Art Basel Miami 2012 Highlights: 12/6

Art Basel Miami keeps getting better. Yesterday included stops at Design Miami and PULSE Art Fair. We picked a selection of some of the brilliant pieces across art and design that stood out to us. Yes, we saw Diddy...again. If you're in Miami, we've provided booth numbers so you can see them yourself in-person. Enjoy today's installment of Art Basel Miami 2012 Highlights: 12/6.

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As we said yesterday, Design Miami is happening across the street from Art Basel's Miami Beach Convention Center. There are many noteworthy modern and contemporary pieces, from furniture to lighting installations and more abstract experiments. The success of this year's Design Miami is the way it shows art's proximity and inseparability from design. Especially in the case of these pieces, the best design feels artful while being functional.

As we pointed out yesterday, Snarkitecture's Drift installation does not disappoint in its ability to welcome visitors into the space of Design Miami. See a few of our favorite works in the following slides.

Asif Khan designed this year's incredible Swarovski Crystal Palace project, titled Parhelia that explores the relationship between crystal, light, nature, and architecture. It exists in its own room within the Design Miami tent, stunning visitors in its glimmer and immensity.

Snarkitecture presents more work through the Volume Gallery booth, including the incredible Float, Split, and Pour tables, which match the theme of elevation from their outdoor Design Miami installation Drift.

Eindhoven, Netherlands-based design team originally presented the Surface Tension Lamp in Milan, which shows a light bulb integrating the function and aesthetics of a design lamp. This specific design was conceived by FRONT and produced by BOOO in an edition of twenty pieces. It costs €7,950 each.

The Mutation Lounge, made of foam spheres and durable rubber, appears in various colors at the Industry Gallery booth of Design Miami. It uses a common industrial material to be innovative and push the limits of design.

Jens Praet's side table is made out of shredded documents and a binding agent. It exists in a collection of pieces challenging the idea of what we waste and destroy in a site-specific environment.

This year's PULSE is an absolutely incredible experience full of excellent art. Taking place at Ice Palace Studios, it has five buildings of top-notch galleries from around the world. For those looking to stay a while, it also has a café with sushi and gelato, in addition to outdoor hammocks for relaxing. Some of our favorite galleries, including Jonathan LeVine, Joshua Liner, M+B, and Adamson brought their best work, including many that we'd never seen before. Check out some work that stood out to us in the remaining slides. And yes, that is Diddy at PULSE at the same time we were.

ERR6's clever take on Picasso's Guernica is one of the first large pieces one sees in building A. It's acrylic on canvas and from Vienna, Austria's Hilger modern/contemporary at booth A-200.

GHOST OF A DREAM's Forever, Almost collage is a really massive illusion. From afar, you wouldn't realize that it's made of discarded lottery tickets, but as you can see from the close-up, it is, and it's very well-crafted. It's from Davidson Contemporary at booth A-101.

It looks like candy, but it's definitely not. It's made of tinted resin and glass but inspires ideas of violence and the way it is euphemized or savored in our culture. It's also from Davidson Contemporary at booth A-101.

Dinh Q Le's I am Large. I Contain Multitudes sculpture references Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" poem in its title, and appropriately so. Viewers see multiple versions and angles of themselves in each bike mirror, which is mounted on an actual bike. Only 3 of the sculpture have been made and they cost $35,000 each. It's from Portland, Oregon's Elizabeth Leach Gallery at booth A-201.

James Clar's fluorescent light installation is simple and captivating. We're not sure which gallery is from, which may mean that it was made for PULSE itself. In any case, it's in building A should you want to gaze at it in-person.

This incredible photograph by Massimo Vitali exists among a few of his other aerial photographs. Les Due Sorelle Motor Boats is large and only 3 were printed. It's from London's Brancolin Grimaldi Gallery at booth B-200.

It's a large piece that you cannot miss, and why would you want to? It's from Miami's own Diana Lowenstein Gallery at booth B-104.

For another piece that deceives you from its materials, Matthew Brandt's confusingly titled 280989645921 is made of hubba bubba mystery flavor gum on paper. It comes signed, titled, and dated and is from the M+B gallery booth.

Are we the last to know that Chuck Close did this beautiful portrait of Kara Walker? Only 2 are left of the 3, costing $25,000 each. It's from Washington, D.C.'s Adamson Gallery at booth C-204.

Shantell Martin's Continuous Line piece contains two mediums-ink on wall and polished stainless steel mixed with LEDs. It was created for PULSE courtesy of Black & Whate Gallery/Project Space at booth E-204.

This mixed media on wood piece by David Ellis is noticeable before you even see it, because out of that hole is the smoke of burning incense. Yes, we're serious, but isn't that amazing?! It's from Joshua Liner Gallery at booth E-103.

Casey Neistat made this awesome full-room installation with hilarious messages on the walls and furniture. You can sit on the couch and watch a selection of his adventurous films, and at certain hours of the day, he's there hanging out, too.

Jonathan LeVine Gallery featured a selection of Space Invader pieces. Jonathan himself was there talking to collectors, fans, members of the press, and casual visitors. While they are all the way at the last building, their booth is fun and less traditional. We highly recommend stopping by.