Art Basel Miami Beach is Back!

Marcellina Akpojotor, Dede's Corner. Courtesy the artist and Rele Gallery, Lagos, Los Angeles. On view at Positions.

By Ashley Knight

Despite the pandemic lapse and reinforcing its position as the premier art fair of the Americas, Art Basel returns for a full-scale, in-person show in Miami Beach this December, with a lineup of over 250 leading galleries from across the globe.

The 2021 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach-Art Basel’s first in-person fair in Miami Beach since 2019-will bring together 253 leading international galleries to present the highest quality of artworks across all media, from painting and sculpture to photography and digital works. As the leading global art fair in the Americas, the list of exhibitors includes galleries from 36 countries and territories spanning five continents, with more than half of exhibitors having spaces in North and South America.

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Two Beret Boys, 2021. © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe. Courtesy of the artist and Roberts Projects, Los Angeles. On view at Kabinett.

The show welcomes 43 first-time exhibitors, including First Floor Gallery Harare with spaces in Harare and Victoria Falls; Rele Gallery with exhibition spaces in Lagos and Los Angeles; and Southard Reid from London. New entries to the fair from the Americas include Mignoni from New York in the Galleries sector, as well as Broadway and Nicola Vassell, both from New York in Nova. First-time exhibitors from the Americas showing in Positions include Pequod Co. from Mexico City and Helena Anrather and Housing, both from New York. In addition, Daniel Faria Gallery from Toronto, Fridman Gallery from New York, and Piero Atchugarry Gallery with spaces in Garzón and Miami will exhibit for the first time in Survey.

Felipe Mujica, Primeros amaneceres en la tierra (Curtain 4). Courtesy of the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala; and Von Bartha, Basel. On view at Nova.

After a successful debut at the fair in 2019, the Meridians sector will return to the MBCC with a dynamic lineup of large-scale projects that challenge the boundaries of the traditional art fair layout. The sector will once again be curated by Museo Tamayo Director Magalí Arriola.

Meridians highlights include: Todd Gray’s Sumptuous Memories of Plundering Kings(2021) presented by David Lewis, a 14-part work exceeding 30 feet in length, exploring the history and enduring impact of European colonialism, slavery, and the African diaspora. Another remarkable piece at this sector is Moving Up(2021) by Yinka Shonibare, CBE, an installation presented by James Cohan Gallery capturing the vertical move of six million African Americans from rural Southern states to the cities of the North, Midwest, and West from 1916 to 1970, known today as the Great Migration.

Yinka Shonibare, CBE, Moving Up, 2021. © Yinka Shonibare CBE 2021. Courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo by Stephen White & Co. On view at Meridians.

Bringing together Art Basel’s physical and digital platforms in full scale, the Miami Beach edition will embrace a hybrid format. Following its success at Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Basel in Basel earlier this year, Art Basel Live will amplify the onsite presentations in Miami Beach, transmitting the vibrancy and excitement from the show floor to the broadest possible global audience with a digital program comprising Online Viewing Rooms, virtual walkthroughs of the fair and OVRs, livestreamed conversations, and social media broadcasts.

This year, the Positions sector brings together 19 solo presentations by emerging talents from across the globe. Sector highlights include: first-time participant Afriart Gallery’s presentation of a series of four paintings by Sungi Mlengeya, on the lives of four Black women from East Africa and their views on womanhood; Claudia Peña Salinas’ project, which continues her ongoing research into Aztec mythology, exploring indigenous notions of verticality and symbolism of water, presented by Curro; ‘The New Americans’ by Vincent Valdez, a series of portraits that inspire viewers to challenge the notions of the American perspective, presented by Matthew Brown Los Angeles; and Rele Gallery’s booth with Marcellina Akpojotor, featuring a series of works that honor the life and legacy of the artist’s great-grandmother, exploring ideas of memory, history, and remembrance.

Nova provides a platform for galleries to present new work by up to three artists, this year featuring 25 presentations. Highlights include: a solo exhibition of recent works by 2021 BMW Art Journey winner Julien Creuzet at Document; a group presentation of works by Patricia Belli, Mónica Bengoa, and Catalina Swinburn, inspired by the artists’ local stories of gender inequality, geopolitical diasporas, and the daily use of textiles in Latin America, at Galería Isabel Aninat; centered around the common theme of ‘troubled waters,’ new works by Diedrick Brackens and Jessie Homer French, exploring themes ranging from climate justice to racial violence and historical memory, at Various Small Fires; a selection of never-before-seen works by Felipe Mujica, jointly presented by Proyectos Ultravioleta and von Bartha; and an immersive installation by Ambera Wellmann on the politics of queer space and futurity at Company Gallery.

Todd Gray, Sumptuous Memories of Plundering Kings, 2021. Courtesy the artist and David Lewis. On view at Meridians.

Featuring 17 focused presentations of work created before 2000, Survey introduces five new galleries to the Miami Beach edition, including Welancora Gallery from New York and galerie lange + pult with spaces in Zurich and Auvernier. Further highlights include: the room-sized installation Harlem Quilt(1997) by June Clark at Daniel Faria Gallery; a presentation of rare 20^th-century works by Dindga McCannon at Fridman Gallery; paintings and sculptures spanning nearly three decades by María Freire at Piero Atchugarry Gallery; and a selection of works by Tina Girouard from her early years in New York at Anat Ebgi.

Kabinett Providing galleries with an opportunity to present curated exhibitions in separately delineated spaces within their booths, this year’s Kabinett sector will include 25 presentations by established and emerging artists. Highlights of this section include Roberts Projects’ presentation of community-based portraits by Ghanian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, a series of new paintings exploring the relationships between identity, materiality, and race, that mark a critical evolution for the artist.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2019. © Art Basel.

This year the City of Miami Beach will acquire through its Legacy Purchase Program up to two artworks from the Nova or Positions sectors to enter the City’s public art collection via a public vote. The new acquisitions will be on view at a dedicated publicly accessible area of the MBCC.

“There’s enormous excitement within the artworld on both sides of the Atlantic about Art Basel Miami Beach 2021,” says Marc Spiegler, Global Director of Art Basel. “Not only because it’s our first fair in two years in the Americas, but also because the show has never before featured such a diverse range of voices.”

Art Basel Miami Beach takes place from November 30^thto December 4^that the Miami Beach Convention Center. 1901 Convention Center Drive. Miami Beach, FL, 33139. More information at www.artbasel.com.