Art Basel Miami Beach 2024: New Exhibition Concepts Unveiled
Art Basel Miami Beach is set to reveal major details of its upcoming edition, featuring new exhibition concepts and significant proposals across its various sectors. A key highlight will be the Meridians sector, which focuses on monumental artworks. For the first time, Meridians will be curated by Yasmil Raymond, former director of Portikus in Frankfurt and a previous curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dia Art Foundation, New York; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Pablo Picasso. 1910, Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier), oil on canvas, 100.3 × 73.6 cm (39 × 28 in), Museum of Modern Art, New York
Meridians: Showcasing Monumental Artworks
Meridians will present 18 projects, with most created this year alongside notable historical pieces. Featured artists include Alice Aycock, Rachel Feinstein, Roberto Huarcaya, Zhu Jinshi, Portia Munson, José Parlá, Danh Vō, Lee ShinJa, and Franz West. This edition, titled ‘State of Becoming,’ will explore critical themes such as the fragility of democracy and the rising global anxiety surrounding climate change.
Strategic Relocation and Focus
Meridians will be relocated to the south end of the show floor, positioned next to the Nova and Positions sectors, which spotlight emerging galleries and artists. This strategic move will enhance the fair's contemporary art offerings with a renewed focus on institutionally-driven monumental sculpture, painting, and installation.
Rare works:
Helly Nahmad Gallery’s (New York) showcase of 20th-century masters including Wassily Kandinsky, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger, Lucio Fontana, and Joan Miró
Hitting the market for the first time Hirschl & Adler Modern’s Franz Kline (coming from private collection of the artist’s friend and first patron of Franz Kline): The market debut of nearly a dozen paintings and works on paper from the 1940s by the master American Abstract-Expressionist painter
Coinciding with the centennial anniversary of the Surrealist Movement, main sector newcomer Gallery Wendi Norris (San Francisco) will present works by Cuban-born contemporary artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons in dialogue with rare paintings by the canonical Spanish Surrealist Remedios Varo.
Additionally, in Survey, two galleries will bring booths dedicated to rare works by French Surrealist women artists: a showcase of paintings by the little-known Jacqueline Lamba at Weinstein Gallery (San Francisco), and a theatrical presentation featuring original photographs and books by Claude Cahun at Galerie Alberta Pane (Paris).
Significant works in Meridians – led by Puerto Rican-American curator Yasmil Raymond for the first time:
White Cube bringing a significant Danh Vo to Meridians: a new floor-to-ceiling sculpture by the Vietnamese-Danish artist
Van de Weghe bringing a Franz West: Urs (2010), a freestanding painted sculpture made from epoxy resin by Franz West, part of the late artist's Legitimate Sculptures series begun in the mid-1980s
Museum connections in Meridians
New bronze sculpture by by Rachel Feinstein who has a major mid-career survey at The Bass
A mural sized diptyque by Jose Parlá connected to an exhibition of new work at the Perez
New galleries:
With an exceptional 34 new galleries joining the fair across all sectors, and 30 new and returning exhibitors set to present in the main sector for the first time, the show stands to be thoroughly re-invigorated
Hailing from a wide variety of geographies – from Bogotá to Toronto, Madrid, Jakarta, and beyond – outstanding proposals from newcomers across sectors abound, including Gajah Gallery's (Singapore) booth in Survey, featuring previously unseen paintings and wood and cotton sculptures by Indonesian artist I Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih, on the subject of feminine pleasure, autonomy, and body horror; Galerie Allen's (Paris) trio presentation in Nova, on the theme of 'sanctuary amongst the grotesque,' featuring paintings by Ex-Situationist Jacqueline de Jong, aquarium sculpture works by Trevor Yeung, and hand-blown glass sculptures of tongues by Tarek Lakhrissi that evoke Queer gateways into safe-space backroom culture; as well as Gordon Robichaux's (New York) showcase in Positions, with a series of shrine works by Agosto Machado derived from the artist and activist's personal archives, marking an important introduction of the late figure's work to broader commercial audiences.