Farah Al Qasimi, Aviary, 2019. Courtesy of The Third Line.
It’s that time of year again when the great and the good from the international art world descend on the Swiss city of Basel. This year’s fair — in its 49th edition, no less — is shaping up to be an exciting affair with compelling works from emerging artists in the Statements section and pioneering projects at Unlimited, in particular. Among the 290 exhibits, it can be hard to decipher what’s worth seeing and what’s not, so we’ve done the hard work for you, and gathered our top picks from this year’s edition. From casino tabletops made of sand to clementine trees strung with cassette tape, these are the works shaking things up by the artists you need to know.
Xu Zhen — Nirvana (2019), Perrotin
Xu Zhen, Nirvana, 2019. Courtesy of Perrotin and Art Basel.
Chinese artist Xu Zhen is already making waves with his performance/installation piece, Nirvana — consisting of six casino tables intended for games like roulette and baccarat — on display at Art Basel’s Unlimited section, which opened on Monday night. These are not your average tablegames, however. Over the course of the fair, assistants from the artist’s studio will construct the tabletops from sand mandalas — as opposed to felt — using a technique ordinarily used by Tibetan Buddhist monks. At the end of the fair, the meticulously-compiled formations will be swept away in a dramatic interpretation of the Buddhist ideals of creation and destruction Here, capitalism collides with ancient tradition to clever and thought-provoking effect.
Farah Al Qasimi — The Third Line
Farah Al Qasimi, Dyed Pastel Birds, 2019, and Rose 1 (tomato) 2018. Courtesy of The Third Line.
Dubai gallery The Third Line have dedicated their entire booth to the stylised work of emerging photographer and video artist Farah Al Qasimi. Qasimi, who is originally from the United Arab Emirates and is now based in Brooklyn, New York, creates highly saturated, decorated and often visceral scenes situated in her home country. Through a seductive command of colour and pattern, Qasimi lures the viewer in to present complex narratives around gender, national identity, and social norms and conventions. With a solo show coming up this summer at List Visual Arts Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Yale graduate is definitely one to watch.
Sable Elyse Smith — JTT NYC
Sable Elyse Smith, installation view, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and JTT NYC.
Harlem-based artist and writer Sable Elyse Smith is quickly forging a name for herself on account of her smart and engaging multi-disciplinary work that frequently examines the predatory nature of the American incarceration system. Her New York gallery are presenting a selection of works, including video, photography and a large sculptural centrepiece. Consisting of the sort of plastic-topped tables commonly found in prison waiting rooms, Smith’s sculpture is a reimagining of these mundane fixtures as strange, futuristic forms.
Ad Minoliti —Cyberselva-Night (2019), Galerie Crèvecoeur
Ad Minoliti installation view, 2019. Courtesy of Galerie Crèvecoeur.
It’s impossible not to be mesmerised by Argentinian artist Ad Minoliti’s brighly-coloured, oneiric scenes. Her surreal, semi-abstractions, featuring simple circle, square and triangle shapes co-existing alongside anthropomorphic and animal forms, offer a window onto some kind of other realm, a rainbow-hued dreamscape. But don’t be fooled — in spite of their beguiling playfulness, Minoliti’s work frequently challenges established hierarchies across art, society and politics, particularly through a feminist lens. At this year’s Art Basel, she will be presenting Cyberselva-Night (2019) at Galerie Crèvecoeur — an installation that draws on animal symbolism and thinkers such as Donna Harraway to create an alternative vision for a progressive near-future.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan — The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam [inaudible], (2017), Sadie Coles.
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam [inaudible], 2017/2019. Courtesy of Art Basel and Sadie Coles.
Fresh from being nominated for this year’s Turner Prize, the Beirut-based artist is going to be top of everyone’s list of things to see at this year’s fair. At Maureen Paley, Abu Hamdan, who was formerly a member of the art collective Forensic Architecture, will be presenting his 2017 installation, The Recovered Manifesto of Wissam [inaudible]. Consisting of a miniature orchard of fruit trees festooned in cassette tape, the work was inspired by a tape that the artist found in an orange tree in his native Lebanon. Incredibly, the tape contained a recorded manifesto by a man named Wissam, whose last name was inaudible, preaching an Islamic belief in the judicial right to lie when facing religious prejudice. The resulting work makes use of the original recording, all the while drawing our attention to the rarely-considered politics of listening.
Art Basel opens on 13 June through to 16 June 2019.