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

Group show
‘Temps Z’
Mennour, Paris
Until March 30, 2024

Featuring six inaugural graduates from Mennour Emergence, an initiative launched by the gallery to support emerging artists, ‘Temps Z’ presents works by the Beaux-Arts de Paris’s Class of 2023, all born into the ‘end-of-days’ Generation Z. Lucie Antoinette’s paintings, which allude to murky abysses or dense forests, invite us into the unknown territories of the unconscious. Joséphine Berthou proposes an immersive installation that prompts viewers to reflect upon the anxieties and invisible dangers of life online. Taking the form of tableaux set in an apocalyptic future, Thibault Hiss’s sculptures play with the concept of the ready-made, while Nina Jayasuriya uses ceramics and tattoos to describe the effects of mass tourism and globalization in Sri Lanka. Nicolas Kyrillou combines photography and installation to unpack the situation in his native Cyprus, divided after an illegal military invasion in 1974. And in his performances and sound installations, Sehyoung Lee speaks of his identity as lying at a crossroads of influences where Asian, Western and globalized culture meet. J. A.

Wendimagegn Belete
‘Rite of Passage’
NOME, Berlin
Until April 13, 2024

At NOME in Berlin, Ethiopian artist Wendimagegn Belete uses narrative and form to explore history, identity, and spirituality. His exhibition, ‘Rite of Passage’, features four paintings and two sculptural works which showcase his skill in combining medium with message. The paintings originate from silkscreen prints of early-20th-century East African photography, over which the artist layers a flurry of vibrant colors and forms. From a distance, these works give the appearance of technical drawings with architectural details. The two sculptures, crafted from fabrics and items gathered from 70 Ethiopian villages and adorned with strings of wooden beads, highlight communal and ceremonial life. ‘Rite of Passage’ is a dialogue with history, in which Belete’s work serves as a bridge between worlds. A. R.

Farah Al Qasimi
‘Toy World’
The Third Line, Dubai
Until April 19, 2024

Exploring the accelerationist dynamics that have shaped the U.A.E. as a site in which past and future fuse in the present, Farah Al Qasimi has found acclaim for her photographic works defined by juxtapositions and contrasts. Her works capture brightly colored bars of soap in monochromatically tiled bathrooms and patterned dresses atop patterned carpets against walls decorated with equally exuberant prints, creating the effect of a visual score. ‘Toy World’ reflects a significant development in her practice, however, with the inclusion of black-and-white images for the first time, which are presented alongside printouts stuck to the wall with masking tape. In one sequence, the concrete shell of a house under construction and a pile of camel bones flank a central image of a camel’s head covered in flies: a kind of vanitas. S. B.

Group show
‘HARD/SOFT: Textiles and Ceramics in Contemporary Art’
MAK, Vienna
Until May 20, 2024

Focusing on textile and ceramic art, ‘Hard/Soft’ features sculptures, tapestries, weavings, and even musical instruments that have been embroidered, woven, knotted, or fired by more than 40 artists, including Geta Bratescu, Kapwani Kiwanga, Hana Miletić, Willem de Rooij, and Rosemarie Trockel. As objects, textiles and ceramics seem oppositional, but this large-scale, sleeper-hit exhibition underscores that the (thought) processes behind both crafts are inherently fluid, with techniques nearly always coming from sometimes ancient community traditions. Don’t miss the sexy symbolism of Austrian art collective Gelitin’s ceramic tiles near the show’s conclusion. K. B.

Zheng Chongbin
‘Immeasurable Things’
gdm, Hong Kong
From March 21 to June 1, 2024

Following the year-long installation of A 10,000-Year View (2022) – a site-specific commission commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Hong Kong Museum of Art that covered a section of the institution’s windows with layers of see-through mesh and two OLED screens – Zheng Chongbin returns to the city with another immersive experience at gdm. Drawing on influences that range from traditional ink-wash painting to California’s Light and Space movement, Immeasurable Things: Life flows within and without you (2024) is a three-channel video projection – utilizing painted, stained, and collaged xuan paper – that invokes the tenets of shan shui, a branch of ink painting which connects the material with the transcendent, the subjective with the objective. Presented within a black-box setting, the installation invokes the essence of the ink landscape as a realm in which time expands and all things flow.

Laure Prouvost
‘IN THE MIST OF IT ALL, ABOVE FRONT TEARS’
De Pont Museum, Tilburg
Until August 18, 2024

Filled with imaginative landscapes, dystopian scenarios, and humorously dark videos, Laure Prouvost’s practice continuously twists and turns, contrasting fact and fiction, engendering a sense of curiosity and captivation around every corner. For this exhibition, the French artist addresses topics ranging from ecology to the female body to migration in what the museum describes as a ‘surreal, absurdist, and poetic world of her own making.’ The central, large-scale video installation sees the character of ‘Grandma’ – a recurring figure in Prouvost’s practice, most recently explored in her exhibition ‘Ohmmm age Oma je ohomma mama’ at Kunsthalle Wien (2023) – fly high above the clouds, bringing visitors along for the ride. E. M.

Group show
‘Le Contre-Ciel’
Empty Gallery, Hong Kong
From March 24 to May 25, 2024

When Stephen Cheng first opened Empty Gallery, he decided that he would present art in a cavernous, darkened, and dramatic environment – a black cube, if you will, rather than the white cube more commonly associated with commercial galleries. Cheng never veered away from this commitment to radicality, further amplified by the daring artists of his program, such as Jes Fan, Tishan Hsu, and Raha Raissnia. To celebrate its 30th exhibition, Empty Gallery invited curator Olivia Shao to organize a group show continuing her exploration of cultural and spiritual intersections, initiated with ‘Of Mythic Worlds: Works from the Distant Past through the Present’ at the Drawing Center in New York, where she works. The show at Empty Gallery, titled ‘Le Contre-Ciel’, brings together 25 artists from different geographies and generations, including American photogram pioneer Liz Deschenes, Japanese Butoh legend Kazuo Ohno, and French-Canadian painter Magalie Comeau. K. C.

Minh Lan Tran
‘Communications Grounds’
Parliament, Paris
Until April 13, 2024

Like thunderheads, Minh Lan Tran’s paintings are pregnant with imminent catharsis. The Hong Kong-born, London-based artist creates abstract compositions reminiscent of a volcanic, burning landscape: deep browns are laced with thunderbolts of sharp red; rust-colored surfaces gradually stain a chalky canvas, like dense mist enshrouding a rocky slope. What emanates from the suite of works on view at Parliament is a sense of brooding-yet-controlled violence. Tran skillfully orchestrates this painterly symphony, inspired by her interest in Buddhist scriptures and dance. The seductive mystery of her works – not to mention her numerous exhibitions over the past two years – seem to indicate that it’s a recipe for success. K. C.

Wifredo Lam
‘Homecoming’
Asia Society, Hong Kong
From March 23 to June 2, 2024

Titled ‘Homecoming’, Wifredo Lam’s solo show at Asia Society is truly a return for the Cuban-born, Afro-Caribbean Cantonese painter. A giant among 20th-century modernists, who worked with luminaries such as Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant, Lam also befriended the likes of Isamu Noguchi, Roberto Matta, and Victor Serge. Composed of prints, personal memorabilia, and paintings, Lam’s first major exhibition in Hong Kong tracks various chapters of his life, including his initial relocation from Havana to Madrid, where he trained under Salvador Dalí’s former teacher Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor, as well as his later move to Paris, where he connected with the Cubists and Surrealists. Curated by Eskil Lam of the Wifredo Lam Estate with assistant curator Hain Yoon and support from Stéphane Lam of Le Pavillon Rouge des Arts, ‘Homecoming’ also traces the artist’s subsequent moves to Marseille, Cuba, and Italy. S. B.