Art Basel announces new Online Viewing Rooms concept

Featuring no more than 100 galleries in each edition and running over the course of four days, this new format will give Art Basel galleries the opportunity to present tightly curated exhibitions drawn from their programs, showing six works simultaneously. Live from September 23 to September 26, "OVR:2020" will be dedicated to works made this year, while "OVR:20c", live from October 28 to October 31, will exclusively feature works created in the 20th century.

Both iterations will be open to proposals from all galleries that have been accepted to an Art Basel fair from 2018 onwards. Applications will be reviewed by newly formed Selection Committees that consist of prominent gallerists. The September "OVR:2020" Selection Committee comprises Sadie Coles, Massimo De Carlo, Mills Morán, Prateek Raja, Lisa Spellman and Jasmin Tsou while the Selection Committee for October "OVR:20c" comprises Emi Eu, David Fleiss, Thiago Gomide, Steven Henry, Lucy Mitchell-Innes and Mary Sabbatino.

In addition to ongoing platform software development, these new Online Viewing Rooms will introduce a new live-chat feature allowing visitors to directly engage with galleries. For the first time, Art Basel will charge for participation in the Online Viewing Rooms platform – a flat fee of CHF 5,000 for either of the upcoming two editions within the novel format.

Marc Spiegler, Global Director, Art Basel said: ‘While the art market still faces difficult times, we feel it is pivotal for us to continue exploring different ways of supporting galleries and engaging with our audiences. The highly-focused September and October editions of the Online Viewing Rooms provide our galleries with new opportunities in this highly dynamic moment.'

In December, regardless of whether Art Basel can proceed with the show in Miami Beach, another Online Viewing Rooms event will be taking place with details to follow in the early fall.

The Online Viewing Rooms will be available via the Art Basel website under artbasel.com/ovr and the Art Basel App. More details on participating galleries and their presentations will become available in the coming weeks.