Every June, the typically sleepy Swiss city of Basel becomes the global epicentre of the art world, roaring to life for the pioneering art fair that is arguably its most famous brand. Indeed, Art Basel has, over its 55 years in operation, become a flagship cultural institution. Though its Miami edition may be flashier, its Hong Kong version more daunting in scale, and its newly minted Paris fair more grand for its setting, the Basel show is the mothership – the OG edition where, typically, you can expect to see the best work.
That’s certainly the case at this year’s iteration, which took place over the past week. While it’s a knowingly commercial context, the works seen across the fair comprise the zenith of available works on the contemporary and modern art markets. Among them this year were booths and public projects by some of Britain’s pioneering artists, with the likes of Rhea Dillon, Ebun Sodipo, Alexandra Metcalf and Lubaina Himid taking Basel by storm.
To start with Dillon, the swiftly rising young London-based artist, writer and poet presented Leaning Figures at Soft Opening’s booth on the main fair’s second floor. An extension of her sustained meditation on the material expression of colonial narratives – in particular the material expression of Black feminist history, theory and thought – she offered an arresting series of wall-mounted, mahogany-framed glass boxes, each containing the kinds of vaguely kitschy cut-crystal bowls that you’ll often find in the fine glass cabinets in many a Black British home – or that you did in mine, at least. Slicked with molasses – and in some cases Jamaican soil – Dillon envisages the ornate, fragile objects as Black bodies at rest. It was a powerful, meditative presentation from one of the UK’s most deftly critical young artists – a fact that was formally recognised by her winning of the prestigious Baloise Art Prize.
