Art Basel announces further show highlights for its largest edition yet in Miami Beach

Image : Nengi Omuku, Reclining Figures ( Detail) 2022 . Courtesy of the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery , London

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
needleworkers 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, 25-
cent 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.’


For the full list of artists and galleries presenting in Meridians, please visit:
artbasel.com/miami-beach/meridians.


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.
For the full list of artists and galleries represented in Kabinett, please visit:
artbasel.com/miami-beach/kabinett.


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. The
Conversations program at Art Basel Miami Beach will embrace the concepts of hybridity,
cross-pollination and community with nine panels gathering leading voices from Latin
America, the US, and Europe.


Highlights include:
• Artist Carrie Mae Weems and vocalist, composer, and technologist Nona Hendryx
in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine.


• ‘The Miami Effect: the Craig Robins, de la Cruz, and Margulies Collections’,
featuring leading Florida-based collectors in conversation with Jane Wooldridge,
Senior Director, Miami Herald, to mark 20 years of Art Basel Miami Beach


• A sonic lecture by artist Chino Amobi and crypto-entrepreneur Moon Jérin.


• A conversation celebrating the pioneering photographic practice of Ming Smith.


Other participants in this edition include Magalí Arriola, Director, Museo Tamayo, Mexico
City, Makayla Bailey, Co-Executive Director, Rhizome, artist Joshua Citarella, artists João
Enxuto
and Erica Love, Larissa Harris, Executive Director, Teiger Foundation, Alberto
Ibargüen,
President, Knight Foundation, artistPippy Houldsworth Gallery , Scott Moore, Co-Founder, Gitcoin, Toronto, artist Christopher Myers, art historian and curator Drew
Sawyer,
writer and Artnet News art business editor Tim Schneider, artist Cauleen Smith,
and cultural strategy advisor András Szántó. 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.


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 nine panels will be livestreamed
on Art Basel’s Facebook channel. Recordings will be available on Art Basel’s website
following the event. See the full program at http://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

Dates

Preview (by invitation only)
Tuesday, November 29 and Wednesday, November 30, 2022


Public opening dates
Thursday, December 1, 2022 – Saturday, December 3, 2022

For the latest updates on Art Basel, visit artbasel.com. find us on Facebook at
facebook.com/artbasel, or follow @artbasel on Instagram, Twitter, and WeChat

Image : Nengi Omuku, Reclining Figures ( Detail) 2022 . Courtesy of the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery , London