This week’s Art Basel (19–22 June 2025) promises plenty of blue-chip spectacle, but the smartest energy is gathering around five fresh discoveries that collectors will be talking about long after the Messeplatz dust settles. From a brand-new fair sector designed for daring mid-sized galleries to a $16 million performance that turns the market on its head, here are the moments you should not miss — and why they matter.
1. Premiere — a new sector built for bold ideas.
Art Basel’s brand-new Premiere sector gives ten adventurous galleries a platform to show work made within the past five years, filling the gap between the emergent Statements booths and the main aisles of blue-chip power. Maike Cruse, the fair’s director, calls it the “sweet spot” for mid-sized dealers feeling the squeeze of rising costs. Expect tightly curated presentations such as Cairo’s Gypsum Gallery pairing volcanic-terrain paintings by Dimitra Charamandas with Basim Magdy’s photographs of ash and debris, a dialogue on environmental fragility that feels eerily current. For collectors, Premiere is a high-yield hunting ground: prices hover well below the seven-figure main sector while the narratives feel museum-ready.
2. Sana Shahmuradova Tanska’s dreamlike canvases (Statements, Booth M12)
Ukrainian painter Sana Shahmuradova Tanska makes her Art Basel debut with Collective Memory, a suite of jewel-toned paintings where fluid, genderless figures merge with soil, swans and streams — a visual hymn to resilience amid conflict. Presented by Warsaw’s Gunia Nowik Gallery, the booth has already been tipped as a Baloise Art Prize contender. With primary prices in the €15–40 k range, the work offers both cultural urgency and accessible entry points for new collectors.
3. Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Go-Go Dancing Platform) — a $16 million lesson in joy
Hauser & Wirth brings González-Torres’s 1991 performance to Unlimited, complete with silver-lamé dancer and pulsing pop soundtrack. Conceived in the shadow of the AIDS crisis, the piece wraps grief, desire and spectacle into a single market-defying gesture. Its reported $16 m price tag is a stark reminder that provenance-rich conceptual works are now competing with trophy paintings for top-lot dollars — and often winning.
4. Danh Vo, In God We Trust — firewood, steel and fractured patriotism.
White Cube’s Unlimited stand centres on Danh Vo’s monumental re-imagining of the 1777 US flag, composed of stacked firewood “stripes” and steel stars. Vo’s material poetry — transient wood versus industrial metal — mirrors the fragile state of national narratives worldwide. Early whispers put the piece in the high six-figure range, offering institutions a museum-scale statement with impeccable critical cachet.
5. Ayan Farah, Desert Seeds — painting with Somali earth.
Spanning twelve metres, Ayan Farah’s wall-work is literally made of the land: Somali clay mixed with cloud-seeded water from the UAE, dyed onto vast swathes of fabric. Installed in Unlimited, the piece reads like a climatic seismograph, mapping displacement and sustainability in one sweep. Collectors focused on material innovation — and ESG-conscious narratives — should take note.