Basel in Full Colour, A City Immersed in Art
- hazeldclarke
- 12 minutes ago
- 4 min read
The week of Art Basel is for me the most compelling moment in the city, and this year it reaffirmed its position as the most closely watched annual event in the international art calendar. An extraordinary line-up unfolded with Art Basel as the main event, encircled by a number of satellite fairs casting their individual curatorial stamp on visitor memories. Art projects, gallery events, museum shows, and public space installations, spanning city-wide and spilling over the nearby German and French borders, completed the jammed programme.
Two hundred and ninety galleries presented this year at Art Basel, showcasing modern masters, prestigious contemporary artists and brilliant mid-career and emerging talents. From a commercial perspective, Art Basel has reported strong sales across sectors, market segments, and price points, validating its role as the defining annual gathering of the international art market. Hauser & Wirth for example sold Pablo Picasso’s Le peintre et son modèle dans un paysage (1963), at an asking price of USD 35 million; Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild (940-7) (2015) exchanged hands for USD 20 million, Louise Bourgeois' Les Fleurs (2009) went for USD 2.5 million and Gagosian sold Willem de Kooning's No title (1984) for a high seven-figure sum to a private collection in Asia –– results that signal continued momentum in the art market*. Equally, GRAY's sale of two works by David Hockney following the artist's death earlier this year, reveals posthumous Hockney interest.
A Personal Parcours
I begin my parcours of galleries, and stealing my attention in an instant was the piece by Sam Gilliam, shown by Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery. The artist is known for his lively reds, ochres and shades, and the work is a good example of his skill in pushing the boundaries of abstraction to a more fluid, improvisational register, extending the legacy of the Washington Color School movement in which he was active.
Amongst my favourites from the smaller galleries was a piece by Amedeo Polazzo –– shown by Herald St. –– whose gentle dialogue between subject and colour offers the viewer whimsical imaginings. A piece by Pae White, shown by Kaufmann Repetto, mixed automotive paint, paper-clay and wood, achieving a highly textured wool-like finish. Tonia Calderon's piece shown by Vielmetter, worked with subdued hues to evoke melancholic nostalgia. I also loved Stefan Guggisberg’s piece shown by Galerie Eigen + Art offering a layered, textured density and contrasting wonderfully with the painterly energy of Sabine Moritz's solo show at the Pilar Corrias booth.
The Fondation Beyler booth in the major galleries hall was dedicated to surreal landscapes, and I particularly enjoyed works from the renowned Hersaint private collection on this theme.
Digital Terrains
Just as I begin to think that the digital fixation in art fairs has already reached its height, I witness one of the most exciting recent innovations at Art Basel – the launch of Zero 10. It’s Art Basel's initiative dedicated to artists working with digital technologies. Making its European debut in Basel, this expanded presentation co-curated by digital strategist Eli Scheinman and artist Trevor Paglen brought digital, generative, and cross-media practices into the fair, underscoring their enduring importance within contemporary art practice. I'm informed that the initiative attracted strong interest from collectors, curators, and institutions. Through the lens of the visitor experience, the show was spatial and uncluttered, allowing the hypnotic works to breathe. I particularly enjoyed Max Estrella/bitforms gallery's presentation of an interactive work by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer which transposed the audience into the art.
Within the public programming, Warehouse Artefacts, an immersive experience by Thomas Bangalter, Julian Charrière, and Rampa –– produced by Nordstern Basel and presented in cooperation with Art Basel and Fondation Beyeler –– staged a deconstructed dance floor bringing together art, sound, political history, and underground ideology. The show sits squarely within the ongoing institutionalisation of club culture, bringing rave histories and sound into museum imagery. Through the lighting and sound, I found myself transported into an eerie, futuristic, even dystopian world –– imposing a vibrational reset.
A Parallel Pulse
Impossible to summarise everything that the week offered but I wanted to make a special mention of VOLTA Basel which, since its move to the Messeplatz hub, continues to evolve and entice. The energy was high, the quality of art refined and the setting was thoughtfully designed, offering the possibility for meaningful dialogue between visitors and galleries. Everywhen: Contemporary Aboriginal Art, was a dedicated pavilion within VOLTA celebrating contemporary Aboriginal artistic practices. Aboriginal artist Konstantina staged her solo show Ngura Mawa – Country Makes Me. The twenty paintings in the exhibition were inspired by the bay of Sydney as a cultural and ecological backdrop of the Gadigal people from whom she is a descendant. It was a sheer delight. It was also pleasing to see the participation of fifteen Swiss galleries –– highlighting the strength and diversity of the local art scene.
What a glorious week!
I started this piece celebrating the city’s immersion into art, but it’s clear the impact runs much deeper. With a galaxy of rich narratives and breadth of creative styles — ushering innovations across media, traversing boundaries and conventions — we cannot ignore art's magnetic pull and the new perspectives and crystallising dialogues that it continues to enable. The zest of art lives on.
View more images of my favourite pieces.
Reference List:
*Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report. 2026
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