From the December 2025 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.
When the majority of art-market centres are wrapping up for the year – and sheltering from the cold – Art Basel Miami Beach aims to keep a little of the summer atmosphere going. The weather in Florida tends to be sunny even in December, and the gallery parties are, if not quite as big a draw as the art, then certainly a close second.
For Bridget Finn, who became director of the fair last year, the location is also a strategic one in terms of what is on show. ‘Miami Beach is sort of the geographical and cultural nexus between North and South and Central America,’ she says, a fact that is reflected in both the visitors that come to the fair and the make-up of artists and galleries. More than two-thirds of participating galleries this year come from North, South and Central America or the Caribbean.
With almost 300 galleries coming this year, the fair is the largest in the western hemisphere. Yet the gargantuan Convention Center ensures there is no cramming going on; on the contrary, Finn says, the booths are huge and for many galleries, Miami Beach is the place to ‘expand’ their curatorial presentations into large-scale, ‘ambitious programming’. This is true of the booths in Galleries, the bread-and-butter section of the fair, but also of those in Meridians, the sculpture section – curated by Yasmil Raymond for the second year running – which Finn points to as a place where some of the most exciting and interactive work will be shown. This year, Finn has put her faith in youth, bringing Nova – dedicated to art made in the last three years – and Positions – the fair’s section for young and emerging galleries – right up to the entrance.
Among Finn’s must-see picks are the work of Robert Colescott at Jenkins Johnson Gallery’s booth and Mazzoleni’s display of frantic, quasi-cubist paintings by the 20th-century Cuban artist Wifredo Lam – currently the subject of a larger exhibition at MoMA in New York, which is on until 11 April 2026. Perhaps her standout pick, however, is at Roberts Projects, which is hosting a brand-new installation made by the sculptor and printmaker Betye Saar, who turns 100 in July next year.
There is much going on in and around the art, too – the Conversations section, for instance, which comprises three days of live talks and debates, as well as the launch of Zero 10, a new platform for digital art. Finn stresses that artists are always at the heart of the fair. ‘I think we get through complicated times with artists leading the narrative,’ she says. ‘Having 20 years under my belt of working with artists, that has always been extremely apparent to me.’
Art Basel Miami Beach takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center from 5–7 December.
Gallery Highlights
Birds & Beasts
Until 19 December
Rafael Valls, London
Between the 17th and the 19th centuries animal painting flourished in Europe, as people encountered creatures from the New World, Asia and Oceania for the first time. This exhibition includes works
by artists such as Jan Weenix and Melchior d’Hondecoeter; one highlight is an atmospheric painting of two wary pumas by the Liverpudlian artist William Huggins.
Barbara Wesołowska: Empty Night
Until 31 January 2026
Michael Werner, London
The figures in Wesołowska’s paintings are obscured by layers of brown and ochre paint; often these layers are so dominant that the works come to seem entirely abstract. Wesołowska has long been drawn to Sigmund Freud: the titles of several pieces in this exhibition refer to his writings, and her paintings bring to mind his theories of buried trauma and the uncertainty of memory.
The House on Utopia Parkway: Joseph Cornell’s Studio Reimagined by Wes Anderson
16 December–14 March 2026
Gagosian, Paris
Cornell is best known for his ‘shadow boxes’, which contain a variety of small objects he collected and curated himself. These works are at once playful and moving, so it makes sense that Wes Anderson – whose appeal rests on his ability to pack an emotional punch while carefully arranging his mise en scène – has curated, alongside Jasper Sharp, this show, in which the duo has transformed Gagosian’s Paris gallery into a life-size shadow box.
Piero Manzoni: L’Invincible Jean and Early Works 1956–1957
Until 14 February 2026
Hauser & Wirth, Basel
While Manzoni might be best known for canning his own excrement and creating perfectly white canvases, he was also interested in Jungian ideas of the unconscious. He created a series of ‘primal images’, which include L’Invincible Jean (1957), a skeletal figure made of streaky tar worked into a yellow ground. It is joined in this show by other figurative paintings and abstract works.
Valie Export & Ketty La Rocca: Body Sign
16 December–7 February 2026
Thaddaeus Ropac, Milan
Export once said that her work explored the human body ‘as signal bearer of meaning and communication’. She made her name in the 1960s and ’70s with provocative films and performance art; her work pairs naturally with that of La Rocca, who also used her body as a tool for artistic expression. This show includes photographs, films and installations.
William Turnbull: Paintings 1959–1962
Until 11 April 2026
Axel Vervoordt Gallery, Antwerp
Though best known as one of the artists who invigorated post-war sculpture in Britain, Turnbull cut his teeth painting film posters and, in 1946, enrolled in the painting department of the Slade School of Fine Art. For several years he turned to sculpture, but a trip to New York in 1957 introduced him to Abstract Expressionism and inspired the large Color Field works on display here.
From the December 2025 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.