Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 concluded just days ago, leaving the art world buzzing with record-breaking sales, innovative presentations and dynamic cultural dialogue. Marking the first edition under new director Bridget Finn, this year’s fair cemented its position as the premier art event in the Americas, drawing over 75,000 attendees from across the globe—including top collectors, curators and representatives from over 230 leading museums and institutions.
The week began with standout sales during the VIP preview, headlined by Hauser & Wirth’s $4.75 million sale of David Hammons’ Untitled (2014), the highest-priced transaction of the event. From modern masters like Pablo Picasso and Keith Haring to contemporary luminaries like Wangechi Mutu and Cecily Brown, the fair showcased a stunning array of works that captured the attention of seasoned collectors and first-time buyers alike.
With 286 galleries from 38 countries—two-thirds of them hailing from the Americas—the fair celebrated its most diverse and innovative programming to date. Highlights included the reimagined Meridians sector, curated by Yasmil Raymond, featuring monumental works by Alice Aycock and Franz West; the Nova and Positions sectors, championing emerging voices; and a robust Conversations program led by Kimberly Bradley, featuring packed discussions on the intersection of art, technology and global culture.
Reflecting on her first edition as director, Bridget Finn shared, “It was an ecstatic feeling to finally open the doors of our show to visitors, after more than a year of planning with our exhibitors and their artists, our Selection Committee, the Art Basel team, partners, and institutional collaborators. I am extremely proud of innovations we introduced this year—from the repositioning and reconceptualization of Meridians to the roll-out of a new booth model, which allowed us to welcome many vital new voices and perspectives in the main sector of the show.”
Finn added, “Across the board, galleries presented truly ambitious, rare, and in some cases career- and canon-defining proposals, which have been placed in first-rate collections and sparked significant future conversations for the art world. I am deeply grateful for the trust they lent to me for my first edition.”
This year’s Art Basel Miami Beach was a true celebration of the transformative power of art. From museum-quality installations to accessible public programs, Art Basel demonstrated why it remains a cultural cornerstone and an unmissable event on the international art calendar.
Here are some of last week’s highlights handpicked by me, many of them seen through my Rayban Meta smart glasses (who had also partnered with Art Basel for the first time):
Mahku—Huni Kuin Artists Movement, Carmo Johnson Projects
Led by Ibã HuniKuin and founded in 2012, MAHKU’s work is centered around creating their own unique, almost surrealistic, interpretation of the Amazon forest. Their work is at the forefront of relevant social and political issues facing indigenous communities in Brazil such as reparation. Through selling their paintings MAKHU are buying back their land with the goal of gaining autonomy in their own territory of the Amazon. In Miami, MAHKU will be shown in a solo booth with Brazilian gallery, Carmo Johnson Projects as part of Positions. This new body of paintings are related to MAHKU’s Huni Kuin ancestry, and depict translated and transformed Huni Meka Chants, the ceremony in which ayahuasca medicine is consecrated.
