From June 19 to 22, 2025, Basel will once again become the nerve center of the contemporary art world with Art Basel 2025, an event that brings together over 290 leading galleries and more than 4,000 artists from around the globe. Throughout the fair week, Basel transforms into a true art city, with top-tier exhibitions running concurrently with the event, engaging the entire region in an unparalleled cultural experience.
The event is structured into distinct sectors, each with a specific focus, ranging from monumental installations to projects dedicated to emerging artists, as well as meticulously curated historical exhibitions. This division allows every artistic expression to be showcased in its best light, offering visitors a broad and immersive overview of contemporary trends and art history. Among the standout galleries participating this year are A Gentil Carioca, Miguel Abreu Gallery, Acquavella Galleries, Air de Paris, Antenna Space, Applicat-Prazan, The Approach, Arcadia Missa, Art : Concept, and Alfonso Artiaco, reaffirming Art Basel as one of the most prestigious art fairs in the world.
Art Basel 2025: Experimentation, History, and New Artistic Visions
Art Basel 2025 stands as a boundless laboratory of creativity, where the boldest artistic expressions meet the great traditions of the 20th century and the most exciting emerging trends. One of the fair’s most innovative sectors is Unlimited, a pioneering platform that goes beyond the limits of conventional exhibition spaces. Here, galleries can present large-scale works, including monumental installations, massive sculptures, expansive murals, complete photography series, immersive video projections, and live performances. Some of these pieces are even created on-site, perfectly adapting to the 16,000 square meters of space dedicated to this sector. The Art Basel Selection Committee curates the selection of works, while Giovanni Carmine oversees the exhibition layout in close collaboration with the galleries to ensure an unparalleled presentation experience. Adding to the appeal of this sector is the return of Unlimited Night on Thursday, June 19, allowing visitors to explore the installations during extended hours with special performances.
Alongside Unlimited’s experimental approach, Art Basel is also a place where the roots of modern art can be rediscovered. The Feature sector is dedicated to historical presentations of artists who shaped the 20th century, with carefully curated exhibitions offering a deeper insight into their impact on contemporary art. This space serves as a bridge between past and present, fostering a continuous dialogue between tradition and innovation.
Allégorie du char (2025) Photography by Bettina Dupont
Tangle (2016) Photography by Aurélia Cheret
Among the emerging talents redefining contemporary artistic language, ArtMajeur features artists such as Bettina Dupont and Aurélia Cheret, who stand out for their conceptual and visually striking works, exploring human experience, mythology, and the perception of reality through photography.
Bettina Dupont’s "Allegory of the Chariot" (2025) draws inspiration from Plato’s allegory of the chariot, which symbolizes the nature of the human soul, divided between a mortal being anchored to the earth and an immortal being striving towards the heavens. Through a meticulously composed photographic scene, Dupont captures this duality, reflecting on the eternal tension between rationality and emotion, materiality and transcendence. Born in 1996, Dupont is a self-taught French contemporary artist who began studying conceptual photography in 2011 and later expanded her practice to include painting in 2023. Her work is deeply rooted in symbolism and folklore, crafting narratives that question human existence, morality, and the passage of time. Every detail in her compositions is carefully considered, resulting in imagery that stimulates introspection and invites personal interpretation from the viewer.
Similarly, Aurélia Cheret explores surrealism and minimalism in her powerful self-portraits and abstract photographic compositions. Her piece "Tangle" (2016) is a captivating exploration of the human body as fragmented yet interconnected, emphasizing form, movement, and shadow. Beginning her journey in film photography as a teenager, Cheret later pursued formal training in art history and photography, studying at the Campus des Métiers in Bobigny, France. Her professional experience in photographic studios allowed her to refine her expertise in retouching, studio work, and fine art printing, ultimately shaping her distinctive artistic style.
Art Basel cotinues with the vanguard of contemporary artistic discovery is Statements, a sector dedicated to emerging artists. This space showcases bold and innovative solo projects, offering a fresh and fearless perspective on the current art scene. Artists featured in this sector also compete for the prestigious Baloise Art Prize, an award that has launched many significant artistic careers, making Statements a key reference point for those seeking the most promising voices in contemporary art.
Art Basel never stops looking forward, and the 2025 edition marks the debut of Premiere, an entirely new sector dedicated to the latest artistic productions. This space will feature innovative curatorial projects, ranging from exhibitions focused on a single artist to showcases presenting up to three artists within a unified curatorial concept. Premiere thus becomes a showcase for the present and the future of art, offering a window into the latest global artistic explorations.
Paint your dream (Onemizer x JonOne) (2025) Print by Jonone
Additionally, Art Basel places special emphasis on serial artworks, limited-edition prints, and multiples. The Edition sector highlights a selection of the top galleries and publishers specializing in reproducible art. This space provides an excellent opportunity to introduce new collectors to high-quality works at more accessible prices, opening the doors of art to an increasingly broad and diverse audience.
In the realm of contemporary prints and engravings on ArtMajeur, JonOne, the artistic pseudonym of John Andrew Perello, stands out as a pioneer who has successfully transformed his street art aesthetic into a unique visual language, adapting it to the techniques of fine art printing. His work "Paint your dream" (2025), created in collaboration with Onemizer, is a perfect example of this transition, maintaining the spontaneity and energy of graffiti while embracing the refinement of printmaking techniques.
Originally from Harlem, New York, JonOne was captivated from a young age by the vibrant colors of graffiti that adorned subway cars and city walls. At just 17 years old, he began leaving his mark by creating his signature tag "Jon156", quickly becoming a key figure in the urban graffiti scene. In 1984, he founded the "156 All Starz" collective, a crew of artists dedicated to painting trains—an activity that for them was not just an artistic expression but also a form of resistance and survival in the challenging conditions of the metropolis.
His move to Paris in 1987 marked a significant turning point in his career. There, embraced by the city's vibrant art scene, he began shifting his art from the streets to canvases and later to fine art prints, expanding his creative scope and merging urban dynamism with contemporary artistic techniques.
Art Basel 2025: Dialogues, Urban Installations, and Ecological Art
Art Basel 2025 is not just an art exhibition—it is an opportunity to explore, discuss, and redefine the world of contemporary art and culture. One of the most engaging spaces within the fair is Conversations, a program of talks and debates that brings together some of the most influential cultural figures in the art world. Through direct discussions and idea exchanges among artists, curators, collectors, and critics, this sector serves as a critical hub for analyzing the key themes shaping the future of art. With a schedule of live debates, Conversations offers visitors the chance to listen and learn from leading voices, delving into the major shifts and emerging trends transforming the art industry today.
However, the dialogue with art extends beyond the exhibition halls. One of the most anticipated moments of the fair is Parcours, a sector that turns Basel’s Old Town into an open-air museum. The historic streets of the city become a stage for site-specific installations, designed to interact with the surrounding architecture and cultural memory. Each work is conceived to merge seamlessly into the urban fabric, fostering a dialogue between past and present, between the historical identity of the city and contemporary artistic experimentation. Under the curatorship of Stefanie Hessler, Parcours transforms Basel into an immersive artistic journey, where every corner of the city becomes part of an experience that transcends traditional gallery spaces.
The 2025 edition of Art Basel also marks the return of one of the fair’s most significant interventions: the Messeplatz Project, featuring conceptual artist Agnes Denes, a pioneer of land art and ecological art. This project pays tribute to her iconic 1980s work, Wheatfield – A Confrontation, reinterpreted for a contemporary audience. The original installation transformed a vast urban space in New York into a golden wheat field, making a powerful symbolic statement about the relationship between progress, consumption, and nature. In 2025, Denes brings this concept to Basel, reimagining the piece to reflect today’s environmental challenges. Curated by Samuel Leuenberger, the Messeplatz Project reaffirms Art Basel’s commitment to promoting art as a tool for ecological and social awareness, blending aesthetics, conceptual depth, and environmental responsibility.
With a program rich in innovative projects, historical exhibitions, and new sections dedicated to the latest artistic research, Art Basel 2025 reaffirms itself as one of the most important events in the contemporary art world. From the monumental works of Unlimited to the urban installations of Parcours, and the emerging talents showcased in Statements, the fair provides a comprehensive overview of global artistic dynamics.
Selena Mattei