Art Basel Announces Further Show Highlights for its Largest Edition Yet in Miami Beach
The Meridians sector, curated for the third time by Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, will feature 20 large-scale projects by renowned and emerging artists 29 galleries will present specially curated installations within their main booths in the Kabinett sector Art Basel’s Conversations series will return to the fair with 35 speakers across nine panels to provide insights into the evolving global art scene Art Basel, whose Lead Partner is UBS, will take place from December 1 to December 3, with preview days on November 29 and November 30 at the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC).
Since its launch in 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach has served as a dynamic platform uniquely bridging the art scenes of North and South America, Europe, and beyond. The edition marking its 20th anniversary will be the largest to date, featuring 282 exhibitors from 38 countries and territories – more than half of which hail from the Americas. In addition to its Galleries, Positions, Nova, Survey, and Edition sectors, the fair will host 20 large-scale projects as part of the Meridians sector, 29 curated installations within exhibitors’ booths in the Kabinett sector, as well as nine panels with leading art world voices in its renowned Conversations series.
Meridians
The Meridians sector invites exhibitors to showcase monumental works which extend beyond the standard art fair format. Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, will curate the sector for the third consecutive year.
Highlights from Meridians include:
• An immersive visual environment by Cauleen Smith including the film ‘Sojourner’ (2018-2022), whose title pays homage to the feminist abolitionist. Presented by Morán Morán and Corbett vs. Dempsey.
• ‘Let The Mermaids Flirt with Me’ (2022), a presentation of a new suite of stainedglass paintings in lightboxes by Christopher Myers, installed within a freestanding octagonal structure evoking a chapel. Exploring the relationships between Black bodies, diaspora, and the ocean, this deeply poetic work will be activated by a performance, animating the figures depicted in the glass. Presented by James Cohan Gallery.
• Devan Shimoyama’s ‘The Grove’ (2021), which monumentalizes the common sight of shoes joined at the laces and dangling from utility wires to evidence both presumed gang territory or violence and moments of celebration and play. Presented by Kavi Gupta.
• ‘Columbus Day’ (2019-2020) Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, which consists of 24 primary ink mono prints and 24 ‘ghost prints’, which are the secondary pull of the print plates and represent how Indigenous communities are often viewed – namely, as "not there," faded and having disappeared. The text of the prints highlights the destruction of these communities and their lands by Columbus and consequences through the present day. Presented by K Art.
• ‘Birth’ (1984), a monumentally scaled, hand-crocheted wall-hanging by pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago and the largest of her seminal Birth Project (1980-1985) works. ‘Birth Project’ was an international collaboration of female needle workers and responded to the absence of imagery related to birthing as one of the most foundational female experiences. Presented by Jessica Silverman.
• An installation of chairs suspended from the ceiling and 6-hour daily performance work by Colombian artist María José Arjona, ‘Silla’ (2011), on matter, objecthood, experience and the body’s critical role in movement as a form of political choreography. Presented by Rolf Art.
• A sculptural work by Simon Denny adapted from a delivery drone – ‘Amazon delivery drone patent drawing as virtual Rio Tinto mineral globe’ (2021) – employing augmented reality to facilitate a series of performative group experiences activated by viewers’ devices. Presented by Petzel and Altman Siegel.
• A performance titled ‘Corpo Ranfla 2.0’ (2022) by rafa esparza, in which the artist will impersonate a lowrider cyborg turned into a 25-cent ride-machine. Consisting of a one-time occurrence, with the remnants of the performance – the retrofitted, 25cent pony ride structure – on display over the course of the week, the work is a reflection on the social and political landscapes that lowrider car culture has existed and evolved in for decades into the present. Presented by Commonwealth and Council.
• Visual activist, humanitarian, and photographer Zanele Muholi’s ‘Muholi V’ (2022) a new bronze sculpture that marks a new chapter of self-expression and self-assertion for the artist. Presented by Stevenson.
Magalí Arriola, Art Basel's curator for Meridians, says: ‘Sculpted bodies, sexualized bodies, performing and singing bodies – brown, black, and white bodies– have made themselves present in this new edition of Meridians, challenging art historical canons and their relationship with the representation of power, opening new perspectives for art’s activism around gender and race, and infusing optimism and hope to how we might envision our future.’
Kabinett
Offering galleries, the opportunity to present concisely curated installations within their booths, the Kabinett sector will feature 29 participants.
Highlights from the sector include:
• A presentation of new works by Alberta Whittle specifically made for the fair, following Whittle’s representation of Scotland at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale de Venezia. Presented by The Modern Institute.
• New works by Izumi Kato, whose animated paintings and sculptures allow subjects to exist between the physical and the spiritual realms. Presented by Stephen Friedman Gallery.
• Rare and seminal works by Ascânio MMM, whose sculptures and reliefs are rooted in mathematics – presenting a complex game of logic. Presented by Casa Triângulo.
• Margot Bergman’s never-before-seen flower paintings that are part of her
‘collaborative paintings’ (2013), which merge Bergman’s approach with original authorship of thrifted works. Presented by Anton Kern Gallery.
• ‘Bayou Fever’ (1979) by Romare Bearden, comprising of 21 collages that provide a storyline and set design for modern dance with the purpose of being choreographed by Alvin Ailey. Presented by DC Moore Gallery.
• A salon of both historic and new intimately scaled, never-before-seen works by Dewey Crumpler. Presented by Derek Eller Gallery.
Conversations
Conversation is a platform for the exchange of ideas on topics concerning the global contemporary art scene. Featuring 35 speakers across nine panels, it will bring together leading artists, gallerists, collectors, curators, museum directors, and critics. Participants in this edition will include artist Agnieszka Kurant, cultural strategy advisor András Szántó, collectors Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, collector and CEO and Co-Founder of Design Miami/ Craig Robins, art historian and curator Drew Sawyer, artists João Enxuto and Erica Love, curator and Co-Director of the Serpentine Galleries Hans Ulrich Obrist, artist Joshua Citarella, collector and real-estate developer Martin Margulies, and writer and Artnet News art business editor Tim Schneider. Topics range from representing and collecting artists from Africa and the African diaspora, and the carbon footprint of technology to counterintuitive approaches to the art market.
Highlights include:
• A conversation celebrating the pioneering photographic practice of Ming Smith.
• A sonic lecture by artist, musician, and poet Chino Amobi.
• A panel featuring major collectors Carlos & Rosa de la Cruz, Craig Robins, and Martin Margulies who have helped establish the Miami ecosystem, to mark 20 years of Art Basel Miami Beach.
Running from November 30 to December 2, the program is curated by Emily Butler, Art Basel's Conversations Curator, and is free to the public. All panels will be livestreamed on Art Basel's Facebook channel. Recordings will be available on Art Basel’s website following the event. For further information please visit artbasel.com/miami-beach/conversations.
The Legacy Purchase Program
For its third edition, the City of Miami Beach will acquire through its Legacy Purchase Program up to two artworks from the Nova or Positions sectors to enter the City’s public art collection via a public vote. The new acquisitions will be on view at a dedicated, publicly accessible area of the MBCC.
The Étant Donnés Prize
The CPGA (French Professional Committee of Art Galleries) and Villa Albertine are joining forces for the first time to launch the Etant Donnés 2022 Prize, awarded to a living artist active in the French art scene and exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. The winner of the Etant Donnés Prize will be selected by an appointed jury and will receive a $15,000 cash prize funded by CPGA, to be shared between the artist and the gallery. The winner will be announced on November 29.
MORE ON THE ARTISTS
About Magalí Arriola
Magalí Arriola, Director of Museo Tamayo, lives and works in Mexico City. Arriola joined Art Basel with recent institutional experience at KADIST, where she was Lead Curator for Latin America, and Museo Jumex, where she was Curator between 2011 and 2014. She was the curator of Mexico's participation in the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019, showing artist Pablo Vargas Lugo with a project entitled 'Acts of God'. Her other recent, independent curatorial projects include 'What do you dream of? The Mohole Flower and other Tales', Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo, August-October 2018; 'A Place out of History', a film screened at documenta14 and FIDMarseille (2018), produced by Destello Films; and Sunset Décor, Marian Goodman Gallery, New York City, June-August, 2017.
More on Art Basel
Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and Contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through new digital platforms and a number of new initiatives such as the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast, and the BMW Art Journey. For further information, please visit artbasel.com.
NOTABLE PARTNERS
Lead Partner of Art Basel, UBS has a long history of supporting contemporary art and artists. The firm has one of the world’s most important corporate art collections and seeks to advance the international conversation about the art market through its global lead partnership with Art Basel, as co-publisher of the ‘Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report’, and as co-presenter of Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast. UBS also has partnerships with fine art institutions including the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Australia. UBS provides its clients with insight into the art market, collecting, and legacy planning through its Collectors Circle and UBS Art Advisory. For more information about UBS’s commitment to contemporary art, visit ubs.com/art.
Art Basel’s Associate Partners are Audemars Piguet, whose contemporary art commissioning programme, Audemars Piguet Contemporary, works with artists to support and develop an unrealised artwork which explores a new direction in their practice, NetJets, the world leader in private aviation; and Louis Vuitton which nurtures a longstanding commitment to the arts by collaborating with international artists. Art Basel is also supported globally by BMW, who will be presenting its Art Commission “Pulse Topology at Superblue”, and Ruinart, La Prairie, Sanlorenzo, and On.
Art Basel’s show in Miami Beach is supported by Tezos, Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, Chubb, VICE, FARFETCH, Arkive, as well as Casa Dragones, Château d’Esclans, Saint Laurent, Perrier, Kannoa, and Quintessentially. Hotel Partners include Grand Beach Hotel Miami Beach; The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach; and W South Beach. Art Basel’s Global Media Partner is The Financial Times. For further information about partnerships, please visit artbasel.com/partners.