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Marking a decade of transformative public art and design, the Miami Design District, in collaboration with Design Miami Curatorial Lab, has announced acclaimed artist Katie Stout as the recipient of the 2025 Annual Design Commission.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, this year’s Design Commission, titled Gargantua’s Thumb, debuted throughout the neighborhood during Miami Art Week, with additional displays featured at the 20th anniversary edition of Design Miami’s flagship fair. Gargantua’s Thumb will remain on view well into the new year and continue the Design Commission’s legacy of site-specific installations that reimagine the neighborhood and invite public engagement.
Born in Portland, ME and based in New York, Stout earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her multidisciplinary practice is driven by an impulse to subvert function – pushing familiar forms just past the point of comfort. Stout’s iconic ceramic girl lamps exemplify this approach, blending craft and commentary as they challenge conventional notions of beauty, luxury, and femininity, while drawing on deep references from the history of art and design.
“It’s an honor to create the 10th Annual Design Commission for the Miami Design District,” Stout said. “This project is about blurring the line between function and fantasy. By scaling up these sculpted creatures and amplifying their idiosyncrasies, I want to highlight the tension between intimacy and monumentality, precision and imperfection — celebrating the rawness of the handmade in a neighborhood synonymous with design excellence.
“This project honors the Miami Design District’s legacy of fostering creativity while offering a playful encounter and respite for the public,” she added.
Fabricated in collaboration with ALTBLD, Gargantua’s Thumb is a series of large-scale sculptural benches installed throughout the Miami Design District. Each piece begins as miniature clay animal figures – hand-sculpted by the artist and intentionally marked by the irregularities and playful distortions that arise when working at an intimate scale.
These whimsical forms are then digitally scanned, dramatically enlarged, and milled in perennial materials for durability and functionality. The resulting works are both familiar and fantastically distorted, offering the public a surreal, oversized collection of animal-like sculptures to sit on, lean against, and interact with.
Stout’s installation brings a fantastical cast of sculptural furniture to life, ranging from a dog-shaped bench to a whimsical whale-shaped fainting sofa, and a frog-inspired perch that invites playful engagement. At the heart of the Miami Design District, an interactive carousel offers an immersive centerpiece. Overhead, hundreds of colorful orbs, each embedded with flora- and fauna-inspired figures, will be suspended throughout the neighborhood’s trees, transforming the streetscape into a dreamlike environment of motion and wonder.
“Year after year, the Miami Design District commissions a beautiful public art project for all to enjoy,” said Grela Orihuela, senior vice president of Fairs, Design Miami. “This year is no exception. We are thrilled that Katie Stout was awarded the commission and look forward to seeing the project come to life in Miami this December.”
Each year, the Miami Design District invites a visionary artist or designer to reimagine its public spaces through a site-specific installation that transforms the neighborhood’s landscape. Woven seamlessly into the neighborhood’s architecture, trees, and pedestrian pathways, the commissioned work becomes an immersive part of the urban fabric, encouraging exploration, interaction, and discovery. Debuting during the high point of Miami Art Week and remaining on view well into the new year, the installation offers a dynamic cultural anchor at the heart of the city’s most celebrated season.
“Over the past decade, the Annual Design Commission has helped shape the Miami Design District into a global stage for bold, original ideas,” said Craig Robins, president and CEO of DACRA. “We’re proud to mark this 10th year anniversary with Katie Stout, whose playful and provocative work challenges the boundaries of design. This milestone is a celebration of the creative voices that continue to transform our public spaces and define the cultural spirit of the Miami Design District.”
Since its debut in 2015, the Miami Design District’s Annual Design Commission has introduced bold, transformative installations, turning the neighborhood into an open-air canvas for experimental design and immersive storytelling. The Design Commission has spotlighted a diverse roster of creative visionaries, including Nicole Nomsa Moyo (Pearl Jam, 2024); Lara Bohinc (Utopia, 2023); Germane Barnes (Rock | Roll, 2022); Studio Proba and Enjoy the Weather (Tomorrow Land, 2021); gt2P (Conscious Actions, 2020); Fernando Laposse (Pink Beasts, 2019); Dozie Kanu (Support System, 2018); Charlap Hyman & Herrero (White Rain, 2017); Philippe Malouin (The Speed of Light, 2016), and Snarkitecture (Holiday, 2015).
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