Switzerland: Art Basel

Basel Switzerland is a beautiful city situated on the boarder of France and Germany. If you love art and are planning a trip, you may want to schedule it in June to attend Art Basel the most well-known art fair in the world. As always additional art fairs/events have popped up making for a very busy week.

Art Basel in 2018; © Art Basel and Creative Time;  photo courtesy of Art Basel

Art Basel is an annual art fair takes place in June every year (check the website for additional editions of this fair in Miami, Hong Kong, etc.) See ETG’s Hong Kong Art Week article for more info. The art fair was launched 1970. Created by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt, it has become THE go-to global art fair.

Established galleries such as Blum & Poe, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Cheim and Read, Gagosian, David Kordansky Gallery, and many others all converge on this this tiny town in Switzerland. In 2018 it opened its Unlimited section, which showcases larger artworks, and installations.

photo courtesy of bitforms gallery

bitforms gallery has participated for many years at Art Basel. A New York gallery founded in 2001, it focuses on digital art, along with new media art forms. Other consistent participants…Philip Martin Gallery (formerly Cherry Martin), Marianne Boesky Gallery, and others.

Los Angeles Art Association has participated in the art fair for nine years (as of 2019). LAAA exhibited at Projektraum (a satellite show) in 2019. Gallery Director Peter Mays said “Basel in Basel is a very different thing than any other fair…(much more serious than Art Basel Miami, which has morphed into a city-wide cultural thing). While not driven by a party atmosphere, the soberness manifests in the monumental commerce that happens there…It always strikes me how the global art world descends on this old world town – quite interesting.”

Tanner Goldbeck, Venetian Blue. 115”x132” spray can, acrylic and oil pastel on canvas

Los Angeles artist Tanner Goldbeck has been a member of LAAA for the past seven years. He exhibited his work at the LAAA booth at Projektraum (which is about a ten-minute walk from the main venue) in 2019. Goldbeck featured an artwork titled “Venetian Blue” (115”x132” spray can, acrylic and oil pastel on canvas). The artist explained his work. “These are paintings on blue tarps. The blue tarps homeless people use as tents on skid row. I was using the blue from skid row and connecting to the Venetian Blue that was once so valuable it was worth more than gold.” Goldbeck said he was excited to participate in Art Basel. When asked if travel inspires his art, he replied, “Definitely getting to meet new people in other countries can broadens your perspectives.” Learn more about the exhibition here, http://www.ping-pong-basel.ch/

Be sure to check the official Art Basel website. Be aware the first two days are by invitation only. If you are a collector (and can prove it), you need to contact them, to be put on the private invite list. The galleries taking part in the show, will be also be able to assist you in procuring a ticket the preview days. While you are there, you will want to stop by additional fairs…Liste, VOLTA, Photo Basel, and others. Longtime participant Scope decided to skip 2019, but is expected to return in 2020. Also new in 2019 is a fair called Basel in June (also called June).

Art Basel will be held at Messe Basel, Messeplatz 10, 4058 Basel, Switzerland; https://www.artbasel.com/; If you are planning to visit Basel, Switzerland, don’t forget to check the tourism website HERE.

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