MIAMI, FLA.- This Sunday, December 4, Art Basel’s show in Miami Beach closed amidst high praise from participating galleries reporting healthy sales across all levels of the market. The show, whose Lead Partner is UBS, featured 269 world-class galleries from 29 countries who presented exceptional works, ranging from Modern masterpieces to contemporary paintings, films, sculptures and installations by established and emerging artists. In a challenging socio-political and economic landscape, this edition demonstrated that works of the highest quality presented by leading galleries continue to drive strong demand and solid attendance from serious international collectors. Several galleries chose to present powerful and emotive works that address these issues, which collectors responded to with great interest.

Across the five show days, the fair attracted an attendance of 77,000, including influential private collectors, as well as directors, curators, trustees and patrons of leading international museum and institution groups such as Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto); Fondation Beyeler (Basel); New Museum (New York); Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires); El Museo del Barrio (New York) Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Los Angeles); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston); The Museum of Modern Art (New York); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco); Serpentine Galleries (London); Sharjah Art Foundation (Sharjah); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing) and Whitney Museum of American Art (New York). In its 15th year, Art Basel in Miami Beach solidified its standing as the premier art fair in the Americas and continued to positively impact South Florida’s vibrant arts and culture scene.

Art Basel welcomed many long-time exhibitors back to the Miami Beach show, as well as 21 new galleries, including Callicoon Fine Arts; Christian Andersen; Clearing; Di Donna; Edouard Malingue Gallery; Galleria d’Arte Maggiore G.A.M; Galerie Greta Meert; Galerie Maria Bernheim; High Art; House of Gaga; joségarcía ,mx; JTT; Leo Xu Projects; Marc Selwyn Fine Art; Nanzuka; Off Vendome; Simões de Assis Galeria de Arte; The Box; Thomas Erben Gallery; Various Small Fires and Vigo Gallery.

Participating galleries shared their positive experiences and successes at this year’s show:

'The atmosphere of the fair this year has been wonderful and we had a great first day, selling five seminal works in the first hour. We have been extremely pleased in particular with the level of interest we have received from European and American museums.’ Dominique Lévy, Founder and Owner, Dominique Lévy, New York, London

‘This was an amazing fair for us as we displayed the work of Julio Le Parc in our booth to honor his first US museum retrospective at the Pérez Art Museum. Collectors and representatives from institutions at the fair this year were enamored by our artists so we had a very successful year at Art Basel in Miami Beach.’ Nara Roesler, Owner, Galeria Nara Roesler, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, New York

‘The steady flow of visitors and the level of serious collectors this year has allowed us to do very well. We were not overwhelmed with crowds and are very happy to have doubled our business from last year.’ Xavier Hufkens, Founder and Owner, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels

Galleries
This edition of the show featured 193 of the world’s foremost galleries in the main sector, each presenting the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography and video works. With a strong emphasis on supporting younger galleries, this year’s sector incorporated 12 new participants, eight of which had previously exhibited in the Miami Beach show’s project-based sectors – Nova, Positions and Survey. Artworks by Modern masters were presented throughout the sector, including paintings and sculptures by Pablo Picasso (b. 1881; d. 1973) at Helly Nahmad Gallery; rarely seen pieces by Dada and Surrealist artists at Di Donna; a group show of post-war avant-garde Italian artists at Tornabuoni Art and celebrated Mexican artists Diego Rivera (b.1886; d.1957) and Rufino Tamayo (b. 1899; d. 1991) at Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art. Among the contemporary art many presented, Goodman Gallery celebrated its 50th anniversary with works by African artist William Kentridge (b. 1955); Mitchell-Innes & Nash showed an iconic painting by Tom Wesselmann (b. 1931; d. 2004); Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac included an important work by Robert Rauschenberg (b.1925; d. 2008); while Acquavella Galleries brought an exceptional canvas from 1964 by Kenneth Noland (b.1924; d. 2010). Kukje Gallery / Tina Kim Gallery featured a wide range of Dansaekhwa artists, including Kim Youg-Ik (b. 1947), Park Seo-Bo (b. 1931), Ha Chong-Hyun (b. 1935), Lee Ufan (b. 1936) and Chung Sang-Hwa (b. 1932). Galleries that addressed the current and uncertain socio-political landscape in their booths with deeper and more political art include: Pilar Corrias, Gavin Brown’s enterprise and neugerriemschneider with new artworks by Rirkrit Tiravanija (b. 1961); Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects who prominently featured Karl Haendel’s (b. 1976) portrait of Hilary Clinton; Blum & Poe’s notable display of Sam Durant (b. 1961); and new work by Jonathan Horowitz (b. 1966) at Sadie Coles HQ. Other highlights from the sector included Michael Heizer (b. 1944) at Peter Freeman, Inc., Kerry James Marshall (b. 1955) at Jack Shainman and Mira Schendel (b. 1919, d. 1988) at Bergamin & Gomide.

Edition
In its fourth year, Art Basel’s sector for works in multiples or prints, Edition, spotlighted 11 galleries: Alan Cristea Gallery, Crown Point Press, Gemini G.E.L. LLC, Sabine Knust, Carolina Nitsch, Pace Prints, Paragon, Polígrafa Obra Gràfica, STPI, Two Palms and ULAE.

Nova
Presenting works of art made in the last three years, Nova featured 35 galleries, five of which were first-time exhibitors at the Miami Beach show. Notable works from the sector included textiles by Margo Wolowiec (b. 1985) at Jessica Silverman Gallery; a film installation by Hong Kong-based artist Wong Ping (b. 1984) shown by Edouard Malingue Gallery; pieces by Korakrit Arunanondchai (b. 1986) and Harold Ancart (b.1980) at Clearing; an installation exploring radical biotech by Anicka Yi (b. 1971) – recipient of the 2016 Hugo Boss Prize – at 47 Canal; and a multimedia pairing of videos, drawings on paper and rippled mirrors by Joan Jonas (b. 1936) at Galleria Raffaella Cortese. Additional solo and group presentations included aaajiao (b. 1984), Cui Jie (b. 1983) and Liu Shiyuan (b. 1985) at Leo Xu Projects – also a first-time participant; Sanford Biggers (b. 1970) and Xaviera Simmons (b. 1974) at David Castillo Gallery; Lawrence Abu Hamdan (b. 1985) and Oscar Muñoz (b. 1951) at mor charpentier; Michael Dean (b. 1977) at Supportico Lopez; Vivian Suter (b. 1949) and Josef Strau (b. 1957) at House of Gaga; Mika Tajima (b. 1975) at 11R; and Kostis Velonis (b. 1968) at Kalfayan Galleries.

Positions
The 16 curated booths in Positions – 10 of which were first-time exhibitors in the sector – provided focused platforms for individual artists to present a major project. Featured artists in this sector included, Adrià Julià (b. 1974) at Dan Gunn, Gao Ludi (b. 1990) at White Space Beijing, Ulrike Müller (b. 1971) at Callicoon Fine Arts, Shelly Nadashi (b. 1981) at Christian Andersen, and Amy Yao (b. 1977) at Various Small Fires.

Three artists in the sector, Max Hooper Schneider (b. 1982) at High Art, Maggie Lee (b. 1987) at Real Fine Arts and Beto Shwafaty (b. 1977) at Prometeogallery di Ida Pisani were shortlisted for this year’s BMW Art Journey, a juried award that enables an emerging artist to go on a journey of creative discovery to a destination of their choice. The BMW Art Journey is open to artists from Positions and Discoveries, Art Basel's sectors for emerging artists in Miami Beach and Hong Kong. The winner will be announced in early 2017.

Survey
Featuring presentations of rarely seen works from before 2000, Survey presented 14 projects including Romare Bearden’s (b. 1911; d. 1988) photographic series, ‘Projections’ (1964), at DC Moore Gallery; historic works on paper by Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi (b. 1930) at Vigo Gallery; monumental abstract paintings by Howardena Pindell (b. 1943) at Garth Greenan Gallery; works by Giorgio Morandi (d. 1890; d. 1964) at Galleria d'Arte Maggiore G.A.M.; and kinetic sculptures by George Rickey (b. 1907; d. 2002) at Maxwell Davidson Gallery. In addition, the galleries in Survey featured presentations of several important female artists, such as Graciela Carnevale (b. 1942) at espaivisor, Barbara T. Smith (b. 1931) at The Box and Betye Saar (b. 1926) at Roberts & Tilton.

Kabinett
A much-loved sector of the show, Kabinett consisted of 29 carefully curated exhibitions within booths across the fair. At Kavi Gupta, Irena Haiduk (b. 1982) transformed the gallery’s stand into a candy store selling authentic Balkan confections representing different political regimes, while Alexander Gray Associates presented allegorical paintings by Hugh Steers (b. 1962, d. 1995) that capture the emotional and political tenor of New York in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Rhona Hoffman Gallery celebrated its 40th anniversary with new works by Derrick Adams (b. 1970) and kurimanzutto featured Carlos Amorales’ (b. 1970) first paintings incorporating color. Works with a focus on everyday objects were featured at Sperone Westwater with recent sculptural pieces by Tom Sachs (b. 1966) and at Polígrafa Obra Gràfica with 66 lithographs by Rose Wylie (b. 1934).

Public
Curated for the fourth year by Nicholas Baume, Director and Chief Curator of New York's Public Art Fund, the Public sector in Collins Park drew crowds from across the city to view over 20 site-specific installations and performances by artists spanning 10 countries. Inspired by David Bowie, this year’s edition of Public featured the theme ‘Ground Control’ and showcased works by Magdalena Abakanowicz (b. 1930), David Adamo (b. 1979), Jean-Marie Appriou (b. 1986), Eric Baudart (b. 1972), Huma Bhabha (b. 1962), Yoan Capote (b. 1977), Claudia Comte (b. 1983), Matías Duville (b. 1974), Camille Henrot (b. 1978), Glenn Kaino (b. 1972), Alicja Kwade (b. 1979), Sol LeWitt (b. 1928; d. 2007), Wagner Malta Tavares (b. 1964), Tony Matelli (b. 1971), William J. O'Brien (b. 1975), Anthony Pearson (b. 1969), Norbert Prangenberg (b. 1949; d. 2002), Ugo Rondinone (b. 1964), Tony Tasset (b. 1960) and Erwin Wurm (b. 1954). Public officially opened on Wednesday, November 30, with performances by Davide Balula (b. 1978), Lady Bunny (b. 1962), Rob Pruitt (b. 1964) and Naama Tsabar (b. 1982) and was produced in collaboration with The Bass and supported by MGM Resorts Art & Culture. This year, 11 Public sector projects will remain on view until March 15, 2017.

During the show, Art Basel was pleased to announce the appointment of a new curator for the Public sector – Philipp Kaiser – an independent curator and critic, who will curate the Swiss Pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and also the inaugural exhibition at the Marciano Foundation in Los Angeles next year. Philipp Kaiser will succeed Nicholas Baume, commencing with the 2017 Miami Beach edition.

Film
David Gryn, Director of Daata Editions and London’s Artprojx, once again curated the show’s Film program, which brought together over 50 films and video works by artists drawn from the show's participating galleries. Screenings took place throughout the week both in SoundScape Park on the 7,000 square-foot outdoor projection wall of the New World Center and in the Film Library located within the Miami Beach Convention Center. David Gryn’s short film program, titled ‘Best Dressed Chicken in Town’ focused on a selection of international artists who engage with music in a multitude of ways, while the ‘Double Bill’ program paired two film works that share similar approaches to an intense musical score: Rita Ackermann (b. 1968) with Christian Marclay (b. 1955), and Liliana Porter (b. 1941) with Alfredo Jaar (b. 1956). The evening screenings were preceded by a selection of sound works by Ain Bailey (b. 1963), Zoë Buckman (b. 1985), A.K. Burns (b. 1975), Jonathan Montague (b. 1982), Molly Palmer (b. 1984) and Susannah Stark (b. 1988). Returning to the show for her second year, New York-based film consultant Marian Masone selected the feature film to be screen at the Colony Theater: ‘Maurizio Cattelan: Be Right Back’ (2016) directed by Maura Axelrod.