Art Basel Online Viewing Rooms: Magalí Arriola, director of the Museo Tamayo, Mexico, shares her favorites
Ragnar Kjartansson, Miriam Cahn, and Toshinobu Onosato are among the picks
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Art Basel debuted its digital platform, the Online Viewing Rooms, with 235 galleries showing over 2,000 pieces. To help our readers navigate these first virtual aisles, curators have been invited to preview the offering and share what caught their eye. Here, Magalí Arriola, curator of the Meridians sector and director, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City shares her picks.
Isabella Ducrot - solo presentation by Galerie Gisela Capitain
In Isabella Ducrot’s works on paper, kitchen cloths and other utensils are repeatedly depicted with extreme delicacy and simplicity, enacting a creative process in which raw surfaces and bare textures are used to evoke the cultural structures of different societies. Presented by Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne.
Toshinobu Onosato - solo presentation by Watanuki Ltd. | Toki-no-Wasuremono, Tokyo
Through this chronological selection of Toshinobu Onosato’s bright watercolors and intricate oil paintings, one can follow the Japanese artist transitioning from the full descriptive shapes of the mid- and late 1950s to his period depicting a series of broken, overlapping, and system-like circles from the 1980s. Presented by Watanuki Ltd. | Toki-no-Wasuremono, Tokyo
Philippe Parreno, Marilyn, 2012
It is very inspiring to consider Simon Fujiwara’s mixed-media installation Rebekkah (2012) (please note, this is no longer available in the Viewing Room, but other works by the artist are) – which is modeled on the fears and desires of a 16-year-old girl who took part in the London riots of 2011 – against the backdrop of Philippe Parreno’s Wallpaper, Marilyn (2018). The latter references the French artist’s video Marilyn (2012), which invokes the presence and intimacy of the dead actress. Presented by Esther Schipper, Berlin.
This broad selection of Miriam Cahn’s magnificent work highlights the contrast between her colored, expressionistic, feminine figures and the more schematic ones that feature soldiers and warriors, dead or alive. Presented by Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Paris.
Ragnar Kjartansson, Scenes from Western Culture, 2015
Inspired by the exuberant theatricality of the pastoral paintings of Antoine Watteau, Ragnar Kjartansson’s installation Scenes from Western Culture (2015) operates as a series of critical vignettes of social life. They become all the more so when considered against the backdrop of the harsh landscapes featured in his work on canvas. Presented by Luhring Augustine, New York.
The Online Viewing Rooms launched on March 18, and closed on March 25, 2020, but collectors can still contact galleries using the contact details on the individual gallery page. Information about the next edition will be released soon.
Magalí Arriola is Director of Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and is the curator of Meridians in Art Basel Miami. She was KADIST Lead Curator for Latin America from 2016 to 2019, and curated the Mexican Pavilion for the 58 Venice Biennial.