To mark Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel’s Swiss edition, galleries across the two cities are pulling out all the stops

Brit Barton

Seven must-see shows in Zurich and Basel 

The international artworld is&nbsp;turning its gaze to Switzerland for Art Basel’s June show at Messe Basel and the fifth annual Zurich Art Weekend from June 10–12, 2022, and galleries are rising to the occasion and presenting an array of notable exhibitions. Among the standouts are seven presentations by singular artists (or, in one case, a duo), with artworks addressing everything from the power of painting to the natural versus the built environment to the methodical, mythological qualities of abstraction. With many artists returning to the scene, these exhibitions prove once more that the Swiss artistic community is committed to showcasing celebrated international artists as well as to introducing local heroes to new audiences.

Ida Ekblad, ‘Flyable, Rideable’ <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1386/Karma-International" target="_blank">Karma International</a>, Zurich June 10 – July 16, 2022With ‘Flyable, Rideable’, Oslo-based artist Ida Ekblad returns to Zurich for the first time following her acclaimed solo exhibition ‘FRA ÅRE TIL OVN’ at Kunsthalle Zürich in 2019. As an artist who has made painting, sculpture, outdoor works, and poetry, here Ekblad will present a careful and considered group of eight paintings. Previous works have cross-referenced Norwegian mythology, pop culture, and meta-histories enveloped within a punk ethos that has developed into an enigmatic artistic practice previously seen at the Venice Biennale, Museo Tamayo, and Bergen Kunsthalle, among many others.

Sonja Sekula Galerie Knoell, Basel Through July 2, 2022


	A poignant and gifted abstract expressionist, Sonja Sekula was critically underrecognized and largely forgotten at her time of death in 1963 in Zurich, despite decades living in New York and working among historically lauded mid-century artists, surrealists, and avant-garde figures like André Breton and Jackson Pollock. Over the last 10 years, the Swiss artist has been – like many female artists from this period – ‘rediscovered’ through a dedicated resurgence of interest, permanent collection acquisitions, and exhibitions curated with thoughtful nuance. In this ambitious solo exhibition,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/5452/Galerie-Knoell" target="_blank">Galerie Knoell</a> presents 50 paintings and drawings made between the mid-1940s and 1963. The burgeoning and notable influence of Abstract Expressionism is clear, but obvious nods to Native American folk art in works like Private Totem (1947) and Since Yesterday (1957) give her paintings the worthy gravitas of newfound scholarship and acclaim.

Peter Fischli &amp; David Weiss, ‘Airports and Cars’ Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Maag Areal,&nbsp;Zurich June 11 – July 30, 2022


	


	<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1250/Galerie-Eva-Presenhuber" target="_blank">Galerie Eva Presenhuber</a> is highlighting the quintessential Swiss duo Peter Fischli and the late David Weiss with their photographic ‘Airport’ and sculptural ‘Cars’ series (1987–2012 and 1988, respectively) – two meditative takes on archetypes that have become ultimate visual parlance for the revolution of travel in everyday life. In their creation of the images and the plaster sculptures, a demonstrated stripped-down subject matter and minimalist, ironic aesthetic became a metaphor for standardization against the backdrop of middle-class conformity. The two series can be seen side-by-side in the gallery’s historically significant industrial location, lending further thought to contemplations of changing landscapes.

Theaster Gates, ‘Ashen’ Gagosian, Basel June 13 – July 30, 2022The renowned multivalent, multidimensional artist Theaster Gates returns to Basel with a meditative display of ceramic works five years after his groundbreaking exhibition ‘Black Madonna’ at the Kunstmuseum Basel. While Gates is regarded for a practice foregrounded by ambitious architectural interventions and archival collections, the last few years have been steeped in questions informed by his background in pottery. At&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1123/Gagosian" target="_blank">Gagosian</a>, he carries on this quest through examining pre-historic notions of the vessel through a contemporary lens of labor and material concerns.

Eli Ping Galerie Maria Bernheim, Zurich June 10 – July 27, 2022


	


	Eli Ping’s eponymous solo exhibition at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/3351/Galerie-Maria-Bernheim" target="_blank">Galerie Maria Bernheim</a> – one of Zurich’s edgier spaces that continues to differentiate itself among the institutional atmosphere of the city’s Ramistrasse – marks the Brooklyn-based artist’s first show in Switzerland. Ping is well-known for his exceptional attention to detail and his carefully crafted process designed to replicate organic forms like bone or flesh. His method of utilizing and transforming industrial material, like soaked resin, sanded marble, and stretched canvas, creates highly finished surfaces without any traces of mark-making. For this show, a selection of Ping’s freestanding sculptures and wall hangings will be on display, all of them bearing a striking and uncanny resemblance to what is found in nature without any allusion to the laborious process behind their minimalist aesthetic.

Teresa Margolles, ‘Estorbo’ Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich June 10 – July 29, 2022For her fifth solo exhibition at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1175/Galerie-Peter-Kilchmann" target="_blank">Galerie Peter Kilchmann</a>, Latin American conceptual artist Teresa Margolles presents an expansive multimedia installation based on years of research and residence along the geopolitically charged Colombian-Venezuelan border. With a third of Venezuela’s population of six million having sought refuge in Colombia since 2013, manual labor and illegal activities are often the only opportunities for employment; as such, Margolles has created multiple ongoing projects in collaboration with communities of people seeking new lives, away from their country’s longstanding governmental corruption<w>, poverty, and food insecurity. In thoughtful examinations of labor, production, and pride, Margolles puts forth a poetic interpretation of estorbo, or ‘obstacle’, that focuses on one place but ultimately achieves a universal resonance in a globalized world.&nbsp;</w><section></section>

Sarah Oppenheimer, ‘N-02’ von Bartha, Basel Through July 30, 2022Founded in Basel over 50 years ago, the preeminent and family-run&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1801/von-Bartha" target="_blank">von Bartha</a> gallery has held a long, committed focus on Concrete, Kinetic, and Geometric art – and this exhibition, which opened during Basel’s inaugural Architectural Week biennial, is no different. Known for a practice consumed by the articulation, examination, and embodiment of space, Sarah Oppenheimer created and installed three interconnected ‘instruments’ for ‘N-02’. <w>Each installed instrument holds a perpendicular, elongated black aluminum bar and light track that slides to create a play between light and touch, inviting the audience to manipulate and reorganize the exhibition. Serious and methodical processes beget a playful, hands-on appreciation. </w>Brit Barton is an artist and writer based in Zurich and Chicago.&nbsp;Top image: Detail of Sonja Sekula, Nightpainting at Dawn, 1946. Courtesy&nbsp;of Galerie Knoell, Basel.

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<div>Find out more about&nbsp;current and upcoming events hosted by Art Basel and its&nbsp;galleries in the Swiss cities</div>

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Additional events in Basel and Zurich

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To mark Zurich Art Weekend and Art Basel’s Swiss edition, galleries across the two cities are pulling out all the stops

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