ART BASEL AWARDS: Honoring The Visionaries Shaping The Future of Art

The Art Basel Awards are the first global honors dedicated to recognizing and advancing excellence across the contemporary art world—celebrating visionaries whose work is shaping the next generation of cutting-edge artistry.

This new landmark annual awards cycle honors path-breaking artists, cross-disciplinary creators, curators, institutions, patrons, and foundations, as well as media, storytellers, and behind-the-scenes specialists, from studio managers to fabricators.

Founded on the conviction that the future of art relies not only on artists but also on the ecosystems that sustain them, the Art Basel Awards set a bold precedent for honoring and strengthening the complex networks that shape artistic production today.

Unlike conventional prizes focused on singular achievements, the Art Basel Awards reward ongoing practices of broad cultural influence and the potential to redefine artistic horizons. They recognize excellence across the art world and its neighboring fields of fashion, design, music, film, publishing, and the performing arts.

From a nominee pool of the world’s most influential voices and promising rising talents, an International Jury of experts has selected 36 Medalists for their vanguard vision, skill, and impact.These Medalists will be recognized during Art Basel’s flagship fair in Switzerland in June 2025, with year-round global campaigns and initiatives amplifying their work. They will also headline the Art Basel Awards Summit, Art Basel’s first annual conference for thought leaders across the global art world and creative industries.

Later this year, the 36 Medalists will take part in a peer-driven process: they will vote to select up to 12 Gold Medalists from among themselves. This new model of recognition—where the future is elevated by those creating it—will culminate in the announcement of the Gold Medalists during the Official Night of the Art Basel Awards in Miami Beach, December 2025.

Artist Support & Resources

Gold Medals in the artist categories will provide nearly USD 300,000 annually in honorariums and philanthropic gifts. Recipients will also receive access to global networking opportunities, tailored partnerships, and high-profile commissions designed to propel their work to new platforms.

“The Art Basel Awards are not a competition, but a beacon. They shine a light on those working with radical vision, skill, and commitment to building communities of practice and exchange. We are thrilled to honor this year's Medalists—artists and allies whose work is reshaping how art is created, experienced, and channeled across contemporary culture.”

— Vincenzo de Bellis, Chair, Art Basel Awards and Director of Fairs & Exhibition Platforms, Art Basel

“The Art Basel Awards tap the global power of our brand in new and truly significant ways, underlining our absolute commitment to industry leadership through innovation and impact. With this initiative, Art Basel stands to deliver ever more opportunities for the art world1s key players, forge new paths for exchange and collaboration across industries, and create new touchpoints with our core and rapidly expanding audience. We are thrilled to partner with BOSS, a brand with a proud history of supporting the arts, to celebrate the cutting­ edge work driving the future of art and culture.”

— Noah Horowitz, CEO, Art Basel

Among the standout names in this year’s list is Lubaina Himid, the UK representative at the next Venice Biennale, who is honored in the Icon Artist category for her trailblazing role in the British Black Arts Movement. She is joined by fellow Icons, including David Hammons and Cecilia Vicuña, whose poetic, multidisciplinary practice bridges Indigenous wisdom, environmental activism, and contemporary sculpture.

Among the Medalists in the Established Artist category is Cao Fei, whose groundbreaking work in video, virtual reality, and installation probes the contradictions of the new digital reality. Other recipients in this category are Ibrahim Mahama, known for monumental installations addressing histories of labor and migration, and Delcy Morelos, whose immersive earthworks connect traditional knowledge with contemporary material practice. Rising talents include Saodat Ismailova, honored as an Emerging Artist for her evocative films reviving the spiritual memory of Central Asia, and Pan Daijing, also recognized in the same category for her experimental fusion of sound, performance, and installation.

In the Cross-Disciplinary Creator category, Grace Wales Bonner is honored for reimagining fashion through a cultural and historical lens, while Italian duo Formafantasma (Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin) are recognized for their critical investigations into the ecological and social dimensions of design. Also in this group is Saidiya Hartman, whose literary and academic work reshapes narratives of Black life and history.

Institutional change-makers to be recognized include ART + PRACTICE (Los Angeles), Jameel Arts Centre (Dubai), and RAW Material Company (Dakar), all awarded in the Museums and Institutions category for their commitment to community, experimentation, and access. In the Curator category, Candice Hopkins, Shanay Jhaveri, and Eungie Joo are honored for their advancement of the art historical narrative and traditional approaches to exhibition making.

The Allies category celebrates those working behind the scenes to make art possible, including Art Handlxrs*, a Bay area-based support network for Queer, nonbinary, trans people, BIPOC, and womxn working behind the scenes in contemporary art, Gasworks / Triangle Network (London), and KADIST and AFIELD co-founder Sandra Terdjman (Paris), all recognized for their contributions to production, collaboration, and artistic infrastructure.

Patronage also takes the spotlight, with Shane Akeroyd, LUMA founder Maja Hoffmann, and Joel Wachs of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts acknowledged in the Patron category for their unwavering commitment to cutting-edge practices.

In the Media and Storytellers category, Negar Azimi, Editor in Chief of Bidoun; writer and curator Barbara Casavecchia; and The Journal of Curatorial Studies are recognized for advancing critical discourse and elevating underrepresented voices.

 

Award Categories

The Art Basel Awards host three categories dedicated to artists:

1.    Emerging, for rising talents demonstrating exceptional potential to shape the future of contemporary art

2.    Established, for mid-career artists who have made significant contributions to the art world and continue to evolve their practice

3.    Icon, for legendary artists whose careers have had a profound, enduring impact on the global art landscape

With an additional six categories spanning the contemporary art industry and beyond:

4.    Cross-disciplinary Creators, for the individuals, collectives, or organizations shaping contemporary culture at the junction of visual art and other creative industries, such as fashion, design, film, architecture, or music

5.    Museums and Institutions, for museums, art centers, non-profit spaces, or other cultural institutions consistently staging groundbreaking exhibitions, fostering innovative contemporary work, and expanding audience engagement or accessibility

6.    Curators, for leading curators who have organized trailblazing exhibitions or programs that have reshaped the way audiences experience art

7.     Patrons, for foundations, collectors, or philanthropists who have made a significant impact through supporting strategies, including grants, acquisitions, or commissions

8.     Allies, for the unsung heroes whose behind-the-scenes work supports and facilitates extraordinary artistic projects and careers, including in the fields of: Studio Management; Logistics and Art Handling; Art's Production - Technical Execution (such as foundries, installation fabricators, print and digital media, sound engineering, lighting design, animation, and more); Exhibition Design and Architecture; Technology and Digital Platforms; Conservation and Preservation; and Professional Services

9.     Media and Storytellers, for critics, publishers, editors, writers, or digital storytellers advancing art discourse

The Jury

The 2025 Medalists were selected by an international jury composed of some of the most respected figures in the museum world. Vincenzo de Bellis served as non-voting chair alongside jurors Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of the Sharjah Art Foundation; Elena Filipovic, Director of Kunstmuseum Basel; Koyo Kouoh (1967-2025), former Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) and Curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale; Jessica Morgan, Nathalie de Gunzburg Director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York; Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine in London; Adriano Pedrosa, Artistic Director of Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP); Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director of M+ in Hong Kong; Franklin Sirmans, Director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM); and Philip Tinari, Director and Chief Executive of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.

Image Credits from left to right and from Top to bottom:

Vincenzo de Bellis, 2023 by Noé Cotter for Art Basel

Suhanya Raffel by Winnie Yeung @ Visual Voices. Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong,

Hans Ulrich Obrist by Elias Hassos,

Elena Filipovic by Xandra M. Linsin,

Jessica Morgan by Don Stahl,

Hoor Al Qasimi by SEBASTIAN BÖTTCHER,

Franklin Sirmans courtesy of Pérez Art Museum Miami,

Adriano Pedrosa by Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia,

Koyo Kouoh by Mirjam Kluka,

Philip Tinari

About the Art Basel Awards

Launched by Art Basel in 2025, the Art Basel Awards are the world’s first global honors dedicated to recognizing excellence across the contemporary art world. Each year, an international jury of experts awards medals to individuals and organizations spanning the industry whose practices and contributions are shaping the future of contemporary art. The Art Basel Awards are presented in partnership with BOSS.

Art Basel Awards Summit 2025

Date: Friday, June 20, 2025

Location: Hall 1, Messe Basel

Admission: Free and open to the public

Supported by: The Canton of Basel-Stadt

Featured Sessions:

·       12:00–12:30 | The Artist as Visionary: Cecilia Vicuña with Elena Filipovic

·       12:30–1:00 | Radical Reimaginings: Ibrahim Mahama & Lydia Ourahmane with Hans Ulrich Obrist

·       2:00–2:45 | What Should Art Institutions Become? Panel with Fatima Bintou Rassoul Sy, Antonia Carver, Sophia Belsheim, moderated by Suhanya Raffel

·       3:00–3:30 | Patronage as a Force for Change: Joel Wachs and Franklin Sirmans

·       3:30–4:00 | Curating, Decentered: Candice Hopkins, Shanay Jhaveri, Eungie Joo

·       4:15–4:45 | Rethinking Art Through Design: Formafantasma

·       4:45–5:15 | Behind the Scenes: Art Handlxrs* and Robert Leckie, moderated by Negar Azimi

For more information and to RSVP for the Summit, visit: artbasel.com