Art Basel

 One coffee, one pack of euro nicotine pouches, one knife, one pair of sunglasses, 200 business cards

One coffee, one pack of euro nicotine pouches, one knife, one pair of sunglasses, 200 business cards

Sam Marion diarizes the five-figure antics, moral surrenders, and steady lettings down of hair one June week on the Rhine (without naming any names).

 Bikers in the steel ball at Circus Knie, Basel, 2023

Bikers in the steel ball at Circus Knie, Basel, 2023

Who’s having a moment? Which XXL install flopped? Was climate always a window dressing? And is Art Basel really still the main draw? Kito Nedo shares the cracker jacks at Art World’s biggest circus.

As Art World descends on the knee of the Rhine, gallerist Oskar Weiss dishes out the skinny on Basel’s best croissants, an anthroposophist, Gesamtkunstwerk, and which sweaty dancefloor is worth the queue.

Portrait of Vincenzo De Bellis. Courtesy: Art Basel

Ahead of the Alpine extravaganza, Vincenzo de Bellis talks his Peep-Hole origins, sickness as an artistic thematic, and viewing the fairs as curatorial snapshots of the right now.

 All images: Screen grabs from Yuchen Chang’s iPhone, February 2020, Courtesy of the artist

All images: Screen grabs from Yuchen Chang’s iPhone, February 2020, Courtesy of the artist

An art market in limbo forces considerations of what art means today.

Photo: Diana Pfammatter

A panel at Liste Basel with Jenny Borland of Jenny’s, Alexander Shulan of Lomex, Simon Wang of Antenna Space, KJ Freeman of Housing, and Nathaniel Monjaret of Bonny Poon. 

Recommendations from Eugenia Lai

 Knight Landesman, Photo: David Levene for the Guardian

Knight Landesman, Photo: David Levene for the Guardian

Frieze Projects, Frieze Talks, Frieze Sounds and the Frieze Artist award: over the past few years Frieze Art Fair proper has grown to incorporate a full range of non-for-profit projects and events. But isn't that missing the point? Our writer remembers what Frieze is really about.

Claire Fontaine, Portrait; Courtesy Air de Paris, Paris / Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris

Is it possible these days to make political art within the existing art (market) system? That is precisely what the art collective Claire Fontaine have been been trying to do since their inception in 2004, though the odds may be stacked hopelessly against them.

 Gavin Brown (links) und Daniel Baumann (rechts)

Gavin Brown (links) und Daniel Baumann (rechts)

The New York-based gallerist Gavin Brown and the Swiss curator Daniel Baumann take a shot at an unromantic view of the art market. It turns out depressing, entertaining, and instructive at once.