Dezeen promotion: design company Luminaire is organising a retrospective of work by Shiro Kuramata, one of the 20th century's most important Japanese designers, at one of its space in Miami Design District.

Luminaire has teamed up with Italian design brand Cappellini ? one of the first in the west to produce Kuramata's work ? to put on the Homage to Kuramata exhibition, opening to coincide with the Art Basel and Design Miami events early next month.
The show will feature some of the designer's best-known furniture and homeware produced by Cappellini.

"By synthesising the familiar with the avant-garde, Kuramata created a dynamic and wide-ranging oeuvre that is still celebrated today," said a statement from Luminaire. "His work was distinctly modern in the materials he used, and particularly Japanese in its elegance and simplicity." Born in Japan in 1934, Kuramata gained famed for his use of transparent materials, like acrylic and expanded metal mesh, and pops of colour ? as seen in his iconic Miss Blanche chair.

Many of his designs featured geometric shapes that disguised their function, similar to the playful aesthetic of the Memphis group in 1980s Milan.
Kuramata's work was spotted by Giulio Cappellini, who eventually met the designer and began manufacturing his products in 1987.

After the designer's death in 1991, Cappellini continued to produce his furniture under license and still sells it today.
"The unique characteristics of Kuramata's des...