The Contemporary Art Travellers

Again, it’s that thrilling time of the year! Art Basel has open its doors and streets with galleries from all over the world.

In the UNLIMITED section you can discover the best artworks for big commissions and museums like. Here a selection of artsits galleries and booths that I’ll suggest to visit.

François Morellet (1926-2016) was a major representative of postwar geometric abstraction and a pioneer of minimal and conceptual art. Pier and Ocean is an enclosed space within which the soft pulsating light of a neon tube composition recreates the movement of the sea. Morellet invited Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata (1953) to create a wooden jetty leading the viewer into the installation. In 2014, Morellet said: ‘For over half a century, the works that have served as my models and which always give me great pleasure when I see one, are the works from the series Pier and Ocean, which Mondrian painted in 1914.’

Yinka Shonibare CBE RA (born 1962 in London) The African Library is a commemoration to those who played a significant role in the African independence movements. The installation consists of thousands of books covered in the artist’s signature Dutch wax fabrics, with the names of notable figures from the continent’s past and present printed on the book spines. Highlighted are those who supported and fought for independence whilst other books bear the names of preeminent Africans who have helped shape the continent’s modern identity since self-rule. These names include the heads of state, both good and bad, and the names of Africans both on the continent and from the diaspora, who have made consequential contributions to aspects of African life.

Cornelia Parker’s PsychoBarn (Cut Up) was created from selected elements of an earlier work, Transitional Object (PsychoBarn), from 2016, which was commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum, New York. This was a facsimile of the famed mansion from the 1960 Hitchcock film Psycho, constructed from pieces of an archetypal American old red barn. The new installation deconstructs that building as an exploded view. The windows, doors, panels, and the corrugated metal roof have been weathered by seasons spent on both sides of the Atlantic. The panels are formally presented as a salon hang, seeming to hover over the surface of three walls with some occupying the floor. The shingled roof, windows, porch, and stairs are reordered using the Dadaist cut-up technique to create a new composition, a kind of inside-out barn raising.

Gerard Richter (1932) presents a standing over 3 meters tall, STRIP-TOWER is an installation that unites several threads of the artist’s continuing inquiry into the nature of visual representation. Presented by David Zwirner at Unlimited, for $2.5m. For decades, Gerhard Richter has created works using glass and mirrored surfaces, harnessing their reflective properties and enhancing our perception of the built environment. Here, for the first time, Richter presents a sculptural version of his Strip paintings (2011-2015) – derived digitally from the groundbreaking Abstrakte Bilder, combining painting, photography, and print reproduction – thus expanding his analytical and experimental approach to the painted medium into three dimensions. The work is constructed with eight glossy perpendicular panels that reflect their surroundings, effectively collapsing the division between the picture plane and the outside world.

In this monumental work, Giuseppe Penone (1947) employs a unique technique to recreate the imprint of a mouth from the skin’s surface onto a canvas. He enlarges the patterns captured by the mouth’s imprint and records them using acacia thorns, creating an image that resembles a landscape or forest when viewed up close or from the side. Individually, the thorns symbolize the myriad nerve endings responsible for the sensitivity of our skin and its ability to capture information.

This exceptional piece is part of a well-known series through which the artist explores skin – hence touch, not seeing – as the primary place of contact between our body and the outside world.

The best booths into the fair are Tucci Russo, Minini celebrating his 50th years since the gallery opening, with Carla Accardi, Anish Kapoor, Landon Metz and Formafantasma. House of Gaga from Mexico City will show an installation by Mexican artist Karla Kaplun. OMR with Troika, Compte Ahahahaha, Josè Davìla;  Continua with Pistoletto, Leandro Erlich Nuvole, Carlos Cruz Diez installation, Carlos Garaicoa, Pascale Tayou, Shilpa Gupta; Galerie Lelong with Ficre Ghebreyesus, Etel Adnan; White Cube and Anthony Gormley.

Apart for the fair you can visit Foundation Beyeler few kilometres outside Basel city, showing Jean Michael Basquiat Modena Paintings.

This summer, an addiction to the usual exhibition spaces, Swiss artist Claudia Comte will take-over and transform the facade of Basel’s historical department store Globus with a large-scale installation that offers passers-by a moment of contemplation in their daily routines. Waves, Cacti and Sunsets is the first iteration of the “Globus Public Art Project”.

I love Cacti!!!!!