The city of Basel, Switzerland will be experiencing a new entrant into the events that happen around the famous Art Basel art fair, and it will be focusing entirely on contemporary African art.
The Africa Basel Contemporary African Art Fair will make its debut in June alongside Art Basel and has announced a call for applications to artists and galleries to participate in this first of its kind art fair in Basel. The applications which end on January 31, 2025, to apply, provides an alternative for African artists and galleries who miss out on showing in Art Basel but still want a platform to reach a wider audience.
Africa Basel was designed by the founders, Sven Eisenhut-Hug and Benjamin Füglister, as a thoughtfully curated space where collectors, curators, and audiences can have meaningful engagements with African artists and galleries free from reductive trends or market oversaturation. The founders see Africa Basel as a bridge between time, eras, local talent and global audiences.
The experts to lead Africa Basel’s curated selection include, Michèle Sandoz, a Swiss art consultant; Serge Tiroche, co-founder of the Africa First Collection; Azu Nwagbogu, founder of LagosPhoto Festival and Dr. Greer Valley, an academic and curator. Together the curators will ensure the audience who come for the event have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the African artistic landscape. The event will be held at Ackermannshof, a 13th-century manufacturing complex nestled along Basel’s scenic Rhine River.
Eisenhut-Hug who has a background in global hospitality, and Füglister, a curator with over 60 international exhibitions to his credit hope that the fair will counter market fatigue for art works from the continent and offer collectors and curators a deeper understanding of their enduring value. The optimism of the founders is optimism is based on the recognition of Africans in the global art space, like the recent appointment of Koyo Kouoh as curator of the 2026 Venice Biennale.
“Africa Basel is not just a fair; it’s a movement,” said Füglister in a recent interview. “We want to provide African art the platform it deserves, not as a fleeting trend but as an essential part of the global art conversation.”
The Africa Basel Contemporary African Art Fair opens with a VIP preview on June 16 and public show dates running until June 22, 2025.
Applications are open now for artists and galleries. For more details, visit www.africabasel.com or follow @africabasel on social media, or send an email to application@africabasel.com
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