All posts tagged: Basel

Frieze Taps Art Basel Veteran Frank Lasry as Chief Operating Officer

Frieze Taps Art Basel Veteran Frank Lasry as Chief Operating Officer

Published by José Betancourt

Frieze announced today that it has named Frank Lasry as its new chief operating officer, beginning in June. Lasry will report directly to Frieze CEO Simon Fox. With more than two decades of managing blue-chip art world companies, Lasry will bring to Frieze a mix of auction house, art fair, and gallery experience. He was most recently the chief operating officer of Perrotin, managing the logistics and operations across the gallery’s nine locations across the world. Prior to Perrotin, he worked at Art Basel from 2018 to 2023, rising to the role of managing director. During his tenure, he helped launch Art Basel Paris, which hosted its first edition in 2022. Related Articles Lasry cut his art-world teeth in the auction role, holding senior positions at various Christie’s offices before becoming the house’s COO in London. He then went on to serve in the same role for rival Phillips, running its Europe and Asia operations. “Frieze is a unique brand with a mission to expand the reach and understanding of contemporary art, and I could …

Hong Kong Signs Agreement to Keep Hosting Art Basel Fair For 5 Years

Hong Kong Signs Agreement to Keep Hosting Art Basel Fair For 5 Years

Published by José Betancourt

Hong Kong may be halfway through Mega 8, the city’s new name for its months-long lineup of major arts, culture, and sporting events, but the undoubted highlight is this week’s Art Basel Hong Kong. The fair has become a must-attend for locals and a major draw for international visitors, with attendance reaching 80,400 in 2024 and 86,500 last year. As such, it is no surprise that the city has signed a new agreement with Art Basel to ensure it remains the region’s sole host for another five years. Rosanna Law, the special administrative region’s culture secretary, announced the deal on Wednesday, which calls for Art Basel to expand the fair in both scale and impact. Related Articles “We will actively complement the Art Basel fair with top-tier cultural performances and Hong Kong’s mega events, so that attending collectors and art appreciators can experience our city’s unique cultural atmosphere and its charms,” she said, according to Radio Television Hong Kong. While Law confirmed that the fair will continue to be held at the Hong Kong Convention …

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026: Best Booths

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026: Best Booths

Published by Jenni Sidey

Sore feet, lean pockets, sustainability woes—what’s a 21st-century art fair really good for, some might wonder? Surpassing the skepticism, this edition of Art Basel Hong Kong offered a compelling glimpse at the talent flourishing across Asia. Sure, Pace Gallery’s Modigliani made the early headlines—but by our reckoning, the fair belonged to Asia’s modern masters and its next generation of stars, some who sorely deserve their spotlight.   Bright spots abounded in the curated sectors, with especially strong showings from Discoveries and Insights, respectively dedicated to emerging artists and thematic presentations. With a simple sheet and smart lighting, Ho Chi Minh’s Vin Gallery staged a shadow-puppet display of ceramic skeletons by Japanese sculptor Ako Goto. Elsewhere, local outfit Lucie Chang Fine Arts made a compelling case for the canonization of the late Chinese painter Zhu Xinjian, whose traditional ink drawings shock with atypically salacious subject matter. gdm, the Hong Kong-based gallery founded by Fred Scholle in 1974, offered one of the best pairings of established and ascendant artists: Kongkee’s seated figure in a lightbox, revealing a second face when viewed from the side, alongside a suite of abstract paintings by Tang Chang, …

Pace Is Selling a .3 M. Modigliani Painting at Art Basel Hong Kong

Pace Is Selling a $13.3 M. Modigliani Painting at Art Basel Hong Kong

Published by José Betancourt

Just weeks after announcing a symposium for Institut Restellini’s decades-in-the-making Amedeo Modigliani catalogue raisonné, Pace is offering a painting by the artist at Art Basel Hong Kong that was only recently authenticated. The work has a long legal backstory. Titled Jeune femme brune (1917–18), the work is the highest priced piece on offer at the Hong Kong fair, according to ARTnews’s Tessa Solomon, who is on the ground reporting from Art Basel. Pace CEO Marc Glimcher told Solomon that the work is being offered for €11.5 million—about $13.3 million—with several parties bidding on the work. (Glimcher also said that the gallery will be bringing a Modligliani work listed in the new catalogue to each fair this year, in celebration of its publication.) Related Articles That’s a far cry from the painting’s status nearly 30 years ago, when it was pulled from a sale at Phillips in 1997 due to authentication concerns. Marc Restellini, art historian and founder of Institut Restellini, told the auction house in the lead-up to the sale that he was not planning …

Galleries and Museums to Visit During Art Basel Hong Kong

Galleries and Museums to Visit During Art Basel Hong Kong

Published by Jenni Sidey

In 2025, nearly 100,000 people—collectors, curators, and the merely curious—descended on the archipelago of Hong Kong for Art Basel Hong Kong, the biggest and busiest art event on the global calendar. But woe unto any fairgoer in 2026 who confines their time to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre: Even if its 240 galleries dazzle and exhaust in equal measure, Art Basel anchors a constellation of exhibitions and events during Hong Kong Art Week. Some venues have partnered with the fair: Pacific Place, a central shopping mall, is exhibiting Christine Sun Kim’s large-scale video cube, A String of Echo Traps (2022-2023). Tai Kwun, a former police station turned premier arts space, has a host of programming planned, with a noted focus on performance.  Below are a handful of standout offerings from independent galleries, museums, and multidisciplinary spaces. Check back with ARTnews throughout the week for on-the-ground coverage of Hong Kong’s 2026 art and culture calendar.  Lee Bul, Rauschenberg, and Ryuichi Sakamoto at M+ Image Credit: Collection of Leeum Museum of Art © Lee Bul. Photo: Jeon Byung-cheol Courtesy of the artist This week, a day at M+ would be well spent. The museum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century visual …

Art Basel Company MCH is Working On Ideas Festival to Launch in 2028

Art Basel Company MCH is Working On Ideas Festival to Launch in 2028

Published by José Betancourt

James and Kathryn Murdoch are working with MCH Group, the parent company of Art Basel, on a new festival meant to rival the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and other “ideas”-driven gatherings that convene the world’s wealthy and powerful. While details remain scarce and no formal announcement has been made, Vanity Fair’s Nate Freeman reported that he confirmed the in-the-works event with multiple sources. According to Freeman, the project is a joint venture between Lupa Systems, James Murdoch’s investment firm, which holds a controlling stake in MCH, and Futurific, an organization cofounded by Kathyrn Murdoch that produced PBS’s six-part docuseries A Brief History of the Future, which spotlights people working to solve society’s most pressing problems. Futurific’s central focus, based on available materials, appears to be the promotion of “protopia,” a term coined by Wired cofounder Kevin Kelly to describe a vision of incremental societal progress. Related Articles The venture, set to debut in 2028, has been dubbed the Futurific Institute and will be led by CEO Rachel Goslins, the former …

Move Over, Davos: James Murdoch Is Launching a King-Making Ideas Expo, Building on His Art Basel Fairs

Move Over, Davos: James Murdoch Is Launching a King-Making Ideas Expo, Building on His Art Basel Fairs

Published by Sam Flores

“It’s not just a bunch of people talking about big ideas, because that actually will happen in the run-up to the festival,” a source said. “And obviously, there’ll be a robust speaking program and debates about what the future should be.” There are also the gigantic rooms outfitted with top-of-the-line gear. The room that usually houses Art Basel Unlimited on the Messeplatz, a 170,000-square-foot space the size of multiple airport hangars, could be the site of tech presentations that, frankly, are far from possible anywhere in Aspen. “We can use that to actually demonstrate things at scale, because we have these huge—you’ve been to Art Basel—these amazing exhibition halls that you can do all kinds of crazy things in,” a source said. It’ll be a completely separate enterprise, with a different mission, from Art Basel, but the city’s art infrastructure will very much play a part. And it’s the only ideas festival that insiders compared to the Venice Biennale. I mentioned the peace talks. It was stressed to me that Basel has long been a …

Art Basel Exhibitors Revealed

Art Basel Exhibitors Revealed

Published by José Betancourt

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The Headlines BASEL SQUARED. Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland, has revealed the 290 exhibitors from 42 countries participating in its hometown, 2026 edition, from June 18 to 21. This year, 21 first-timers are making the trip, several hailing from an ever-broadening geographic scope, including the Ivory Coast, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, to name a few, according to a press release. In other firsts, Ruba Katrib is curating the fair’s Unlimited, large-scale project showcase, while the fair’s Premiere sector is expanding to 17 presentations for this second iteration. Public commissions by Nairy Baghramian and Ibrahim Mahama will also greet visitors on the Messeplatz and the Münsterplatz, respectively. “This edition reflects both the enduring strength of the field and the exciting directions it is taking next, reinforcing Basel’s role as the global reference point for the market,” stated the fair director Maike Cruse. IN MEMORIAM. The Hungarian artist, filmmaker and curator Dóra Maurer died on February 14 in Budapest at 89, reports Monopol Magazine. A defining …

Art Basel Exhibitor List for 2026 Swiss Flagship Fair

Art Basel Exhibitor List for 2026 Swiss Flagship Fair

Published by Jenni Sidey

Art Basel has announced the 290 galleries that will participate in its 2026 flagship fair in Basel, taking place June 18-21, with the VIP days on June 16 and 17. Exhibitors come from 43 countries and territories, including 21 first-time participants. The main Galleries sector will include 232 exhibitors spanning historical to contemporary work. Twelve galleries enter the sector for the first time, eight of which previously showed in Feature, Statements, or Premiere. Four galleries—Berry Campbell (New York), Tim Van Laere Gallery (Antwerp and Rome), Phillida Reid (London), and Ortuzar (New York)—will debut directly in the main section. Related Articles Premiere, dedicated to work made within the past five years, expands from 10 to 17 presentations in its second edition. Three galleries—Ehrhardt Flórez, Magenta Plains, and Öktem Aykut—join the sector for the first time. Two public commissions tied to the inaugural Art Basel Awards will be unveiled during the fair. Nairy Baghramian will present a work on the Messeplatz, and Ibrahim Mahama will install a large-scale project on the Münsterplatz. Unlimited will be organized for …

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 Reveals Program Highlights

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 Reveals Program Highlights

Published by José Betancourt

Art Basel returns to Hong Kong this March with 240 galleries and an expanded program, including a reimagined Encounters section and the Asia debut of the digital-focused Zero 10. Following its debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in December, Zero 10’s first Hong Kong outing will feature 14 exhibitors with a program that includes digital animations by DeeKay examining psychological states through the lens of early video games (via a presentation by AOTM); a meeting of AI, sculpture, installation, and traditional ink painting featuring works by Seneca, Qu Leilei, Tim Yip (at Asprey Studio); and a “participatory blockchain -based work” by Robert Alice (at Onkaos). Related Articles For this year’s edition, Encounters will be organized by curatorial team led by Mami Kataoka, director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. She will work with curators Isabella Tam, Alia Swastika, and Hirokazu Tokuyama on the section, which will feature 12 large-scale sculptures, installations, and performances designed to “transcend” the conventional gallery booth, according to a release. The curatorial vision draws on the Five Elements, an ancient …