Art Basel Miami Beach Shakes Up Meridians Sector
Art Basel Miami Beach 2023. Courtesy Art Basel.
‘Institutionally-minded’ large-scale installations will take centre stage at this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach.
Led by director Bridget Finn, who was appointed last September, the fair returns to Miami Beach Convention Center from 6 to 8 December, with a VIP preview on the two days prior.
In July, Art Basel said that by introducing a more affordable booth option, they’d signed up more new galleries than in any edition since 2008. This year’s fair will gather 283 galleries from 38 countries and territories, including 32 first-time exhibitors.
Further changes have been made to support Finn’s objective to ‘maximise at every turn the opportunity for surprise encounters and revelatory discoveries’.
Notably, Art Basel Miami Beach has moved its Meridians sector for large-scale installations, previously held in its own walled-off space, to the south end of the show floor, adjacent to the Nova and Positions sectors. Curated by Yasmil Raymond, ‘State of Becoming’ will host 18 works by artists Lee Shinja, Franz West, Rachel Feinstein, and more.
‘The title is an allegory for the formal language embodied in the artists’ work,’ Finn explained in a statement. The installations will explore anything from the ‘physicality of regeneration and transformation’ to ‘the entropy and the sublimation of organic materials’.
A deconstructed American flag made from stacked logs by Vietnamese-Danish artist Danh Vo saw the artist burn the wood on-site during the work’s original exhibition—an act understandably excluded from the Miami iteration, which is presented by White Cube.
From the current Venice Biennale, Zhu Jinshi‘s Rice Paper Pagoda (2024), shown with Pearl Lam Galleries, comprises a monumental column made from bamboo, metal pipes, and cotton to which 16,000 sheets of paper are attached. The whole is illuminated by LED lights.
Also from the Biennale, Peruvian artist Roberto Huarcaya’s snaking photogram from the ‘Amazogramas’ series (2014–2024), exhibited with Rolf Art in Buenos Aires, emphasises the vastness and precarity of the Amazon rainforest.
Looking to other highlights of the fair, the city of Miami will ask residents to vote on their favourite artwork among three selected from the Positions and Nova sectors for emerging artists. The most popular work within their budget of U.S. $80,000 will be acquired and installed permanently at the convention centre.
Last year, Annake Eussen’s recuperated glass piece It’s Alright (2023) entered Miami’s public collection. Previous acquisitions include works by Juana Valdés, Sanford Biggers, and Amoako Boafo.—[O]
Main image: Art Basel Miami Beach 2023. Courtesy Art Basel.
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