Art Basel Names 291 Exhibitors for Marquee Swiss Fair, Introduces New Section for Art Made in the Past Five Years

Art Basel has named the 291 galleries that will participate in the 2025 edition of its main fair in Basel, Switzerland, scheduled to take place June 19–22, with preview days on June 17–18. This year’s fair will also feature the introduction of a new section focused on ultra-contemporary art.

Of the 291 galleries, 231 will participate in the fair’s main Galleries section, which will include some of the world’s most blue-chip dealerships, including Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, Thaddaeus Ropac, and White Cube. Two galleries will have their Basel debuts in the Galleries section: Arcadia Missa (of London) and François Ghebaly (Los Angeles and New York).

An additional 16 galleries will also show at the Basel fair for the first time, appearing in the Feature and Statements sections, among them Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles) and Ginny on Frederick (London), respectively. Meanwhile, five galleries, including Beijing Commune, Emalin, and Hunt Kastner, will graduate from the fair’s smaller sectors to the Galleries section.

The new sector, called Premiere, will feature 10 galleries who will show work by up to three artists all made within the past five years. For example, London’s Edel Assanti, a first-time participant in Basel, will have a solo booth to Lonnie Holley, while Frankfurt’s Jacky Strenz will dedicate its presentation to the artist Lin May Saeed, who died in 2023. Thematic presentations in Premiere include Gypsum Gallery’s presentation about erosion and regeneration in coastal and volcanic landscapes, with works by Dimitra Charamandas and Basim Magdy, and a presentation about craft and memory from two Asia Pacific artists, Taloi Havini and Patricia Perez Eustaquio, courtesy of Silverlens.

In an emailed interview with ARTnews, Maike Cruse, the director of Art Basel in Basel, said she sees the Premiere section as a way to support its galleries in order to “foster a more inclusive platform” by showing “cutting-edge, recent works.” She added, “Premiere offers a fresh platform for some of the most exciting works being created today,” she told ARTnews. “Premiere will reflect the energy and innovation of the current moment—both in artistic practice and the world at large.”

The new section aims to complete the fair’s other focused parts, like Feature, which focuses on historical work, and Statements, for solo showings of emerging artists. “Premiere, on the other hand,” Cruse said, “is about capturing what’s happening in contemporary art right now, foregrounding precisely curated projects, such as the presentation of a single artist and presentations featuring up to three artists within a curatorial concept. It bridges the experimental and the established, offering a space where collectors, curators, and audiences can engage with artists who are actively shaping today’s landscape.”

Stefanie Hessler, the director of the Swiss Institute in New York, will curate the fair’s Parcours section of public art for the second year in a row. Taking the title “Second Nature,” the sector will “explore the increasingly blurred boundaries between the natural and the artificial,” Cruse said. As with last year, Hessler will tap artists to present works in unexpected spaces throughout Basel as a way add “another layer to the fair’s relationship with the city.” (Details for Parcours will be announced closer to the fair.)

Separate from the Parcours section, acclaimed artist Katharina Grosse will create a site-specific installation in the Messeplatz, just outside the fair hall; Natalia Grabowska, a curator at large at London’s Serpentine Galleries, is organizing that presentation.

The 2024 edition of the Basel fair seemed to suggest that the market had stabilized after several months of a correction. Pointing to the fair’s 91,000 visitors last June, Cruse said she was optimistic about this year’s edition and the strength of the market as it navigates the uncertainty of the Trump administration and its impact on the global art market.  

“Last year demonstrated that serious collectors and institutions remain highly engaged—we saw strong sales across all market segments … and expect that momentum to continue in 2025,” she said. “While we’re mindful of shifts in the global economy and their impact on the art world, the ambition of galleries and artists, along with the enthusiasm of collectors, remains constant. We’re looking forward to another year of meaningful connections and exciting discoveries.”

The full exhibitor list follows below.

Galleries

Edition

Feature

Statements

Premiere