Art Basel announces participating galleries, artists, and highlights for ‘OVR:2021’

On view from February 9 to 12 and featuring 59 galleries from 21 countries and territories, ‘OVR:2021’ will exclusively feature works created in 2021, reflecting on the artistic production over the remarkable past year. Once again, participating galleries will present tightly curated solo or group exhibitions, showing up to eight works simultaneously.

Nine new galleries will join Art Basel’s OVR:2021 platform for the first time: Fridman Gallery from New York, imura art gallery from Kyoto, Inman Gallery from Houston, Klemm’s from Berlin, Leila Heller Gallery with spaces in Dubai and New York, Nature Morte from New Delhi, Galería RGR from Mexico City, Rele Gallery with spaces in Lagos and Los Angeles, and This is No Fantasy Dianne Tanzer + Nicola Stein from Melbourne.

“2021 was a disrupted and disruptive year and many of the works in ‘OVR:2021’ bear witness to that,” Marc Spiegler, Global Director, Art Basel commented: “We see that in the topics recurring across the rooms, in the ever-widening range of perspectives from which the artists are creating, and in the galleries newly arriving on the international scene.”

Several galleries will showcase presentations that explore our relationship to nature, including Daniel Faria Gallery’s selection of new sculptures by Jennifer Rose Sciarrino, whose work draws from science fiction and feminist writers of critical theory to imagine a future where humans, plants, and animals come together in care and mutualism. Lyles & King will present works by Rosa Loy and Kathy Ruttenberg, whose feminist voices critique patriarchy and advocate for a more symbiotic relationship with animals and the natural world, while new paintings by Carlo D’Anselmi that consider the purpose or positioning of humans within their environments will be showcased by Thierry Goldberg Gallery. Nature Morte will bring together a selection of new works by Asim Waqif and Manish Nai, whose distinct practices call attention to the often-overlooked details of the built environments and ecologies that they inhabit. 

‘OVR:2021’ will also feature works exploring artists’ fascination and entanglement with quotidian objects and domestic settings. DC Moore Gallery will exhibit assemblages by Whitfield Lovell, which juxtapose resonantly drawn images of African Americans with vintage found objects, while Venus Over Manhattan will present works by Connor Annor, whose portraits and figurative works picture moments of community and intimacy set in domestic spaces. Carlos/Ishikawa will showcase a new body of work from Antonio Tarsis’ ongoing series of compositions made from discarded matchboxes found on the streets of the artist’s native Brazil, and Scene of Humanity will present a group show of works by Marina Cruz, Rao Fu, and Yang Lee, whose paintings of everyday scenes and objects allow viewers to resonate with preserved objects and family memory.

Other highlights include bipartite photocollages by Scott Treleaven, whose artistic origins are in small-gauge filmmaking and self-published zines that made an enduring contribution to independent, queer, and underground culture, presented by Cooper Cole; Prometeogallery’s presentation of never-before-seen works by Zehra Doğan, in which the artist uses shades obtained with fluids such as coffee and turmeric to draw female figures with naked bodies -but armed with guns and Kalashnikov-, who fight and rebel against invisible coercive forces, thanks also to the influence of semi-divine creatures in the form of snake-women or bird-women. Kaikai Kiki Gallery founded by Takashi Murakami, presents works by graffiti artists such as TENGAone and ceramicist Otani Workshop, focusing on the idea of ‘Superflat’, a philosophy discussing westernization, consumerism and the breakdown of tradition in the post-war world, showing the many facets that comprise contemporary Japan. Jan Murphy Gallery will bring together works by Sylvia Ken, Tjungkara Ken, Iluwanti Ken, and the Ken Sisters Collaborative (Tjungkara Ken, Yaritji Young, Freda Brady, Maringka Tunkin and Sandra Ken) – Indigenous artists from Tjala Arts in the remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY Lands) of South Australia; and Leila Heller Gallery will exhibit Parinaz Eleish Gharagozlou's paintings and collages, based on the artist’s observations throughout her travels to her homeland of Iran and embodying the nostalgia for a land so many have lost. For the full gallery list, please visit artbasel.com/ovr. 

The Online Viewing Rooms will be available via the Art Basel website under artbasel.com/ovr, as well as on the Art Basel App for the most mobile-friendly experience.