Above: American Gothic by Gordon Parks
Once again, a very strong contingent of galleries from Europe will be joined by exhibitors from across the globe. 17 galleries will participate for the first time, including three new exhibitors from the Asia Pacific region – Antenna Space, Hopkinson Mossman and Magician Space – and one from Africa, Cairo’s Gypsum Gallery.
The main sector of the show, Galleries, will feature 226 exhibitors presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, video and editioned works. This year’s strong list of returning participants is joined by 10 galleries exhibiting in the sector for the first time, having previously participated in the show’s project based sectors, Feature and Statements: Campoli Presti, Pilar Corrias, dépendance, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Freymond-Guth Fine Arts Ltd., Luxembourg & Dayan, Salon 94, Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects and Tornabuoni Art. Two galleries – Canada and Di Donna – will be completely new to the show, while Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art returns to Basel following a brief hiatus. For the full gallery list, please visit artbasel.com/basel/galleries.
Dedicated to prints and limited-editioned works, the Edition sector will bring together 15 leading specialists in the field. This year’s show will feature Brooke Alexander, Inc., Niels Borch Jensen Gallery and Editions, Alan Cristea Gallery, mfc – michèle Didier, Atelier-Editions Fanal, Gemini G.E.L. LLC, Sabine Knust, Lelong Editions, Carolina Nitsch, Noire Contemporary Art, Paragon, Polígrafa Obra Gràfica, STPI, Two Palms and ULAE. In addition to its stand presentation, Brooke Alexander, Inc. has also been selected to present ‘Men in the Cities (Frank, Gretchen, Eric, Cindy, Edmund, Anne)’ by Robert Longo (b. 1953) on the new Spotlight wall facing the Rundhof, which forms part of this year’s Edition sector.
The Feature sector this year presents 32 galleries with precise curatorial projects, showing both historical and contemporary work. This year’s sector welcomes seven galleries new to the show: The Box, Leila Heller Gallery, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Kalfayan Galleries, P420, Parrasch Heijnen Gallery and Deborah Schamoni. Highlights will include rare Max Beckmann (1884-1950) prints from the 1910s and 1920s at Jörg Maaß Kunsthandel. Deborah Schamoni will present four significant works by Lea Lublin (1929-1999), highlighting the four main themes explored during Lublin’s artistic practice. Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-1968) will be the focus at Aurel Scheibler with a showcase of the artist’s large-scale ‘Eye Paintings’, created between 1963 and 1964. Marcelle Alix will unveil five new wall sculptures by Canadian artist Liz Magor (b. 1948). Mazzoleni will dedicate its booth to Piero Manzoni (1933-1963), bringing together two of his most well-known series: ‘Achromes’ (1957-1963) and ‘Linee’ (1959-1963). Rare collages and drawings by artist and filmmaker Stan VanDerBeek (1927-1984) will be on view at The Box. Showing a two-person project, Bureau will present the two distinct approaches to narrative and storytelling expressed by Erica Baum (b. 1961) and Constance DeJong (b. 1950).
Further highlights from the Feature sector will include important multimedia works by the renowned South Korean artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006) to be presented by James Cohan Gallery. Corbett vs. Dempsey will devote its booth to a 20-year survey of the work of Margot Bergman (b. 1934). Leila Heller Gallery will showcase a series of ‘Poubelle’ works from the 1970s by Arman (1928-2005), while Jenkins Johnson Gallery will place the spotlight on Gordon Parks (1912-2006) with a showcase of dramatic scenes captured during the Civil Rights movement in America in the 1950s and 1960s. At Arratia Beer, Omer Fast (b. 1972) will be the focus with a two-part installation documenting a US drone operator’s live-fire mission. Peter Blum Gallery will bring together early paintings and works on paper by Robert Ryman (b. 1930) while Hamilton’s Feature presentation focuses on Robert Frank’s (b. 1924) critical contribution to 20th-century photography. For the full gallery list, please visit artbasel.com/basel/feature.
The Last Man in Paris : video, 4’44″, 2013, © Samson Kambalu.
Every year, the work of emerging artists and young galleries can be discovered through solo presentations in the Statements sector. 18 galleries will take part in Statements this year with eight newcomers exhibiting for the first time at the Basel show; from Vienna: Galerie Emanuel Layr; from Warsaw: Galeria Dawid Radziszewski; from New York: Chapter NY and Real Fine Arts; from Beijing: Magician Space; from Shanghai: Antenna Space; from Auckland: Hopkinson Mossman; and from Cairo: Gypsum Gallery.
Highlights from the sector include a presentation by Antenna Space devoted to Guan Xiao’s (b. 1983) new installation ‘Air Freshener, Spray’, part of the artist’s continued exploration into the atmospheric situations that stimulate synthetic feelings. Kate MacGarry will showcase a multimedia presentation of ‘psychogeographic’ films by Malawi-born Samson Kambalu (b. 1975), inspired by the folklore from the American West and early cinema prototypes. Labor will premier ‘The Chisel and the Sinkhole’, a new sound sculpture by Antonio Vega Macotela (b. 1980), composed of music boxes and mining machinery from colonial Latin America, while Chapter NY will unveil an orchestra-inspired ensemble of clay figure sculptures by Sam Anderson (b. 1982). Focusing on the work of Albanian artist Lui Shtini (b. 1978), Kate Werble Gallery will present ‘Couples’, a series of three large canvases in which Shtini builds a horizontal composition of two bodies colliding into one another, exploring themes of character and identity. First-time exhibitor Galeria Dawid Radziszewski will showcase performance work choreographed by Joanna Piotrowska (b. 1985), in which the artist adopts subjects from her earlier photographs and techniques drawn from self-defense manuals. New works by the collaborative duo Amy Lien (b. 1987) and Enzo Camacho (b. 1985) will be on view at 47 Canal. 13 new works on paper by Sam Pulitzer (b. 1984) will take center stage at Real Fine Arts, referencing the culturally dominant symbols and imagery in today’s society, while work by Oscar Enberg (b. 1988) will be on display at Hopkinson Mossman. For the full gallery list, please visit artbasel.com/basel/statements.
For the 18th time, the Baloise Art Prize will be awarded to up to two artists exhibiting in Statements, with recipients being announced during the show. The Baloise Group also acquires works by the award-winning artists, which it donates to two leading European museums. The institutions will hold solo exhibitions for the recipients of the award.
Unlimited, Art Basel’s unique platform for projects that transcend the limitations of a traditional art-fair stand, will be curated for the sixth year by Gianni Jetzer, Curator-at-Large at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, with over 70 works ranging from large-scale sculptures and paintings to video projections, installations and live performances. Further details will be announced in the coming months.
Parcours, a series of site-specific sculptures, interventions and performances by renowned international artists and emerging talents, presented by Art Basel galleries, will be curated for the second year by Samuel Leuenberger, founder of the non-profit exhibition space SALTS in Birsfelden, Switzerland. Parcours will again take place around Basel’s Münsterplatz and is open to the public free of charge. Further details will be announced in the coming months.
Screened at Stadtkino Basel, Art Basel’s Film program, features films by and about artists, and will be curated for the third consecutive year by Cairo-based film curator and art lecturer Maxa Zoller. In addition, Marian Masone, New York-based film curator will select a feature film for a special screening during the show week. Further details on this year’s Film program will be released in the coming months.
Conversations and Salon, the program of talks and panel discussions which accompanies the gallery presentations in Basel, offers audiences access to first-hand information on the international art world. The talks will take place in the auditorium within Hall 1. Further details on this year’s Conversations and Salon program will be released in the coming months. Videos of past talks and discussions can be found at artbasel.com/basel/talks.
Design Miami Basel
Design Miami Basel, the global forum for collectible design, runs June 13-18, with the Collectors Preview on Monday, June 12 (by invitation). The fair resumes in Hall 1 Süd, on Messeplatz. The 12th edition will present more than 50 participating galleries exhibiting historic and contemporary design alongside a robust cultural program. For more details, please visit designmiami.com.
Minotaurus, 2015
Bronze, sandstone base, 253 x 140 x 95cm Edition of 5 + 2AP
Museum Shows
During Art Basel, the city’s museums will once again offer a series of significant exhibitions. Home of the world’s oldest municipal art collection, the Kunstmuseum Basel will unveil ‘The Hidden Cézanne: From Sketchbook to Canvas’. The exhibition will showcase over 150 works from the museum’s prints and drawings department, which houses the most comprehensive and significant collection of Cézanne drawings in the world. This will be presented alongside ‘Cosmic Communism’, an exhibition devoted to German painter and sculptor Otto Freundlich, exploring the developments of Freundlich‘s artistic and philosophical ideas. Fondation Beyeler will be devoting their major summer exhibition to Wolfgang Tillmans. Museum Tinguely will celebrate the wit and irony of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye in a solo exhibition presenting his iconic digestive machine, ‘The Cloaca’, alongside more recent works. Kunsthalle Basel will unveil a newly commissioned installation by Yan Xing to coincide with a group show titled ‘Ungestalt’, bringing together a selection of artists from different generations whose works court aesthetic and conceptual volatility. In a collaboration with Brownbook magazine, Vitra Design Museum will display ‘Mudun: Urban Cultures in Transit’, dedicated to the publication’s 10-year documentation of contemporary urban culture in the Middle East and North Africa. This coincides with an exhibition exploring new forms of innovative communal living in ‘Together! The New Architecture of the Collective’.
