance before sweet treats to cap off the evening.

When was it? Dec. 4

Where was it? Worthless Studios, Brooklyn

Who was there? Maria Vogel, Neil Hamamoto, Kevin Claiborne, Caleb Hahne Quintana, Jordan Huelskamp, Jenée-Daria Strand, and Everette Taylor.

The Brooklyn painter often imbues her thick, cerebral, frenetic paintings with lived experiences embellished with dashes of dark poetry, but the title of this anxiety-ridden memory says it all.

Here, we ask an artist to frame the key details behind one of their latest works.

Bio: Carrie Rudd, 29, Brooklyn.

Title of work: Shit on the Lawn of the Library Just to Know That You’re Alive.

Where to see it: Polina Berlin Gallery at NADA Miami until Dec. 9.

Three words to describe it: Frisky, curious, hopeful.

What was on your mind at the time: The painting is “based” on a lived experience: a Friday evening in autumn, sitting outside at the Hastings Public Library looking over the Hudson River in 2009. I was thinking about being that age—riddled with angst, hyper-aware that there’s so much more out there but not quite able to get close enough. We were bonded in this mutual frustration—we just maybe didn’t have the words. Instead, we’d search for minor ways to act out, to release some of our teenage-grade punky energy, to remind ourselves we had a pulse.

The art book publisher of choice for many a shelfie has expanded its lineup of travel books, with an expansive volume dedicated to the allure of Mexico City. The 312-page tome immerses readers in the city’s mashup of pre-colonial culture, Spanish architecture, word-class museums, thriving culinary scene, and the vistas of its setting in the valley of a range of mountains and volcanoes. Mexico City makes a case for the city as a muse to many creative talents of our time, from Diego Rivera to Alfonso Cuaró, Enrique Olvera, and beyond. $105

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For the past 10 years, Tepozán has been Jalisco’s best-kept secret. Tepozán is one of the few estate-grown tequilas that is fully grown, processed, and hand-bottled at the source. Pared down to the essential ingredients of mature blue agave, natural yeast, and volcanic-filtered well water from the brand’s estate, its tequila has no additives of any kind—just incredible flavor. Tepozán is truly farm-to-glass.

Surface Says: Estate-grown and additive-free, Tepozán stands out for its commitment to excellence through the old ways of the tequila-making craft.

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