The Best Booths at Art Basel, From a Revisionist ‘Origine du Monde’ to Jellyfish-Like Creatures

Wael Shawky at Sfeir-Semler Gallery

“We wanted to bring the sun to Basel, because we are in Hamburg all year long,” joked a spokesperson for Sfeir-Semler Gallery, pointing out Marwan Rechmaoui’s sun-shaped wall sculpture. Nearby was a vibrant, checkered painting by Lebanese American artist Etel Adnan and an acrylic on papier maché bas-relief by Palestinian American artist Samia Halaby, a pioneer of abstract painting.

But this booth’s true stars were ceramic versions of grotesque masks that Wael Shawky has featured in his films, which have dealt with topics ranging from the Crusader invasions of Egypt in the 12th century to the country’s nationalist Urabi revolution against imperial influence during the 19th century. (The latter subject acts as the basis of a new work currently on view at the Egyptian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.) Each piece on view at Art Basel evokes Greek mythology and commedia dell’arte stereotypes.

Lisa Brice at Sadie Coles HQ

Gustave Courbet lovers will identify in this painting a depiction of his famed 1866 canvas L’Origine du Monde, rendered here in Lisa Brice’s signature cobalt blue. But the South African–born, London-based artist’s take on Courbet’s close-up of a woman’s vulva is a subversion of that piece. Rather than simply re-presenting Courbet’s image, Brice depicts the work’s model peering down toward her waist and painting it herself. It’s all a part of Brice’s ongoing effort to challenge well-known images in Western art history where women appear like passive objects. The empowered female painter on display in Brice’s newest painting is driven by her own desire—she depicts what she sees, just how she wants it.

Jean-Michel Othoniel at Perrotin

With three floors, Perrotin has what might be the largest booth in Art Basel—it feels like a mini-fair unto itself within the mega-fair. The French gallery has extended the last mezzanine of its usual spot on the second floor of the Herzog & de Meuron building to create what it’s calling a “sculpture park,” with works here by Claire Tabouret, Johan Creten, and Takashi Murakami. Plus, there are also attractive paintings by Ali Banisadr, a new addition to the gallery’s roster.

The finest art brought to the fair by Perrotin is actually outside this booth, however. In the adjacent Kabinett section, there are works by Jean-Michel Othoniel, whose sculptures engage the concept of “emotional geometry.” His “Wild Knots” sculptures are the result of a 10-year collaboration with Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo; they also reference Jacques Lacan’s theory of the Borromean knot, a diagram that represents how humans perceive the world. Within Kabinett, Othoniel is also presenting a large abstract painting, building on his fascination with the symbolic potential of plants and flowers. Similar works can be found in his current show at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Finland.

Eva Koťátková at Meyer Riegger

Meyer Riegger’s booth goes heavy on blue textile works, with a Sheila Hicks linen piece placed in dialogue with a pair of jeans borrowed from one of Alexandra Bachzetsis’s performances. In a similar vein, there is an installation—composed of a table covered with fabric, scissors, reels of thread, and a sewing machine—by Eva Koťátková, whose art figures in the Czech Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. This work, titled Dream of More Skins (2022), may be interpreted as a metaphor for Koťátková’s practice more broadly, since she often combines textile and performance. Her art can also be seen in the Parcours sector, where she is showing My Body is not an Island, a installation filled with crates, costumes, and sculptures that come to life through performances, text, and sound.

Nour Jaouda at Union Pacific

Nour Jaouda’s textile pieces alluding to forms of perseverance at the current Venice Biennale proved particularly memorable. For Art Basel’s Statement sector, devoted to emerging artists competing for the fair’s Baloise Art Prize, the young Libyan artist has another notable work: a brand-new installation that reconciles her early interest in architecture with her more recent fascination with natural landscapes, which are, to her, the keepers of memory and truth. She turned to nature after reading a poem by Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, and this got her thinking about the olive trees in her beloved grandmother’s garden in Libya.

The installation, titled The Shadow of Every Tree, consists of a vibrant textile work hanging behind an imposing metal gate, whose patterns refer to both Islamic motifs and the architectural legacies of French and British colonizers. “I wanted to create a liminal space that would disrupt the viewers movements, to question our relationship to borders,” she said in an interview. “I see our cultural identities as a process of becoming. Plants do not rely on one root. Similarly, we grow from various experiences.”

Mona Hatoum at Galerie Chantal Crousel

Mona Hatoum’s installation Fossil Folly (group of 2) IV has come straight from last year’s Sharjah Biennial to this booth. This work consists of two red barrels, slightly damaged and covered with plant-shaped elements (resembling agave, aloe vera, and thistle) that were cut out directly from these barrels’ tops and sides. The Palestinian artist sees those vegetal extensions as functioning like ghosts being revived from their dormant state.

William Kentridge at Goodman Gallery

For its 40th time at Art Basel, South Africa’s leading gallery is showing several never-before-seen works such as a tapestry by El Anatsui that was created specifically for the fair. South African artist William Kentridge shines the brightest in this booth with a bronze sculpture—already sold for $600,000 to a Belgian private foundation—and recent drawings created for his upcoming opera at LUMA Arles in July. Also on view is a brand-new painting by Zimbabwean artist and activist Kudzanai Chiurai, who has imagined a speculative history in which the Union of African Nations has risen to political dominance.

Heitor dos Prazeres at Almeida & Dale

In the Feature sector, for works made in the 20th century, São Paulo’s Almeida & Dale is making its debut with works by Brazilian master Heitor dos Prazeres, who still lacks recognition beyond his home country. Dos Prazeres was a shoeshine boy from Rio de Janeiro’s favelas who started off as a clarinetist, singer, and composer before teaching himself how to paint. His works from the 1950s and ’60s reflect the realities of Brazil’s Black community through colorful day-to-day scenes. During Brazil’s military dictatorship, starting in 1964, it was prohibited to play music or dance in the streets, so dos Prazeres was censored for depicting these festive moments. Today, his art stands as a form of resistance.

Omyo Cho at Wooson Gallery

Welcome to the future, where the world has been taken over by jellyfish-like creatures that carry our memories and think of themselves as humans. This is the story that South Korean artist Omyo Cho tells in her dystopian novel Memory Searcher, to be published in full by next year. The book’s plot is based on memory transference, the idea that a recollection can be shared or traded with another being. After studying this phenomena with neuroscientist Haeyoung Koh, Cho decided to translate some of her sci-fi characters into sculptures; they are being shown in the Statements sector by Wooson Gallery. They have glass-blown bodies and are perched on stainless steel legs. One need not think hard to imagine that those legs will start moving as soon as humanity goes instinct. Ominous, indeed.

Correction, June 12, 2024: An earlier version of this article misattributed a quote by Noah Horowitz to Maike Cruse.