While it was a simple banana taped to a wall that seemed to steal the show at this year’s Miami Art Week, opulence abounded throughout the various fairs too. Many bold, beautiful pieces involved meticulous beading, weaving, and fringing. From fur to fluorite, tassels to tiger’s eye, the materials used in some of our favorite pieces are unexpected and glorious. Sometimes these seemingly ostentatious elements …
While scavenging through a thrift store in Greenwich Village, Ryan Matthew became transfixed by several plastic beaded bracelets. It wasn’t the complete product that he found alluring, but the individual components. Matthew purchased the tired, older pieces and brought them home. Shortly thereafter, REBEAD was born. Matthew began to source other components—repurposed glass and wood beads, shells and stones. Through careful consideration and hand-assembly, his …
There’s no short supply of eclectic public art in Detroit, MI, but none quite match the magnitude and message of MBAD’s African Bead Museum, more commonly known as Dabl’s Bead Museum—named for visionary founder and artist Olayami Dabls. Large-scale sculptural works and meticulously ornate building details define the appropriated landscape. And all of it was an afterthought, because what you’ll find inside happens to be …
