Every six weeks, members of Art Basel’s Editorial team pick their favorite exhibitions across the globe. Here are seven shows not to miss in April.

Yan Xinyue
‘A prayer for the sunset’
sans titre, Paris
Until April 15

For her debut solo show in Paris, the Chinese-born, LA- and Shanghai-based artist Yan Xinyue presents a series of paintings inspired by urban and domestic scenes and the art deco buildings of downtown Los Angeles. Painted windows, bricks, ornaments, and other architectural elements frame the compositions, which depict an ensemble of surreal human figures and faces, birds, cats, and flowers. In Twilight and dreams (2023), for instance, a group of angels seems to fly away towards a mystical source of light – probably the sunset suggested in the title of the show. Between reality and memory, the artist conveys the idea of finding solace: as we observe the protagonists of the paintings, we feel somehow comforted. P. S.

Simon Fujiwara
‘Who is Who-Dimensional?’
Gió Marconi, Milan
Until April 19

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Simon Fujiwara created Who The Bær – a cartoon character of thrilling versatility. Genderless, ageless, and ever-shapeshifting, the ursoid figure has become Fujiwara’s vessel of choice to explore one of his core interests: identity and its evolving perception. At Gió Marconi, the artist’s cute plantigrade is the protagonist of zingy paintings, drawings, and collages referencing famous artworks. They are fused with Michelangelo’s David (1501–1504) and pop up in the blue waters of a swimming pool similar to the one in David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash (1967) – effectively disrupting these iconic works by male artists with their elusive, decisively contemporary presence. K. C.

Oroma Elewa
‘Corporate Ashawo’
In Situ – fabienne leclerc, Romainville
Until April 29

In ‘Corporate Ashawo’, the Nigerian-born American artist, Oroma Elewa, explores the links between gender, race, sex, money, and power, through a series of large black and white photographs juxtaposed with spicy diatribes. Elewa’s characters, taken from the golden age of Nollywood (Nigerian cinema), present unscrupulous and uncensored women who use and mock men, reducing them to their financial status or their sex. Through these pairings of image and text, the artist offers her interpretation of feminist discourse in the light of the experience of African women within the diaspora. J.A.

Erin Jane Nelson
‘Sublunary’
Chapter NY, New York
Until May 6

Pre-pandemic, Erin Jane Nelson found inspiration in bodies of water. Then, during the various lockdowns, the Atlanta-based artist rooted her practice in her immediate surroundings: land. Now, she has merged the two through an investigation of a hybrid landscape: the swamp. Nelson spent a year traveling to, observing, drawing, and making photographs of the Okefenokee, a blackwater swamp straddling the states of Georgia and Florida in the US. This became the basis of the new body of work on view in ‘Sublunary’. Ranging from wall-based amoeba-like ceramic sculptures to silk quilts, the works present the Okefenokee – and, swamps in general – as sites of resilience. Nelson reminds viewers that although the swamp is a place laden with complicated histories and a contested present, it holds great generative potential for the future. E.M.

Adrian Ghenie
Galeria Plan B, Berlin
Until May 13

Galeria Plan B has moved to a new location at Strausberger Platz close to Capitain Petzel and Peres Projects in a historic East Berlin district. The freshly renovated Romanian gallery opens its two-story space with an expansive exhibition of new work by Adrian Ghenie, one of the gallery’s founders. Both somber and slapstick, these paintings, charcoal drawings, and preparatory studies by Ghenie contain contextual clues, such as street signs, furniture, or typical Berlin high rises. Yet the warped and swirling figures offer up few suggestions as to their – or the artist’s – thoughts. Curator Mihnea Mircan adds to the intrigue, describing the figures as ‘time-travelers’ flailing in ‘space and time.’ A.R.

Group show
‘Exposé∙es’ (Exposed)
Palais de Tokyo, Paris
Until May 14, 2023

This exhibition is inspired by Elisabeth Lebovici’s 2017 book What AIDS Did to Me: Art and Activism at the End of the 20th Century. It explores the manifestations and consequences of sickness – in particular HIV/AIDS, which has killed over 40 million people, according to the World Health Organization. Works by more than 40 contributors are on view, investigating a subject that remains taboo to this day. But ‘Exposé∙es’ is not a show about death. A suite of portraits by the South African collective Bambanani Women’s Group, as well as multimedia installations by yann beauvais and the artist duo Régis Samba-Kounzi and Julien Devemy are only some of the works that appear, instead, to be teeming with the energy of life. K.C.

Ming Smith
‘Projects: Ming Smith’
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Until May 29

‘The subconscious is ahead of your mind … The way that artists discover things is through the subconscious,’ states Harlem-based Ming Smith, explaining how she works from within herself and embraces the element of chance in long-exposure photography. In her ensuing dreamscapes, her characters appear to meld into their surroundings. The exhibition traces Ming’s friendships with musicians, dancers, and artists, including with the pioneering Kamoinge Workshop photography collective, across five decades. The striking installation, resembling the dynamics of a jazz score, represents a homecoming for Smith, who was the first African American female photographer to show at MoMA in 1979. See Ming Smith in Conversation here. E.B.

Art Basel’s Editorial team is composed of Juliette Amoros, Tatiana Berg, Emily Butler, Karim Crippa, Jeni Fulton, Andi Harris, Alexis Laki, Coline Milliard, Alicia Reuter, Katie Rothstein, and Patrick Steffen. Art Basel’s commissioning editors are Stephanie Bailey, Kimberly Bradley, and Emily McDermott.

Published on March 30, 2023.

Caption for full-bleed image: Hervé Guibert, Sienne, 1979, presented in the show ‘Exposé∙es’ (Exposed) at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Courtesy of Christine Guibert and Les Douches la Galerie (Paris).