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The Art Basel opening day was full of interesting art and new works by well known artists. I enjoyed ‘Rockings’ the work of Alicja Kwade at 303 gallery
I bumped into Ryan Stern at Alex Da Corte’s ‘Love is smelling flowers’ 2024
Also at Sadie Coles was a lovely Laura Owens flower painting
And a lovely sculpture by Paloma Varga Weisz
Seth Price was intriguing at Chantal Crousel
At Pezel it was lovely to see a new work by Emily Mae Smith
Then there was the perennial question of “art or not art? For Morag Keil’s ‘Bags’
I am a big fan of Jesse Wine and admired his bronzes ‘that air of life will be kind to him’
Shaun Regan had a wonderful example of Sable Elyse Smith and their ‘Colouring Book 149’
At the Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd was this charming Urs Fischer, ‘Rose Guy’
A great work by Wolfgang Tillmans ‘Intermodal Container in Mongolian Landscape’ at Galerie Buchholz
At Tanya Bonakdar Gallery was a great Haim Stienbach from 1989
The best work in Art Basel was at Jan Kaps by Kresiah Mukwazhi entitled 'The Seven Sisters Pleiades'. The artist has an ongoing engagement with a community of sex workers in the suburbs of Harare to investigate the female body as a site of contested power. Made using salvaged bra straps, torn lace, fabric, and clasps from used lingerie, the work carries the personal histories and lived experiences of their previous owners. The work is very direct and emotional, at the same time as questioning the art historical canons obsession with whiteness and abstraction.
