Art Basel returned to Miami Beach with a successful 2023 edition

Galleries reported robust sales across all market segments, including works by 20th-century luminaries such as Carla Accardi, Philip Guston, René Magritte, Alice Neel, Keith Haring, and Mildred Thompson; prominent contemporary artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Barbara Kruger, Tracey Emin, Lynda Benglis, Marlene Dumas, and Rashid Johnson; outstanding practitioners from Latin America and the Caribbean including Esaí Alfredo, Firelei Báez, Hélio Melo, Teresita Fernández, Hector Dionicio Mendoza, and Jorge Méndez Blake; and emerging voices such as Reginald O'Neal, Erin Jane Nelson, Noémie Goudal, Tau Lewis, Qualeasha Wood, and Clio Sze To. 

Leading art patrons and private collectors from over 92 countries and territories visited the fair this week. In addition, representatives from more than 200 cultural institutions and foundations were in attendance, including Asia Society, New York, NY; Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Buffalo AKGm, Buffalo, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; ICA Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; MoMA PS1, Queens, NY; MoMA, New York, NY; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; MCA Chicago, Chicago, IL; MFA Boston, Boston, MA; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, TX; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Swiss Institute, New York, NY; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; ICA Boston, Boston, MA; MOCA Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; The New Museum, New York, NY; The Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY; Musee des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montreal; MALBA – Museo de Art Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires; Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo; Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul; Reina Sofia, Madrid; Serpentine Galleries, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town.  

The first edition of Access by Art Basel, a new online art sales platform powered by Arcual and designed to support philanthropic giving, launched at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 with 15 galleries exhibiting in the fair: François Ghebaly (Sayre Gomez), Karma (Maja Ruznic), Kasmin (Alma Allen), kaufmann repetto (Katherine Bradford), Lehmann Maupin (Robin Rhode), Luhring Augustine (Mark Handforth), Mendes Wood DM (Jaider Esbell), Mitchell-Innes & Nash (Rafael Delacruz), Hauser & Wirth (Angel Otero), Pace Gallery (Matthew Day Jackson), Sean Kelly (Wu ChiTsung), Jessica Silverman (Chelsea Ryoko Wong), Frederic Snitzer Gallery (Hernan Bas), Sprüth Magers (Jenny Holzer), and Tina Kim Gallery (Kibong Rhee). For each sale made on the platform, collectors were required to make an additional charitable pledge, beginning at a minimum of 10% of the price of the artwork, with the potential to increase further. The artist and their exhibiting gallery received the full value of each artwork sold on the platform, with the charitable donation going to the collector's choice of The Miami Foundation or The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). To date, Access by Art Basel has raised over $100,000 in charitable donations to The Miami Foundation and the ICRC. 

Vincenzo de Bellis, Director of Fairs and Exhibition Platforms, Art Basel, said: 'Art Basel Miami Beach has once again proven to be the pre-eminent art fair in the Americas. The quality and ambition of works presented at the show this year were nothing short of extraordinary, met with an exceptional attendance of local and international collectors. New galleries and concepts and a redesigned floorplan brought an injection of freshness to the show, amplified by the rich offering across Miami Beach’s flourishing cultural landscape. The show’s impact on the region is simply undeniable. I look forward to a 2024 edition helmed by our new director Bridget Finn, and to discovering how she will shape and continue to elevate our premier show in Miami Beach.' 

De Bellis spearheaded the 2023 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. Bridget Finn, Art Basel’s recently appointed Director, Art Basel Miami Beach, will lead the direction of the show in 2024. She said of this year’s show: ‘This edition of Art Basel Miami Beach was indescribably special, being my first experience of the show as Director. It was a week of deep learnings and discoveries with the Art Basel community in Miami Beach – our galleries and their artists, our institutional collaborators, and our new and longstanding partners. Having experienced the fair from many different vantage points over the years, Art Basel Miami Beach is truly unlike any event in the art world and undoubtedly the most significant in the Americas. I am elated to work with our team to continue propelling this vital show into the future.’ 

Extending beyond the fair halls, Art Basel collaborated with a host of world-class institutions, private collections, and cultural partners for a premier program of exhibitions, events, and activations across Miami Beach throughout the fair week. Celebrating the intersections of art, music, and film, Art Basel partnered with Tribeca Festival for the first-ever Tribeca Festival at Art Basel Miami Beach. The event hosted four days of live musical performances and exclusive conversations with trailblazing artists throughout the fair week at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden, including a headline Talk featuring Robert De Niro in conversation with French photographer and street artist JR. 

Major shows coinciding with Art Basel Miami Beach included a feature exhibition of the renowned Miami artist Hernan Bas, presented in tandem with a large-scale, world-building exhibition of Korean, Berlin-based artist Anne Duk Hee Jordan, at The Bass Museum; a large-scale survey of acclaimed artist Charles Gaines and new sculptural work by rising Canadian artist Tau Lewis at The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; as well as the first comprehensive career retrospective of the American artist Gary Simmons at Pérez Art Museum Miami.

The Legacy Purchase Program by the City of Miami Beach

Now in its fourth iteration, the City of Miami Beach acquired through its Legacy Purchase Program a work by Anneke Eusson, represented by Document with exhibition spaces in Chicago and Lisbon, for its public art collection. The acquisitions program further strengthens Miami Beach's longstanding partnership with Art Basel, building a legacy for the future. 

The CPGA-Étant Donnés Prize

The Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art (French Professional Committee of Art Galleries, or CPGA) and Villa Albertine came together to award the second edition of the CPGA-Étant Donnés Prize, which recognizes a major work by a contemporary French or France-based artist participating at Art Basel Miami Beach 2023 and their exhibiting gallery. The $15,000 cash prize was jointly awarded to Colombian, Paris-based artist Daniel Otero Torresby, for his installation Los abrazos del viento (2023), and his exhibiting gallery mor charpentier by an appointed jury of international curators and collectors. 

Design Miami/

The 19th edition of Design Miami/ took place concurrently to Art Basel Miami Beach from December 6 to 10, 2023, with a Preview Day on December 5, 2023. Design Miami/ brought together world-class presentations of 20th- and 21st-century design, hosting a global forum for collectible design. For more information, please visit designmiami.com.

On the cover: General Impressions /Courtesy of Art Basel

Source: Art Basel