All great artists have a voice of their own, and the same is true of the galleries that champion them. This year, Art Basel Miami Beach will feature more new galleries than at any point since 2008. Taking place from December 6–8, 2024, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the fair will welcome 34 first-time participants, an eclectic group hailing from across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Below are seven of those galleries and the exciting work they will showcase, bringing even greater diversity to the show.

Gallery Baton (Galleries sector, Seoul, South Korea)

In addition to being a prime supporter of South Korea’s emerging artists through its residency program, Gallery Baton has an international roster that acts as a kind of litmus test for contemporary art. The rich diversity of the gallery’s artists will be showcased at the fair, including Yuichi Hirako, who hybridizes painting, sculpture, and installation; French artist Claire Fontaine’s evocative portraits; and the poetic meditations of Doki Kim, whose materials include gravity itself. All of Gallery Baton’s works at the booth will explore the role of art in relation to the global environmental crisis.

Jan Kaps (Galleries sector, Cologne, Germany)

The human body serves as the central theme for the artists featured at Jan Kaps’ booth. They include Melike Kara, whose expressionistic style utilizes spare linework and collage; Mexican sculptor Berenice Olmedo, known for her work with prosthetics and medical devices; and Syrian painter Rasha Omar, whose ghostly figures, enveloped in a green pallor, echo the community she left behind after fleeing Syria at the outbreak of the civil war. All the artists from Kaps’ roster share an interest in themes of identity, queerness, and gender.

Tim van Laere Gallery (Galleries sector, Antwerp, Belgium)

Founded in Antwerp in 1997, Tim van Laere Gallery presents a diverse program that includes the provocative art collective Gelitin and American skateboarder-turned-artist Ed Templeton. Three distinct artists will be placed in dialogue with one another at the booth: Austrian sculptor Franz West – the late artist known for his unmistakable anthropomorphic figures – will be shown alongside Romanian painter Adrian Ghenie and Japanese-Swiss multimedia artist Leiko Ikemura. Ghenie employs historical techniques like chiaroscuro to create nightmarish, hallucinatory figures, while Ikemura explores cross-cultural social norms with spectral, feminine forms.

Martos Gallery (Galleries sector, New York, US)

The 1980s were a turning point – politically, socially, and culturally – and especially so in New York. Martos Gallery will present works by six artists from this pivotal period, including Keith Haring, who epitomizes the fusion of street and fine art, and Dan Asher, whose diverse practice spans sculpture, performance, video, and drawing. Also featured will be Michael Auder, an experimental photographer and filmmaker associated with Warhol’s Factory, and Kathleen White, a member of the Downtown scene whose intimate works responded to the profound losses of the AIDS crisis.

Gallery Vacancy (Nova sector, Shanghai, China)

Founded in 2017, Gallery Vacancy acknowledges its fresh arrival on the world stage with its name, indicating an openness to new artists. It has since developed an impressive program, three of whom will be on view at Art Basel Miami Beach: Henry Curchod, whose monumental paintings and sculptural installations are narrative-driven and encourage prolonged engagement; Sydney Shen, who examines the limitations of mentality in her enticing yet horrifying sculptures and installations; and Michael Ho, a second-generation Chinese immigrant born in the Netherlands who delves into notions of diaspora through richly patterned paintings.

ILY2 (Survey sector, Portland, US)

The alternative gallery ILY2 operates out of a mall in Portland, Oregon, taking a deeply subversive approach to retail in the arts. Focusing on feminist art and artists, ILY2’s presentation at the fair will feature American artist Bonnie Lucas. Lucas spent decades hand-sewing abstract, low-relief assemblages from sewing tools and dollar-store items. These assemblages are at once girly, provocative, and kitschy – functioning as both critiques and celebrations of consumer goods and their relationship to femininity.

Carmo Johnson Projects (Positions sector, São Paulo, Brazil)

Working with Brazilian and Indigenous artists, gallerist Carmo Johnson has developed a riveting program that centers on the relationship between artistic practice and the environment. At Art Basel Miami Beach, Johnson will present paintings by MAHKU, an artist collective comprising members of the Huni Kuin Indigenous group from the western region of the Brazilian Amazon. Their radiant facade at this year’s Venice Biennale depicted the myth of a giant alligator that let humans cross the Bering Strait on its back. Carmo Johnson’s booth will present paintings by the collective that visualize the experience of sacred ayahuasca chants and myths.

作者與圖片標題

Art Basel Miami Beach will take place from December 6 to 8, 2024. Get your tickets here.

Rob Goyanes is a writer and editor from Miami, Florida. His work has appeared in BOMB, e-flux journal, Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Cover image: View of Art Basel Miami Beach 2023.

Published on October 28, 2024.