Celebrating the magic of Miami during Art Basel
Your guide to art in Miami as the fair returns to spotlight the vibrant city
Directed for the first time by Bridget Finn, Art Basel returns to Miami Beach this December, bringing together 286 leading galleries from 38 countries and territories. Reflecting a commitment to supporting innovation and artistic excellence in the region, this year’s edition will present a refreshed artistic program, with over two-thirds of exhibitors operating spaces in the Americas alongside welcoming 34 newcomers, the largest increase in over a decade, as well as new curators and exhibition concepts.
Whether a first-time visitor or a seasoned fairgoer and collector, this edition has been designed with you in mind, to maximize at every turn the opportunity for surprise encounters and revelatory discoveries.
With this in mind the Meridians sector, the fair’s signature space for large-scale installations, will present in a refreshed format for its fifth anniversary. Curated for the first time by Yasmil Raymond, the former director of Portikus in Frankfurt,18 large-scale projects by renowned artists from the Americas and beyond will be integrated within the south end of the show floor. Highlights include a 10-foot-tall spiral sculpture by American artist Alice Aycock titled Goya (2024), and Zhu Jinshi’s Pathway (2024), a towering sculpture made from 10,000 sheets of rice paper from the artwork series presented in China’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Across the hall in the Kabinett sector, visitors can explore 24 intimately curated presentations, with a renewed emphasis on diversity and discovery, including a vibrant abstract landscape installation by UBS Art Collection artist Federico Herrero. Created especially for the fair, it comprises new wall canvases and a site-specific floor painting inspired by the urban structures of the artist’s hometown San José in Costa Rica.
I recommend that visitors look out for exceptional works and also new entrants. After a period of uncertainty in the art market, this is a great opportunity for new artists, new voices, to find their place in the art world and the art market.
Over in its new position in the Southwest corner, the UBS Art Studio will showcase an immersive solo presentation of works by the Peruvian-American textile artist Sarah Zapata, presented in collaboration with ARTNOIR. The artist will also join the exhibition’s curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, Co-Founder of ARTNOIR, and UBS Art Collection artist Sagarika Sundaram for an insightful talk on 'Transformation: Craft, Identity, and Materiality in Art' as part of the conversations program on Saturday December 7, 2024 at 4:30pm ET.
Free and open to all in the Auditorium, the Conversations program brings together exciting thought leaders for a series of live debates. Curated for the first time in Miami Beach by American writer, editor, and educator Kimberly Bradley, it will explore, she says, “the pulse of the art world’s many current paradigm shifts.” Kicking-off the program will be an in-conversation between Bradley and UBS Art Collection artist Hank Willis Thomas. On Thursday, December 5 at 4pm ET, Solita Marcelli, Chief Investment Officer Americas for UBS Global Wealth Management, will join other industry experts for 'Art and the great wealth transfer'.
There’s plenty of world-class art to explore beyond the fair, too. For the first time, Times Square Arts will present video works by 30 artists, projected nightly on the facade of Miami Beach’s SoundScape Park. At the Bass Museum, meanwhile, visitors can see Rachel Feinstein’s first major exhibition in her hometown, featuring sculptural works spanning almost three decades inspired by the ‘Magic City’.
Elsewhere, The Institute of Contemporary Art presents a large-scale solo exhibition by UBS Art Collection artist Marguerite Humeau. Other highlights by UBS Art Collection artists include Do Ho Suh’s immersive installation at the Margulies Collection and Shinique Smith’s recently unveiled public artwork at the Port of Miami.
