Sara Jantzen | 17. Juni 2022

Art Basel 2022 – Galleries, Feature & Statements

Galleries is the main sector of Art Basel: over 200 galleries from all over the world exhibit the very best they have on offer. The result is a wild mix of works by very different artist, in many cases even hanging right next to each on the same wall. Most of the gallery booths are not carefully composed exhibitions but rather best-of presentations of works that don’t necessarily go well together.
If any work by a famous modern or contemporary artist is currently on sale, you are likely to find it somewhere in Hall 2. Just to give you an idea, here are a few names: Gerhard Richter, Gustav Klimt, Susan Rothenberg, Louise Bourgeois, Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky, Banksy, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Pablo Picasso, … .
This disorder makes a walkthrough quite exhausting since you constantly have to adapt to something new. Plus, there is so much to see that even after hours and hours you might still not have seen everything.

Nonetheless, it is definitely an interesting experience to drift through the show and discover some personal favorites. For example, I myself liked the two color lithographs by Ellen Berkenblit, Clara (2022) and Clarion (2022), at Sabine Knust, the large acrylic painting Neighborhood Pool (2022) by Katherine Bradford at Kaufmann Repetto, and the “classics” black and white photographies of blast furnaces (Blast Furnaces, Perspective View, 1979-86) by Bernd and Hilla Becher at Fraenkel.

The two sectors Feature and Statements take place within the same Hall as Galleries and because they each focus on one or two artist they are a pleasant and calming change to the busy environment.

Vadehra, a gallery based in New Delhi, showcases works by Balkrishna Doshi in an exhibition called Labyrinth of Dreams. Dashi is a very successful architect who also creates paintings and metal wall sculptures, meant as travels back to childhood, when things were less complicated.
Gypsum is based in Cairo and exhibits large paintings by Ahmed Morsi. The works depict androgynous figures, birds and horses strangely displaced in surrealist spaces.

In the Statements sector, new solo projects by emerging artists compete for the Baloise Art Prize. This year’s winner is Helena Uambembe, represented by Jahmek, based in Luanda. Her installation What you see is not what you remember is a recreates her childhood home in Pomfret, South Africa. It deals with the notion that memories are always reconstructions – so whoever creates them also has the power to alter and omit certain parts for their own benefit.
Proyectos Ultravioleta, a gallery based in Guatemala City, showcases an installation consisting several paintings by Edgar Celel. The work is a tribute to the artist’s family, his primary support system. Two large canvases in one corner of the booth depict the artist’s family, on the opposite wall there is a self portrait of the artist taking a photo of his family.