Ateliers Courbet returns to Design Miami/ this month, bringing three young artists and artisans for the first time to the US — French designer Emma Donnersberg, Chilean artist Abel Cárcamo, and Moroccan wood sculptor Hamza Kadiri — all highly regarded in their respective countries.

Following the 'Golden Age' theme of the fair, the installation will focus on time-honored bronzesmithing techniques from around the world with new sculptural pieces resulting from Melanie Courbet's tight collaboration with the artists and master-artisans.

The New York-based gallery will unveil sculptural bronze pieces developed by the artists in collaboration with Courbet for their respective solo exhibitions coming up at the gallery in 2023, which will mark each artist’s first ever solo show. These editions will be complemented by recent works by American designer Jonathan Hansen, Italian sculptor Gianluca Pacchioni, German designer Bodo Sperlein, and Burkinabe Maison Intègre’s latest bronze series by French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.

In line with the gallery’s ongoing mission to highlight the artisanal dexterity of the master-craftsmen it represents, the installation will highlight the work of Fonderie de Coubertin and Fonderie Fusions’ revered bronzesmiths in France, as well as Belgium’s art founders De Clerq and Ginsburg. The works on view result from years of collaboration between Ateliers Courbet, artisans, craftsmen, foundries, and workshops around the globe.

Embracing Design Miami/’s 2022 theme, The Golden Age: Looking to the Future, each piece in Ateliers Courbet’s exhibition embodies the various stages of bronze fabrication, from hand-molding or 3D molding of the original models, the detailed transcription of such into lost-wax or sand-casting molds, to the painstaking patinas.

For the 18th edition of Design Miami/, the gallery will divide its installation into two spaces; with Oscar Ono flooring uniting the area. One side highlights the Penzai series with abstract expressions and bronze sculptures resulting from the ongoing dialogue between French designer Emma Donnersberg and Ateliers Courbet founder Melanie Courbet.

The Penzai series includes limited edition tables and lights inspired by the ancient Chinese art of depicting artistically formed trees, plants, and landscapes in miniature.

Each piece in the series was hand-modeled and sculpted by Abel Cárcamo working in Spain, and later cast in bronze by the bronzesmiths of Fonderie Fusions—David de Gourcuff’s esteemed art foundry based in Auvergne, France. The space showcasing the Penzai series offers an immersive and meditative experience kindred to a Zen Garden, and provides the visitor with a sense of wandering through nature.

Unveiling at Design Miami/ and created in collaboration with Ateliers Courbet for the gallery’s installation at the annual design fair, Hamza Kadiri’s Eros Brut table exemplifies the Moroccan sculptor’s artistic vocabulary and his rarefied wood expertise. Entirely hand-crafted by Kadiri and his team of master wood crafters from one solid trunk of Ash, the piece highlights the painstaking details achieved by the numerous hours of carving and charred finishing using the traditional Japanese Shou-Sugi-Ban technique. The piece is then hand-coated with layers of organic beeswax finish. As a nod to the bronze-focus in Ateliers Courbet’s booth, the counter levered tabletop is secured with a sculptural bronze medallion.

Kadiri hails from a long lineage of wood experts and is highly revered in Morocco where he leads a workshop in Casablanca. He has access to rare, precious wood kinds, and his body of work reflects the artist’s reverence for wood, its properties, and characteristics. Sought after by international collectors, Kadiri’s highly sculptural, contemporary works embodies the artist’s mastery in marquetry and cabinetry as much as his reverence for the raw material. Ateliers Courbet will present Kadiri’s first solo exhibition in January 2023.

Also on view is Italian artist, metal sculptor, and lighting designer Gianluca Pacchioni’s Fossil Screen II—a wood structure covered with liquid bronze and hand-rubbed brass patina with a solid brass frame. American designer Jonathan Hansen presents a textured cast bronze biomorphic bowl and vase. German born and London-based designer Bodo Sperlein is presenting a bench. The flooring in the space will be European oak end grain flooring by the wood crafters at Paris-based Oscar Ono. The Qubes collection was designed by Oscar Ono and encompasses different patterns in variable sizes, and the materiality carries on his long-standing interest in the history of materials and how matter undergoes metamorphic processes over time.

Ateliers Courbet also is pleased to introduce the Maison Intègre editions, which support the apprenticeship and education of Burkinabe artisan-founders in collaboration with esteemed French designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance. Much of the design vocabulary of this work is inspired by vernacular architecture and traditional objects of West African cultural heritage. The bronzesmiths use the time-honored technique of lost-wax casting and recycled metals to materialize the designs. From the Maison Intègre workshops in Ouagadougou, the French designer and Burkinabe bronze craftsmen worked, shaped, and molded beeswax to make a rich collection of seven sculptural pieces.