Art Basel Returned To Miami Beach In Full Force For Its First Edition Under Director Bridget Finn

Art Basel returned to Miami Beach in full force for its first edition under director Bridget Finn, emphasizing its position as the leading art fair in the Americas.

• The 2024 edition of Art Basel’s fair in the Americas, the first to be led by director Bridget Finn, concluded today, December 8, 2024 to enthusiastic reception from premier dealers, collectors, institutions, and visitors from the Americas and worldwide.

 

• The fair, which brought together 286 galleries from 38 countries and territories, two-thirds of which hail from the Americas, attracted an overall attendance of more than 75,000 throughout its VIP and public days, including leading art patrons and private collectors from across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

 

• Exhibitors reported robust demand and outstanding sales, with work by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists, 20th-century masters, and emerging voices placed in prestigious public and private collections. Across all segments of the market, exceptional sales were reported of works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georg Baselitz, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Dubuffet, Elaine Sturtevant, Richard Serra, Keith Haring, David Hammons, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Judy Chicago, Suzanne Jackson Christine Ay Tjoe, Wangechi Mutu, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mohammed Sami, Kara Walker, Cecily Brown, Marlon Mullen, Péjú Alatise, Kim Dacres, Melissa Joseph, Jimena Croceri, Jin Han Lee, Elena Alonso, and Ken Gun Min.

 

• Furthermore, the 2024 edition was attended by representatives of more than 230 esteemed museums and foundations from across the globe, including the Aspen Art Museum; Art Institute of Chicago; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Fondation Beyeler, Riehen; Groeninghe Art Collection, Bruges; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Istanbul Museum of Modern Art; K11 Foundation, Hong Kong; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba); Museum of Modern Art, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Serpentine Galleries, London; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town.

 

• Under Finn’s leadership, this edition presented a refreshed artistic program, welcoming 34 new galleries – its largest cohort of new exhibitors in over a decade – as well as new collaborators, exhibition concepts, and exceptional proposals across the show’s six sectors.

 

• Re-configured for its fifth anniversary, Meridians, the show’s hallmark sector for monumental artworks, was sited without walls in a new location on the south end of the show floor, anchoring the contemporary heart of the fair and facilitating dialogue and discovery across the adjacent Positions and Nova sectors for emerging galleries and artists. Curated for the first time by Yasmil Raymond, Meridians presented 17 new and key historical projects by renowned artists including Alice Aycock, Roberto Huarcaya, Zhu Jinshi, Portia Munson, Lee ShinJa, and Franz West.

 

• Conversations, Art Basel’s renowned talks program, saw its highest average attendance in Miami Beach to date. Curated for the first time in Miami Beach by American writer, editor, and educator Kimberly Bradley, the program – which took place in the auditorium of the MBCC from December 5 to 7, freely accessible to the public – kicked off with a packed-out Premiere Artist Talk delivered by Iranian American artist Shirin Neshat.

 

• Bridget Finn, Director, Art Basel Miami Beach, said: ‘It was an ecstatic feeling to finally open the doors of our show to visitors, after more than a year of planning with our exhibitors and their artists, our Selection Committee, the Art Basel team, partners, and institutional collaborators. I am extremely proud of innovations we introduced this year – from the repositioning and reconceptualization of Meridians to the roll-out of a new booth model, which allowed us to welcome many vital new voices and perspectives in the main sector of the show. Across the board, galleries presented truly ambitious, rare, and in some cases career- and canon-defining proposals, which have been placed in first-rate collections and sparked significant future conversations for the art world. I am deeply grateful for the trust they lent to me for my first edition.’

 

• As part of the City of Miami Beach’s Legacy Purchase Program, now in its fifth year, the city acquired emerging artist Nina Surel’s ceramic wall-based installation Allegory of Florida (2023) from the Miami gallery Spinello Projects. Announced by the mayor of Miami Beach Steven Meiner during a reception on December 4, the installation is now permanently on view at the MBCC. After careful review of the galleries’ planned showcases, the city’s seven-person Art in Public Places Committee nominated three finalists, and the winner was chosen by the public through an online voting platform. New this year, in addition to exhibitors in Nova and Positions, newcomers joining the main sector from Nova and Positions within the last four years were eligible for participation. The acquisition program further strengthens the City’s longstanding partnership with Art Basel and supports a lasting cultural legacy that celebrates art’s power to shape the future.

 

• The Comité Professionel des Galeries d’Art (French Professional Committee of Art Galleries), or CPGA, and Villa Albertine joined forces for the third edition of the CPGA-Étant Donnés Prize at Art Basel Miami Beach, which recognizes excellence in contemporary creation and promotes the vital role of galleries in championing artists of the French art scene internationally. On December 5, at Art Basel Miami Beach, artist Johanna Mirabel and Galerie Nathalie Obadia were awarded by a jury of international curators and collectors and jointly received a $15,000 cash prize funded by CPGA. The artist was recognized for the subject and technical virtuosity of her figurative paintings, from her recent body of work “Adieu la chair,” which explores the European tradition of Carnival.

 

• Ahead of the show, Art Basel launched the new Art Basel App, a comprehensive digital companion designed to enhance visitors’ experience at Art Basel shows and create new and interactive opportunities for art discovery. For the first time, Art Basel partnered with Microsoft to offer an advanced suite of AI-powered app features – including the interactive Art Basel Companion and the Art Basel Lens, which marks the first application of Microsoft’s computer vision technology in a global art fair context.

 

• Additionally, the show hosted Digital Dialogues – Art Basel Miami Beach at New World Symphony Orchestra, Miami Beach, on December 5 and 6. Co-hosted by TAEX and freely accessible to the public, the program, which was first launched at Art Basel in Basel 2024, explored the convergence of contemporary art and digital technologies, seeking to further the dialogue around digital and on-chain art, and engaging traditional collectors, artists, enthusiasts, and the emerging crypto art community.

 

• The third edition of the Art Basel Shop, curated by Sarah Andelman, took place at Art Basel Miami Beach for the first time. With three locations across the Miami Beach Convention Center (MBCC), this edition marked the Shop’s largest iteration to date. It featured new items conceived specifically for Art Basel’s Miami Beach show, including AB by Artist products designed by Brazilian artist Paulo Nimer Pjota; a new AB by Art Basel heritage line, celebrating the festive spirit of the fair; and collectibles by some of today’s most cherished brands and publishers, realized in collaboration with artists such as Peter Haley, Diana Yesenia Alvarado, Tyler Hobbs, Paola Pivi, and Judy Chicago, among others. The Art Basel Shop at Art Basel Miami Beach was further activated by numerous public programming events with local and international artists, including Pjota, José Parlá, Calida Rawles, and Anastasia Samoylova.

 

• John Mathews, Head of Private Wealth Management Americas, UBS, said: “As we celebrate 30 years of partnership with Art Basel, including our support of the vibrant Miami Beach fair since its inception in 2002, our programming this year reflected UBS’ commitment to fostering cultural engagement and to collaborating with the leading artists of our time. From Sagarika Sundaram’s largest commissioned work to date in our Lounge to the immersive solo showcase in our Art Studio by Sarah Zapata, in collaboration with ARTNOIR, our programming highlighted a shared vision with Art Basel to bring diverse voices and bold ideas to the forefront. We’re thrilled to have been a part of the largest and most recognized art fair in the region.”

 

• Art Basel, whose Global Lead Partner is UBS, took place from December 6 to 8, 2024 at the MBCC, with VIP Days on December 4 and 5. The 2025 edition of the show will take place from December 5 to 7.

 

 

Photos Courtesy Of Art Basel

Date Posted: December 8, 2024