Art Basel has announced the highlights of its 2025 edition in Basel, unveiling a dynamic program that reaffirms its role as the definitive event in the global art calendar. Set to take place from June 19 to 22, with Preview Days on June 17 and 18, this year’s edition welcomes 289 leading galleries from 42 countries and territories, presenting works across all media, from early Modern pioneers to cutting-edge digital artists. The fair once again promises to transform the city into a sprawling hub for discovery, with public installations, ambitious presentations, and a newly introduced summit set to reshape how audiences engage with contemporary art.
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Among the most anticipated highlights, German artist Katharina Grosse will turn the Messeplatz into an expansive chromatic environment, altering the fairground’s familiar architecture with vivid color and immersive scale. Curated by Natalia Grabowska, Curator at Large, Architecture and Site-Specific Projects at London’s Serpentine, the piece underscores Art Basel’s ongoing investment in site-specific works that extend beyond conventional gallery space.
Unlimited, curated by Giovanni Carmine, Director of Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen, returns with 67 monumental projects that include installations, performance, and video works by both established names and emerging artists. Also making a strong comeback is Kabinett, the sector dedicated to curated selections within gallery booths, which will feature 22 focused presentations in 2025, inviting visitors to engage more deeply with tightly framed thematic or monographic showcases.
Parcours, curated for the second consecutive year by Stefanie Hessler, Director of New York’s Swiss Institute, will expand into new parts of the city with a theme titled Second Nature. The project explores the shifting boundary between the organic and the artificial, spanning Clarastrasse to the banks of the Rhine and incorporating the historic former Hotel Merian. A satellite installation on Münsterplatz will serve as a connective point between the fair, Greater Basel, and the city’s major institutions, reinforcing the show’s relationship with its urban context.
Further elevating this year’s programming is the introduction of the Art Basel Awards, presented in partnership with BOSS. These new accolades will recognize 36 individuals and organizations across multiple disciplines, including artists, curators, institutions, patrons, and cultural pioneers, for their visionary impact. The honorees will be celebrated during a reception at the fair and will participate in the inaugural Art Basel Awards Summit on June 20. The Summit, open to the public, promises to bring together leading voices in contemporary culture for a day of dialogue on the future of artistic innovation.
The Art Basel Shop also returns in 2025, following its debut last year, offering fairgoers and the public a curated collection of limited-edition art, fashion, and design objects. This retail concept expands Art Basel’s engagement beyond the exhibition floor, positioning the fair as an increasingly hybrid cultural platform that bridges the physical and the collectible.
Maike Cruse, Director of Art Basel in Basel, describes this year’s edition as a moment of expanded possibility: “Katharina Grosse’s bold transformation of Messeplatz will create a vivid, immersive experience. Meanwhile in Parcours, art will spill out into the urban environment, engaging with the city in a profound and evocative way. With the Art Basel Awards Summit, we’re expanding the dialogue around innovation, fostering global connections, and honoring those whose work is redefining the art world.”
As June approaches, Art Basel 2025 signals its readiness not just to present the best in contemporary art, but to reshape how that art interacts with space, audience, and global discourse.
