Art Basel to mark 20th anniversary in Miami Beach with largest event to date

Art Basel Miami Beach opens this week and will celebrate its 20th anniversary with the largest event to date.

The fair, which runs Thursday to Saturday, showcases 282 galleries, more than half of which are coming from the Americas. They will be divided into five sections or “sectors”: Galleries, Positions, Nova, Survey and Edition.

Galleries, the main sector, will feature 212 galleries exhibiting works across all mediums.

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The Positions sector focuses on solo exhibitions by emerging international artists and will feature 19 presentations. Highlights include new paintings by Tonia Nneji at Rele Gallery; first-time participant Leslie Martinez’s abstract paintings bridging queerness and border politics; and works by Ishi Glinsky honoring Indigenous people’s connection to the land through material exploration and reimagined production at the Chris Sharp Gallery.

The Nova sector is dedicated to galleries presenting new work and will have 23 galleries. Highlights include a solo presentation of new photographs and sculptures by John Edmonds, which continue his inquiry into human form and African art at Company Gallery; newcomer Yavuz Gallery’s exhibition of work by Pinaree Sanpitak, following her work’s inclusion in “The Milk of Dreams” by Cecilia Alemani at the 2022 Venice Biennale; drawings and sculptures by Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan, some of which have been realized in his current refuge shelter in Kyiv, at Galerie Jérome Poggi.

The Survey sector features work created before 2000 and includes 17 galleries. Highlights include a historical presentation of rare wood, marble, and bronze sculptures and works on paper by Cuban artist Agustín Cárdenas at Galerie Mitterrand; the second overseas solo exhibition of work by Japanese artist Ei-Q, including newly discovered photo-dessin and photo-collages at the Watanuki Ltd. gallery; and a debut art fair presentation of historic works in a range of mediums from the 1970s to the 1990s by Milford Graves at Fridman Gallery of New York.

The Edition sector has 11 exhibitors in the field of prints and editioned works. Exhibitors include Cristea Roberts Gallery of London, San Francisco’s Crown Point Press, Carolina Nitsch Contemporary Art from New York, Pace Prints of New York and Polígrafa Obra Gràfica from Barcelona.

In addition to the five sectors, there will 20 monumental works as part of the Meridians area, which is curated for the third consecutive year by Magalí Arriola, director of Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City and main booths in the Kabinett area there will have 29 specially curated installations.

Panel discussions are also a large part of the fair, and this year 35 leading art world voices will tackle issues in the global contemporary art world, via nine panels in the Conversations series.

In addition, the 18th edition of Design Miami will run concurrently with Art Basel.

Design Miami, is scheduled for Wednesday to Dec. 4, with a VIP preview day on Tuesday and features presentations of 20th- and and 21st-century design and a global forum for collectible design.

Between Art Basel and Design Miami’s plethora of exhibitors, panel discussions and specially curated shows, museum shows and private collection tours, the biggest challenge can be deciding which venues to visit.

“It is truly exciting to celebrate our 20-year presence in Miami Beach,” said Art Basel’s global director Marc Spiegler. “Over the last two decades our show has not only reinforced its pivotal position in the region, bridging the art scenes of North and South Americas, Europe and beyond, but also played a galvanizing role in the city’s cultural transformation. The increasingly diverse range of galleries and artistic voices represented will make our show richer in discoveries than ever before.”

An example of the increasing diversity in artistic voices represented are several Native American and other Indigenous artists. Artist Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich is a Koyukon Athabascan and Inuqiaq carver, painter and bead worker represented by K Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, which will be exhibiting in the Nova sector. Few outside of Alaska have seen Gingrich’s work, which embodies her relationship with the Alaskan wilderness. Since the month of November is Native American Heritage Month, also referred to as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, it is particularly timely to include K Art Gallery in a list of must-sees, as it focuses solely on Native American and Indigineous contemporary artists.

The Palm Beach galleries with exhibition space are Aquavella Gallery, Pace Gallery, Ben Brown Fine Arts Palm Beach, Paula Cooper Gallery, Lehman Maupin and Gavlak Gallery.

Aquavella is bringing a mix of established post-war artists and contemporary artists that the gallery represents.

“We started with the fair from its inception,” said owner and director Eleanor Aquavella. “It’s always an exciting fair and galleries bring new and exciting things to the fair because it’s so well attended, and because the whole art scene in Miami and Palm Beach is thriving.

"This year, we are doing a show for a new artist we represent, Nicolle Wittenberg, so we are also bringing a large landscape painting of hers as kind of an introduction to her solo show we are having this season in our Royal Poinciana gallery.”

Gavlak will be bringing work from many of the artists they have been working with over the years, basically “a survey show” said owner Sarah Gavlak. They include Rob Wynn (who has a large permanent installation at the Norton Museum of Art), Jose Alvarez, Nancy Lorenz and April Bey, who will have a solo show in Gavlak’s Palm Beach gallery in April.

“We also have a few new artists, which I’m very excited about," Gavlak said.

"One of them, as it turns out, is a very timely choice, Taha Heydari, is Iranian and grew up there so the lack of freedom of information and internet access was already a part of his work. He makes these beautiful, incredible colorful paintings about not just Iran, and the state of living for people, but also the conditions women face. It’s very much about critiquing the whole patriarchal structure there, so I’m very excited to debut his work there,” she said.

Pace is presenting works by artists who joined the the gallery’s program this year, including Matthew Day Jackson and Maysha Mohamedi, as well as a new work by Arlene Shechet, titled “Romance language” in advance of her solo exhibition at Pace’s Palm Beach gallery from Jan. 4 to Feb. 5.

“We’re thrilled to be participating in the 20th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach,” said said Allison Raddock, the director of the Pace Palm Beach gallery. “Having participated in every fair since the first-ever edition in 2002, our presentations have consistently spotlighted the breadth of the gallery’s program.

Pace’s presentation at the fair will include a 2017 sculpture by Lynda Benglis, whose solo exhibition will be on view in Palm Beach from Wednesday to Dec. 31, bringing together several bodies of work that reflect her groundbreaking and dynamic practice.

If you go:

What: Art Basel

Where: Miami Beach Convention Center, 1901 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach

When: For general public, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Private Days are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Info: artbasel.com, designmiami.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Art Basel returns for 20th year in Miami Beach with largest event to date