Kabinett: 24 curated exhibitions at Art Basel in Miami Beach

Art Basel’s Kabinett sector allows participating galleries to present a curated exhibition in a separately delineated space within their booths. This year’s Kabinett sector at Art Basel in Miami Beach will include 24 projects by Etel Adnan, Anni Albers, Taku Aramasa, Alice Attie, Ashley Bickerton, Andrea Bowers, Colette Brunschwig, Cheng Ran, Farida El-Gazzar, Flavio Garciandía, Hans Hofmann, Kim Jones, Shozo Kitadai, Kiki Kogelnik, Irene Kopelman, Brigitte Kowanz, María Martínez-Cañas, Hélio Oiticica, Kiyoji Otsuji, Pavel Pepperstein, Yoshishige Saito, Anne-Marie Schneider, Ivan Serpa, Shirana Shahbazi, Joan Snyder, Grete Stern, Bill Traylor, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi and Haegue Yang. Art Basel, whose Lead Partner is UBS, takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center from December 7 to December 10, 2017.

This year's Kabinett sector includes thematic group exhibitions, art-historical showcases and solo presentations by both established and emerging artists; more than half of the participants will feature work by female artists.

Highlights in Kabinett from Latin America include Galerie Lelong & Co’s presentation of works from the mid-1950s by Brazilian artists Hélio Oiticica (b. 1937, d. 1980) and Ivan Serpa (b. 1923, d. 1973) produced during their involvement with the Rio de Janeirobased collective Grupo Frente. Mai 36 Galerie’s Kabinett will present five paintings by Cuban artist Flavio Garciandía (b. 1954), which are indicative of his ironic and satirical engagement with both Western modernism, as well as stereotypical artistic notions of 'Cubaness' or 'Caribbeanness'. Fredric Snitzer Gallery will exhibit new works by another Cuban artist María Martínez-Cañas (b. 1960), whose conceptual photographs engage with narratives involving origin, perception and identity, based upon the artist’s own feelings of dislocation following her move from Cuba to the United States in the late 1970s.

Sfeir-Semler Gallery will present a focused exhibition of Lebanese artist Etel Adnan’s (b. 1925) paintings, tapestries and drawings that demonstrate her artistic evolution and provide further insight into her rich cultural, political and geographical background. Kurimanzutto’s Kabinett will feature a salon-style hanging of paper collages by South Korean artist Haegue Yang (b. 1971), which will be displayed against a backdrop of ‘Grid Bloc A3’, a publication that Yang created in collaboration with illustrator Jeong Hwa Min in 2013. Kalfayan Galleries will exhibit new work by Egyptian artist Farida El-Gazzar (b. 1975) that reflect upon the socio-political aspects of everyday life in the artist’s birthplace of Alexandria. Franklin Parrasch Gallery will present recent paintings by Joan Snyder (b. 1940), which embody the artist’s use of both abstract forms and found objects and materials to engage with varied issues from gender to human relationships to violence. Andrew Kreps Gallery will bring intimately scaled pieces by Andrea Bowers (b. 1965). Inspired by DIY political posters, the new drawings are from the artist’s ongoing series of feminist graphics on cardboard supports.

Galerie Urs Meile will exhibit emerging Chinese artist Cheng Ran’s (b. 1981) ‘DD-MMYYYY’ (2017), a multi-media video installation that forms the latest chapter of the artist’s ongoing project ‘Diary of a Madman’ (2016 –). In this series, Cheng constructs his own narratives about the history of three cities – New York, Hong Kong and Jerusalem – through re-edited video collages of moving images extracted from the news, as well as natural and urban landscapes. Lehmann Maupin will present new works by Ashley Bickerton (b. 1959) that push the boundaries of landscape painting and examine the effect of human construction and destruction on the environment.

Brigitte Kowanz (b. 1957) explores the influence of technology and data on both political events and our personal lives in a body of new work that will be on view at Galerie Krinzinger. Drawn from Kowanz’s ‘Cables’ series, the three wall sculptures consist of lively hand-drawn neon lines mounted in multi-mirrored cubes. By combining elements of light with linguistic codes and characters, Kowanz visualizes the complex relationship between seeing and knowing, perception and recognition.

Kabinett also offers an opportunity to delve into the careers of historical artists. König Galerie will dedicate its Kabinett to Austrian Pop Art artist Kiki Kogelnik (b. 1935, d. 1997), whose work has recently received new appreciation following her inclusion in the major 2015 exhibition ‘The EY Exhibition: The World Goes Pop’ at Tate Modern, London. The gallery will show signature highlights from Kogelnik’s oeuvre including works from the 1960s. Alan Cristea Gallery will present early prints by Anni Albers (b. 1899, d. 1994), one of the best-known textile artists of the 20th century.  

Galerie Jocelyn Wolff’s Kabinett will focus on historical and recent works by artist Colette Brunschwig (b. 1927), who belongs to a generation of French female painters active in Paris after World War II, while Hirschl & Adler Modern will present key pieces by selftaught artist and a pioneer of Outsider Art, Bill Traylor (b. 1854, d. 1949). Despite being born into slavery and lacking any training or supplies, Traylor completed as many as 2,000 original artworks, solidifying his standing in art history as one of the keenest observers of human nature. Ameringer McEnery Yohe will bring paintings by a renowned figure of Abstract Expressionism, Hans Hofmann (b. 1880, d. 1966), which demonstrate the artist’s synthesis of Cubism, Fauvism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

Exhibitions of photography will feature prominently in Kabinett, including the famous photomontage series ‘Sueños (Dreams)’ by German-Argentinian artist Grete Stern (b. 1904, d. 1999) at Jorge Mara - La Ruche, and new abstract geometric C-prints and lithographs by Iranian photographer Shirana Shahbazi (b. 1974) at Galerie Peter Kilchmann. Japanese photography from the 1950s through to the present day will be the focus of Annely Juda Fine Art’s Kabinett, featuring works by artists Taku Aramasa (b. 1936), Shozo Kitadai (b. 1921, d. 2003), Kiyoji Otsuji (b. 1923, d. 2001), Yoshishige Saito (b. 1904, d. 2001) and Katsuhiro Yamaguchi (b. 1928), who were all part of the influential group The Experimental Workshop formed in the late 1940s.

A series of drawings in gouache and graphite by Argentinian artist Irene Kopelman (b. 1974) will be on view at Labor, documenting her month-long expedition to the Manu Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the largest protected forest areas in Peru, while Zeno X Gallery will feature a rare ‘war drawing’ on canvas by Kim Jones (b. 1944), which refers to the artist’s time in Vietnam. The drawing will be displayed alongside historical works created during Jones’ 1983–1984 artist residency at MoMA PS1 in New York, providing a small overview of Jones’ diverse oeuvre. Peter Freeman, Inc. will highlight Anne-Marie Schneider (b. 1962), whose prolific artistic output has predominantly centered on drawing, using pencil, ink, gouache and watercolor, with a display of black and white, as well as color drawings from the late

1980s until today. Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder will feature works by Alice Attie (b.1950) including framed ink drawings from different series and periods that explore the territory between writing and drawing and where they overlap.  Lastly, Kewenig will present illustrations from a series of short stories by Russian artist Pavel Pepperstein (b. 1966), a prominent figure among the generation of artists that grew up in the Soviet Union and witnessed the system’s collapse. Pepperstein’s drawings combine elements of the Russian cultural legacy he was born into with present day events and images.