BASEL.- Art Basel announced details of its 45th edition in Basel, Switzerland, taking place June 19 to June 22, 2014. This year, 285 leading international galleries will present works ranging from the Modern period of the early 20th century to the most contemporary artists of today. The Basel show, whose Lead Partner is UBS, will present a geographically diverse selection of galleries from 34 countries. This year Statements, Art Basel's sector for emerging galleries, will move into Hall 2 alongside the Galleries sector, giving this younger generation a more prominent placement within the show.
With Statements being located in Hall 2 this year, the extension of Hall 1, designed by renowned Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron, will house Unlimited, a redesigned space for the Magazines sector and the auditorium for the Conversations and Salon series.
While galleries from Europe will continue to be strongly represented, the show presents exhibitors and artists from across the globe. This year’s edition will once again see a strong selection of exhibitors with spaces in the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region. The participating galleries have exhibition spaces in: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, China, Mexico, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Galleries, the main sector of the show, will feature 232 galleries presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, video and editioned works. A strong list of returning exhibitors is joined, following a hiatus, by Van de Weghe Fine Art (New York), while a number of galleries will exhibit within the sector for the first time, having previously shown in Statements or Feature. These galleries are: A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro), Galeria Pedro Cera (Lisbon), Herald St (London), Tanya Leighton (Berlin), Proyectos Monclova (Mexico City), Reena Spaulings Fine Art (New York) and GallerySKE (Bangalore).
The Feature sector presents galleries with precise curatorial projects, showing both historical and contemporary work. This year's edition will feature 24 galleries from 12 countries, out of which 15 galleries are completely new to the show. Highlights of Feature include a presentation by KOW (Berlin) of Santiago Sierra’s early works from 1990-92, some of which have never been exhibited before, giving particular insight into Sierra’s appropriation of minimalism. Take Ninagawa (Tokyo) will show new works from the ‘Time Memory’ series (2012) by Shinro Ohtake, one of Japan’s most recognised contemporary artists, providing a window into Ohtake’s conceptually rigorous practice. MOT International (London, Brussels) will present a curated selection of materials relating to the seminal Land Art work ‘Whirlpool. (Eye of the Storm)’ (1973) by Dennis Oppenheim. Cherry and Martin (Los Angeles) will show new works by T. Kelly Mason including four wall-mounted light boxes each depicting the studio of different artists. Casas Riegner (Bogota) will juxtapose the works of Colombian artists Beatriz González and Johanna Calle, showing González’s major installation ‘Auras Anónimas’ (2008-2009) alongside new and unseen works by Calle. Kadel Willborn (Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe) will show a solo presentation of the work of Art & Language, based on their collaboration with the rock band The Red Krayola. Further highlights include new, never seen before paintings by Nicole Eisenman exhibited by Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects (Culver City), Galleria Lorcan O'Neill Roma's (Rome) presentation of work by Luigi Ontani from the late 1960s to the early 1990s focusing on his early experimental films while Bitforms Gallery (New York) will present Beryl Korot’s landmark multi-channel installation ‘Dachau’ (1974) timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the work.
Solo presentations in the relocated Statements sector offer visitors and collectors the opportunity to discover the work of emerging artists and young galleries. This year, nine of the 14 galleries exhibiting within Statements will be new to the show. Statements will include a presentation by Société (Berlin) of a multi-channel video installation by American artist Trisha Baga, made exclusively for the show. Pilar Corrias (London) will show new work by emerging Swedish artist John Skoog while Bureau (New York) will present a new immersive project by Ellie Ga. Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (Berlin) will show the installation 'Pattern of Activation' (2014) by Estonian artist Katja Novitskova. Two new still-life photographs by Lucas Blalock will be on display at Ramiken Crucible (New York). Labor (Mexico) will present ‘To Kill Pots (Matar Vasijas)’ (2011) by Jorge Satorre, a continuation of the artist's study of unofficial versions of history. 'Smooth Pursuits' (2014), an installation by London-based Danish artist Marie Lund, consisting of two new series of works, will be on display at Laura Bartlett Gallery (London). Christian Falsnaes’s ‘Justified Beliefs’ (2014), presented by PSM (Berlin), is a specially commissioned performative installation in which viewers and performers are linked by headphones through which the performance is enacted in real time. Gallery Side 2 (Tokyo) will show ‘Butterfly wings scattered over the water’ (2014) by Japanese artist Fumito Urabe. 'Void Paintings' (2013), a new body of work by the Mexican artist Pablo Rasgado, will be on display at Arratia Beer (Berlin). Kate Werble Gallery (New York) will present a large-scale sculpture by Anna Betbeze while American Contemporary (New York) will show David Brooks’ aquarium installation ‘Lonely Loricariidae’ (2011), an exploration into the collecting and exporting of endangered tropical fish and its impact on the Amazon. Galería Isabel Aninat (Santiago) will be showing ‘Stratigraphy of Memory’ (2012-2013) by Paula de Solminihac, a multi-media installation evoking Chile’s seismic history and the effect on its population. RaebervonStenglin (Zurich) will present a new project by Swiss artists Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs, in which two 16mm films will depict the duos' journey from Zurich to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.
The Baloise Art Prize will be awarded to two artists exhibiting in Statements, with recipients being announced during the show in June. The Baloise Group also acquires works by the award-winning artists, which it donates to two 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 third year by curator and critic, Gianni Jetzer, New York, with more than 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.
Florence Derieux, Director of FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, will curate for a second time Parcours, a series of site-specific sculptures, interventions and performances by renowned international artists and emerging talents, presented by Art Basel galleries. Each year, Parcours seeks to engage with a different area of the city of Basel, and this year will take place in Kleinbasel. Parcours is open to the public and visitor admission is free of charge. Further details will be announced in the coming months.
For the past ten years, the extensive Conversations and Salon program of talks and panel discussions has been accompanying the gallery presentations in Basel. This year, the program will include a panel moderated by Hans Ulrich Obrist focused on the Artist as Choreographer. The Conversations series, supported by Absolut, and the Salon program offer audiences access to first-hand information on the international art world. The talks will be housed in a newly designed auditorium within the new extension to Hall 1. Videos of past talks and discussions can be found at artbasel.com/basel/talks. Further details on this year's Conversations and Salon program will be released in the coming months.
Screened at Stadtkino Basel, Art Basel's Film program will feature around 30 films by and about artists. The program is selected by Berlin-based curator Marc Glöde, and This Brunner, Swiss cinema legend, once again will choose the program's feature film. Further details on this year's Film program will be released in the coming months.
Design Miami/ Basel
Design Miami/ Basel, the global forum for collectible design, runs June 17-18, 11am-8pm, and June 19-22, 11am-7pm, with a preview day on Monday, June 16 (by invitation). The fair resumes in Hall 1 Süd on the Messeplatz. The 9th edition presents more than 50 participating galleries exhibiting historic and contemporary design alongside a robust cultural program of commissions, talks and satellite shows.
Museum Shows
During Art Basel, the city’s museums will once again offer Art Basel's visitors a series of significant exhibitions. Fondation Beyeler will present a major overview of Gerhard Richter, the largest exhibition ever devoted to the artist in Switzerland. The Schaulager will show selected works by American artist Paul Chan, while the Kunstmuseum Basel will exhibit works by legendary American artist Charles Ray, in cooperation with the Art Institute of Chicago. Kunstmuseum Basel will show ‘Kazimir Malevich - The World as Objectlessness’. ‘Le Corbeau et le Renard: Revolt of language with Marcel Broodthaers’ will be on display at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst. Museum Tinguely will present ‘I AM NOT YOU’ a show of new work by Czech artist Krištof Kintera while Vitra Design Museum will show ‘Konstantin Grcic – Panorama’.
