Contemporary design is playing an ever-increasing role in the design market. Design Miami/ Basel may still be dominated by historical eras, but this may be fast changing: Contemporary design galleries are stronger in numbers and more prominent than ever before. Commissioning galleries, such as ammann // gallery, Victor Hunt, and Gallery FUMI, are playing a vital role in shaping the collectible design scene.

Here are nine exceptional design pieces, all created in recent years, that have caught our eye.

1. “Humans Since 1982” A Million Times (2013), at Victor Hunt Designart Dealer

The Swedish-German duo Humans Since 1982 (and what a name!) created this incredible non-clock as a conceptual, mechanical, and engineering exploration of the typical analog clock. The installation does many things: it creates hallucinatory patterns, drawings and images, and every minute takes a moment to show the time, too.

2. Lukas Wegwerth's Crystallization Vases (2014-2016) at Gallery FUMI

Lukas Wegwerth's vases, shattered and bound back together with salt crystals that grow in the crevices between the pieces, are a moving and subtle statement on mortality, regeneration, and renewal.

3. Joris Laarman's Microstructures Chaise (2015), Friedman Benda

A product of research into digital fabrication, this Chaise is part of designer and inventor Joris Laarman’s Microstructures series, which explores gradient patterning, and the potential for 3D printing such patterns at the durability and scale applicable for furniture.

4. Hella Jongerius' UN North Delegates' Lounge Knots & Beads Curtain (2013), at galerie Kreo

This unique piece was designed for the UN North Delegates' Lounge, on which Jongerius worked together with Rem Koolhaas. ella Jongerius' work combines industrial production with craft, an approach clearly recognizable in this beaded curtain, with porcelain beads produced in Royal Tichelaar, the oldest ceramic company in the Netherlands, beaded onto knotted yarn of the kind traditionally used by the Dutch fishermen.

5. Vincent Dubourg's Bhanga Bronze, at Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Apparently, this work was a late addition to the Carpenters Workshop booth – and how serendipitous that it was. Dubourg, whose work is motivated by a research into the material properties of metals, is sculptural and striking, yet perfectly functional, despite looking like it barely survived a terrorist attack.

6. Studio Anne Holtrop's Mirror (2014), at Maniera

Anne Holtrop, Amsterdam- and Bahrain-based Dutch architect, has created a series of works for Maniera based on the stone collection by French philosopher and sociologist Roger Caillois – a subject of his books. This striking room divider has a mirror on one side, and a meticulously executed trompe l'oeil of marble on the other, hand-painted by Sylvie Van der Kelen. The tradition of “fake” stone is a long one in Brussels: since it requires human labor and exquisite craft, it has been prized above natural stone.

7. Gert Rothmann's Affäre (2016), at Ornamentum

Gert Rothmann, a jeweler from Munich, has explored a number of themes in his long oeuvre, but his best known is a recent exploration into imprints of the bodies of the wearer – or those dear to them – on pieces of jewelry. This bracelet, with an imprint of a human hand, is only the loveliest example in a striking collection.

8. Eleanor Lakelin's Voided Vessel (2016), at The New Craftsmen

The only item that Blouin ARTINFO wanted to absolutely take home from Design Miami/ Basel 2016 has been this vessel, hand-carved from a burr protruding from a horse chestnut tree. Gently bleached and sandblasted to a pale color that highlights the sculptural quality of the work, the wood is prized for its beauty and rarity.

9. Nucleo's Souvenir Thonet Chair (2016), at ammann // gallery

Gabrielle Ammann has been passionately championing the work of Nucleo, Italian collective that explores preservation and memory in their series Souvenirs of the Last Century, breaking and rebuilding ordinary objects in epoxy resin – such as this classic café chair by Thonet.

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Design Miami/ Basel will run through June 19, at Messe Basel.