Meridians: Art Basel announces artist list of inaugural edition

Introducing a major new sector within the Miami Beach fair, Meridians offers a platform for ambitious and large-scale sculptures, paintings, installations, film and video projections, as well as performances that push the boundaries of the traditional art fair layout. The sector will be presented in the Grand Ballroom at the MBCC, an exhibition space of almost 6,000 square meters (60,374 square feet) directly connected to the exhibition halls.

‘In the inaugural edition of Meridians, large-scale sculptures, paintings and video installations dominate, some of them revisiting cultural narratives that deal with issues such as race, gender and territory. Given the uniqueness of each project, Meridians articulates a very organic exchange of ideas and positions, unveiling conceptual overlaps, themes and interests that have emerged from this year's strong selection of projects’, said Magalí Arriola, curator of Meridians.

Highlights of the sector include: Laure Prouvost's immersive installation ‘DEEP TRAVELS Ink’ (2016-ongoing), a pseudo-functional Miami travel agency complete with water coolers, plants, posters, office desks, waiting area and corporate infomercials; ‘Dance of Malaga’ (2019), the latest video produced and directed by Theaster Gates, addressing the complex and intertwining issues of race, territory, inequality, and sexuality in the recent history of the United States; and Isaac Julien's nine-screen film installation ‘Lina Bo Bardi - A Marvellous Entanglement’ (2019) that explores the visionary modernist architect and designer Lina Bo Bardi’s most iconic buildings and their legacy.

The artists and works represented in Meridians show a strong focus on the Americas, reflecting the fair's emphasis on the region. Alongside works by US artists such as Tina Girouard, Allan McCollum, Fred Wilson, Portia Munson and Alexis Smith, the sector features works by Luciana Lamothe from Argentina; Artur Lescher from Brazil; Flavio Garciandía and Ana Mendieta from Cuba; José Antonio Suárez Londoño from Colombia; and Jose Dávila, Miguel Calderón, Pepe Mar, and Tercerunquinto from Mexico.

Exciting new works by a younger generation of artists will also be featured, including: ‘La Charada China (Tobacco Version)’ (2019) by Candice Lin, utilizing symbolically and historically significant materials to reflect on the global histories of exploitation and colonial violence; ‘Cool Composition’ (2019), an installation by Miami-born artist Woody De Othello that touches upon the anxieties around global warming as well as the aesthetics of the African diaspora; a video titled ‘Ishmael in the Garden: A Portrait of Ishmael Houston-Jones’ (2018) by Adam Pendleton; and a new painting on wood panels by Torey Thornton.