Art Market
Arun Kakar
Interior view of Liste Art Fair Basel, 2025. Photo by Silke Briel. Courtesy of Liste Art Fair Basel.
It might be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, but the premise of Liste Art Fair Basel remains as fresh as ever.
The fair was founded in 1996 in response to what its organizers called a “paradigm shift” in the art world, namely, the arrival of a “new and self-assured generation of gallerists and artists.” Since then, it has become known as a flagbearer for such emerging talent. Early on, it gave a platform to some of today’s art world A-listers, such as David Zwirner gallery, as well as artists like Carole Bove and Elizabeth Peyton. Today, it’s still seeking out the major names of tomorrow.
“Liste has always been closely connected to both the production and evolution of emerging as well as established or trailblazing artists,” said Nikola Dietrich, the fair’s new director. “The fair explores young art scenes and evolving forms of expression—not merely by tracing trends, but also by responding to shifts and disruptions.”
Gozié Ojini, 0.9 kg, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Silke Lindner.
Bringing together 99 galleries (up from 93 last year) from 31 countries, the fair offers a comprehensive cross-section of the commercial art world at its cutting edge. Some 48 galleries are making their debut at this year’s fair, too, evidence that its pipeline remains as strong as ever. Newcomers include London’s Tiwani Contemporary, Vienna’s Commune, and Seoul’s G Gallery.
Exhibitors here are mostly showcasing solo artist booths, many of which are presented in carefully curated displays similar to small gallery shows. Within that, there’s a huge range of practices and styles. Highlights include a sculptural installation by Sara Ravelli—consisting of papier-mâché mechanical eyes inspired by carnival floats—at Italian gallery Bar’s booth. New York gallery Silke Lindner is presenting sculptural works by Gozié Ojini that reference hip-hop sampling in broken-up musical instruments. And London gallery Rose Easton is showing inventive paintings, jewelry, and sculptures by Arlette, who draws on the artisanal history of Swiss precision as well as her Mexican heritage.
Arlette, installation view of “The Evolution of Obedience” in Rose Easton’s booth at Liste Art Fair Basel, 2025. Photo by Jack Elliot Edwards. Courtesy of Rose Easton.
Indeed, many of the artists on view were new discoveries to even the most knowledgeable VIP guests who filtered through the Messeplatz on a humid Monday, June 16th. Occupying its traditional slot down the road from Art Basel, which gets underway on Tuesday, the fair boasted a lively atmosphere. If the crowd felt more compacted than at last year’s VIP day, it was most likely due to the fair’s new layout, which traded a central circular booth structure for a more elliptical series of curved clusters. If that description sounds confusing, it’s because it is, as more than a few befuddled VIPs could attest to in the fair’s opening hours.
With the vast majority of works on view at Liste priced under $40,000, the fair stands well positioned to weather the current art market climate. While the higher end of the market has slowed, emerging art and lower artwork price segments are seeing increased transaction volumes and levels of interest among collectors. While the fair doesn’t conclude until June 22nd, initial reports from the VIP day from galleries in attendance were of strong early conversations with collectors, a wave of concrete initial sales, and even a few sold-out booths—enough to foster a noticeable cheeriness across the concourse.
Here, Artsy picks out five outstanding works from Liste Art Fair Basel 2025.
In a series of paintings presented by London gallery Tiwani Contemporary, Zimbabwean artist Virginia Chihota responds to a question: “What do you see when you look at me?”
It’s a prompt that takes the artist on an introspective journey with these works, which use the recurring motif of a stool, around which she positions awkwardly rendered figures. The figure in Munoornei kana makanditarisa nhai Mwari (What do you see when you look at me ohh God)? (2024) crouches, as if surrendering to the noise around it, shown by swathes of billowing paint, wrapped in rumination. It points to the artist’s view of the inner world as a constantly shifting terrain, one in which we question ourselves and confront our thoughts with vigilance. And represented here, in this vibrant, expansive work, the psyche has seldom looked more vivid and textural, with different elements of color and shape clashing and melting together.
“I find it’s very kinetic. There’s great movement—this twisting and turning that is going on, and a visceral element when you encounter the work,” said gallery founder Maria Varnava, who met Chihota when she represented Zimbabwe at the 2013 Venice Biennale. “She’s using this kind of stool or chairs, sitting with oneself and having this negotiation and interrogation.” The work is priced at $45,000.
Wang Ye, Midsummer Twilight, 2025. Courtesy of the artist and YveYANG GALLERY.
Chinese artist Wang Ye has spent the past six years developing a new, painfully precise embroidering technique. While the traditional techniques from his home of Hunan, China, use silk threads twisted into groups of eight, his methods deploy a thinner single or double strand. As this series of new works on view at New York’s YveYANG Gallery’s booth shows, this results in stunning detail that nods to the handweaving techniques of the past.
“Everything right now is machine-made, including the silk embroidery, but everything here is handmade,” explained gallery founder Yve Yang.
Ye uses silk handwoven in the 1990s, which is soaked in tea tree oil to preserve its lush sheen and rich color. In the verdant work Midsummer Twilight (2025), these strands carry an almost painterly impression. At first glance, it looks like a glimpse into a different galaxy with clusters of stars and comets, but closer inspection reveals that the flow is guided by the strands of silk that are swept in varying directions and hand-dyed in delicate flecks of golden tones. It’s a work of staggering complexity and emotive beauty.
Indeed, several visitors at the booth were pausing to take in its subtlety, getting up close to the works to grasp the techniques at hand. The price of the work is “around” $22,500, according to the gallery.
Gina Proenza, L’ami naturel VI, 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Margot Samel.
In 15th- and 16th-century Lausanne, Switzerland, insects devastated harvests and caused widespread famine. The response from the citizenry? Take the insects in question to court. This true story (yes, it is true) is used as the impetus for a series of kinetic, worm-like metal sculptures by Colombian artist Gina Proenza, which playfully portray the defendants as innocent, almost tender characters.
Hung and laid around the booth of New York gallery Margot Samel, these metal creatures are constructed from rungs of industrial piping and are displayed in different formations, with wooden tongues mechanically moving in and out.
The largest work of the series, L’ami naturel VI (2024), is the centerpiece of the booth and is also adorned in a mane of fabric. The title, which translates to “natural friend,” gives the worm a less threatening aura while it peers out of the booth, as if gesturing to passersby. “She is, in a lot of ways, almost representing the worms and giving them language by making their tongues move,” said gallery founder Margot Samel.
The work, which is priced at $8,500, also draws parallels to today’s ecological crises, where insects, perhaps, have more of a reason to sue humans than the other way around.
Nerhol, Cornus Florida, 2025. Courtesy of the artists and Yutaka Kikutake Gallery
Artist duo Nerhol creates artworks that involve carving stacks of more than 200 of their photographs (mainly portraits) to distort and fuse various aspects of a subject into warped, evocative images.
In Cornus Florida (2025), the subject is a dogwood tree. In a sign of diplomatic friendship in 1912, the U.S. gave Japan 60 dogwood trees, which traditionally symbolize durability. The tree depicted here is the last surviving of that original gift, after several of the trees were cut down during World War II as a sign of anti-U.S. sentiment.
As dense in context as it is in form, the work here embodies another of the themes associated with the tree: rebirth and renewal. Here, swirling colors appear similar to a blossoming flower or blooming plant, with craggy photographic layers creating movement. Today, with Japanese streets now named after the tree and its presence found across many streets in the country, the plants serve as an expression of history between the two countries, something that is as layered as the artwork itself.
The work is priced at $20,000.
Ugandan artist Odur Ronald employs the symbol of the passport across the works in his solo presentation at Afriart Gallery’s booth. Though he’s an artist of growing international renown—he featured in last year’s Dak’art Biennale and Venice Biennale, as well as this year’s Liverpool Biennale—Ronald must still embark on lengthy visa processes when traveling abroad.
The passport, then, becomes a symbol of access and privilege as it applies to those from marginalized backgrounds. “He reflects a lot on movement around the globe, like who’s allowed to travel, where and why, and the processes of applying for visas,” said gallery director Daudi Karungi.
In a series of collaged wall works resembling window shutters, he includes depictions of different passports, each representing a sociopolitical theme. There’s the “Republic of Religion” and the “Republic of Sports,” for instance, each populated by symbols and emblems of their fields that reflect on notions of freedom, personhood, and belonging.
The series is spirited, poignant, and even slightly humorous. In Republic of Refugees (2025), a pair of clay figures queue at a wooden booth, where a labeled passport hovers over them. The backdrop, gridded copper plates used in the production of printed newspapers, emphasizes the symbolic imprinting of identity. The work is priced at $5,000.
Arun Kakar
Arun Kakar is Artsy’s Art Market Editor.
