Lexus Announces 2024 Miami Art & Design Week Installation in Collaboration With Crafting Plastics

Lexus announces its collaboration with award-winning design and research studio Crafting Plastics to present an interactive, multi-sensory installation during Miami Art & Design Week 2024. In partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami), the installation will be on view in the Museum’s sculpture garden this December. To accompany the installation, Lexus will debut a new product extension developed in collaboration with clean fragrance brand dilo, for which four additional designers–Germane Barnes, Suchi Reddy, T. Sakhi, Michael Bennet (Studio Kër)–will join Crafting Plastics to create a capsule collection of 26 limited-edition collectible design objects.

Titled Liminal Cycles, the installation’s central sculpture is directly inspired by the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) Lexus LF-ZC concept car and is made from environmentally responsive bioplastic materials, welcoming viewers to explore Crafting Plastics’ and Lexus’ innovations in personalization and responsiveness within responsible design. The installation will be on view from December 4 throughout Miami Art & Design Week.

Liminal Cycles will explore the developing concept of SDVs (Software Defined Vehicles), meaning a vehicle with software-enabled personalization and adaptability. Taking its dedication to personal and responsible luxury to the next level, Lexus invites viewers on a multi-sensory exploration of the dynamic innovations in sustainable materials and reactive software, signaling toward a future of customizable in-vehicle experiences.

Through its collaboration with Crafting Plastics, Lexus will present four interactive and sensory-responsive sculptural pieces, including a central sculpture designed to reference the Lexus LF-ZC at scale. To embody Lexus’ ethos of connectivity, craftsmanship, sensory design, and commitment to advancing sustainability research, Liminal Cycles depicts the Lexus LF-ZC as a living, breathing organism in harmony with its surroundings. The four-part installation will engage viewers through sight, smell, sound and touch with reactive changes to the sculptures’ color, amplified sound, and an aromatic mist the new Lexus in Design fragrance developed in partnership with dilo.

The central sculpture employs UV-responsive material skin to change its color based on fluctuations in ultraviolet radiation levels in real time. Alongside the central piece, two satellite installations transform interior design elements of the Lexus LF-ZC into interactive sensory experiences. The concept car’s steering wheel and headrest forms are each reimagined as complimentary sculptures, enlisting environmentally responsive technology to prompt visual, tactile, auditory and olfactory responses triggered by the viewer’s touch. Finally, a bioplastic lattice design and UV-responsive material skin are incorporated into a wind-activated third satellite sculpture, revealing the Lexus logo in a striking and unique optical experience emphasizing the ephemeral nature of materials derived from natural environments.

“We are thrilled to return to ICA Miami with another large-scale project, this time with revelatory design studio Crafting Plastics,” says Heather Updegraff, ​general manager of Lexus International Strategic Communications. “Vlasta and Miroslav are pushing the boundaries of technological and material capabilities and we are honored to collaborate with them in creating an immersive work that represents some of the most exciting concepts being developed at Lexus today.”

Founded by Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král, Crafting Plastics has quickly become a global advocate for the adoption of bioplastics within design and fashion industries. With their pioneering use of plant-based biopolymer materials to create design objects, installations, functional fashion items and accessories, Crafting Plastics continues to demonstrate the accessibility, durability, and functionality of biobased materials for varying use cases. The studio is credited with its groundbreaking development of the material brand, Nuatan®, a plastic-like, bio-based material series that is biodegradable and made of 100% renewable resources, leaving no microplastics behind.

Guided by the intention to design products with a built-in lifespan, embracing both utility and an eventual reintegration into the natural world, Crafting Plastics’ practice ranges from small-scale products such as eyewear to large-scale installations and collaborations with renowned brands like Dior, Cash App, Nike, and more. Crafting Plastics has long been committed to expanding the possibilities of sustainable materials, making the duo a natural collaborator to join Lexus in its exploration of circular materials, technology, and personalization.

“We’re honored to collaborate with Lexus, whose commitment to sustainability and innovation, aligns closely with our own mission,” comments Vlasta Kubušová, co-founder of Crafting Plastics. “Through this collaboration we have fully integrated sustainable material innovation into a luxury context to showcase the potential of bio-based materials that are durable, scalable and responsive. We hope this sensory installation allows viewers to explore these possibilities in a tangible and memorable experience.”

2024 marks Lexus’ third year partnering with ICA Miami to present Lexus in Design during Miami Art & Design Week.

“Sustainability is a critical focus for ICA Miami in our practices across the museum, so it is wonderful to partner once again with Lexus to raise awareness about sustainable design,” said Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman artistic director of ICA Miami. “Vlasta and Miroslav have a truly innovative and exciting approach to using sustainable materials, and we are thrilled to provide this platform for their work.”

Accompanying the Liminal Cycles installation is a new Lexus in Design capsule collection developed in collaboration with a group of leading design talent as well as clean fragrance brand, dilo. Alongside Crafting Plastics, renowned designers Germane Barnes, Suchi Reddy, T. Sakhi, and Michael Bennet (aka Studio Kër) will each create editions of distinct design objects. Each edition of five will embody the core aspects of Lexus’ brand ethos–personalization, sustainability, materiality, technology, and performance. dilo will create a custom scent inspired by the collection, which will be integrated into the Liminal Cycles installation and design objects and will also be featured as a limited-edition candle.

The limited-edition collection will be on view and available for purchase at ICA Miami, coinciding with the unveiling of Liminal Cycles. Design objects from the capsule collection and the limited-edition Lexus in Design candle will be available for purchase at HBX.com with sales profits going toward support of ICA Miami’s sustainability initiatives.

Returning this year will be the Lexus Art Series: Art and Innovation talks with Whitewall, a program of engaging discussions between Lexus collaborators, ambassadors, and industry leaders across the art and design worlds. Details on the Lexus Art Series are to be announced.

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ABOUT INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, MIAMI
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) is dedicated to promoting continuous experimentation in contemporary art, advancing new scholarship, and fostering the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions and programs, and its collection, ICA Miami provides an important international platform for the work of local, emerging, and under-recognized artists, and advances the public appreciation and understanding of the most innovative art of our time. Launched in 2014, ICA Miami opened its new permanent home in Miami’s Design District in December 2017. The museum’s central location positions it as a cultural anchor within the community and enhances its role in developing cultural literacy throughout the Miami region. The museum offers free admission, providing audiences with open, public access to artistic excellence year-round.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is located at 61 NE 41st Street, Miami, Florida 33137. For more information, visit icamiami.org or follow the museum on Instagram and explore the ICA Channel for inside looks at ICA Miami exhibitions and the practices of the most exciting artists working today.

ABOUT LEXUS
Lexus launched in 1989 with a flagship sedan and a guest experience that helped define the premium automotive industry. In 1998, Lexus introduced the luxury crossover category with the launch of the Lexus RX. The luxury hybrid sales leader, Lexus delivered the world’s first luxury hybrid and has since sold over 2.33 million electrified vehicles including HEVs, PHEVs, and BEVs.

A global luxury automotive brand with an unwavering commitment to bold, uncompromising design, exceptional craftsmanship, and exhilarating performance, Lexus has developed its lineup to meet the needs of the next generation of global luxury guests and is currently available in over 90 countries/regions worldwide.

Lexus associates/team members across the world are dedicated to crafting amazing experiences that are uniquely Lexus, and that excite and change the world.

ABOUT CRAFTING PLASTICS
Crafting Plastics is an award-winning interdisciplinary design and research studio founded by Vlasta Kubušová and Miroslav Král. The studio’s practice focuses on the research, development and implementation of a new generation of advanced ecological biocomposites into our current and future everyday lives. Operating at the intersection of science and design, Crafting Plastics revolutionizes the properties and aesthetics of ephemeral materials, such as naturally-derived bioplastics, to offer durable design solutions across diverse industries. At the forefront of its practice, Crafting Plastics works to develop natural and scalable bioplastics to elevate the application and uses of the material within design and architecture. Nuatan®, the material brand developed by Crafting Plastics, is an ecological alternative to fossil-fuel-based plastic, created using 100% biobased and biodegradable biopolymer blends.

Crafting Plastics has worked with renowned brands such as Dior, Nike and Lexus, and presented projects at distinguished institutions worldwide, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Design Miami, and Salon de Mobile. The studio has earned international acclaim, receiving nominations for the Slovak National Design Award, German Design Award (2018, 2021) and Beazley Designs of the Year at the London Design Museum. In 2022 Crafting Plastics was recognized by Dezeen as one of the world’s top emerging studios and in 2018 co-founder Vlasta Kubušová was featured in Forbes Slovakia’s 30 Under 30 List, underscoring Crafting Plastic’s pioneering role in circular design and sustainable material innovation.

ABOUT DILO
Founded in 2017 in Philadelphia, dilo launched as a product designer and manufacturer of comfort goods – candles, room sprays, reed diffusers – all that tell a story beyond their typical use. In the years to follow dilo filled out collections with Eau de Parfum, Apparel, Incense, and other home and personal care products, all designed and created carefully to ensure that they are of the cleanest in the industry. Largely picked up by independent retailers, dilo can be found in all 50 States and in several countries within Europe, Asia, and Australia.