Every June, the international art world looks to the historic Swiss city of Basel and its namesake fair, Art Basel, for a benchmark on the state of contemporary art. In its 56th year, the fair features 200 galleries showing over 4,000 artists from around the globe. With such an abundance, how does one even account for everything that needs to be seen outside the fair? We’ve done the work for you, cutting through the litany of options to identify 10 worth the space in your packed schedule.
“Alliance” by Shuang Li
Where: Kunsthalle Basel
When: Through September 12
Why It’s Worth a Look: Li is debuting a new film installation—her largest and most ambitious yet—focused on severe weather phenomena (think, tornados and hurricanes). The video replicates the process and adrenaline of a storm chaser, weaving motion and uncertainty into a swirling setup.
Know Before You Go: The young Chinese artist, who splits her time between Geneva and Berlin, is known for her investigations of the entanglement between media and the humans who consume it. “Alliance,” her first solo European exhibition, is no different: Here, the storm-chaser confronts modern media and its algorithmic landscapes with a constant swirl of information.
“Pierre Huyghe”
Where: Fondation Beyeler
When: Through September 13
Why It’s Worth a Look: With a mix of past and newly commissioned works, the show unfolds what Huyghe refers to as the “soulscape.” Paintings, photographs, sculpture, and videos create a liminal space where fiction and reality blur together. A wandering camera’s eye may ask the viewer to question, Is that a living thing I’m seeing, or a machine? And does the difference matter?
Know Before You Go: The French artist has been a staple at Art Basel since 1996. Huyghe’s work, which he refers to as “speculative fiction,” blends biology and human life with technology and inorganic matter for a look at possible evolutions.
“Helen Frankenthaler”
Where: Kunstmuseum Basel
When: Through August 23
Why It’s Worth a Look: Here, the Kunstmuseum unravels over 60 years of the late American artist’s groundbreaking Abstract Expressionist works in the largest European exhibition of her work to date and her first institutional solo in Switzerland. Frankenthaler’s paintings, which captured the American cultural climate during the Cold War, will be shown in conversation with various historical works that tease out the artist’s inspirations.
Know Before You Go: Frankenthaler pioneered the “soak-stain” technique, where she soaked diluted paint into unprimed canvases to achieve vibrant blends of color, many of which can be seen in the over 50 works on view here.
“Mémoires Voyageuses”
Where: Kunsthaus Baselland
When: Through August 16
Why It’s Worth a Look: Translating to “traveling memories,” “Mémoires Voyageuses” features a cross-section of global artists all attempting to capture their familial and cultural memories in a visual work. The eight artists’ pieces, including Raphaël Barontini’s textile collage and South African artist Helena Uambembe’s autobiographical video and prints, converge to interrogate the malleability of shared oral histories, pointing to but not drawing lines between conflicting or varied accounts.
Know Before You Go: The show also features Gen Z Ecuadorian artist Sofía Salazar Rosales, who was nominated for the inaugural Art Basel Emerging Artist award last December.
“New rituals [for the end of the world]”
Where: Haus der Elektronischen Künste (HEK) Basel
When: Through August 9
Why It’s Worth a Look: This international group show featuring Zach Blas, Teresa Fernández-Pello, Christiane Peschek, and more explores the mythologies, and the realities, of an impending apocalypse. With a mix of performance, digital, video, and sculptural works, the 14 included artists conceive coping mechanisms and contemporary rituals to respond to and survive climate, technological, and political crises.
Know Before You Go: This week, the Brazilian-born sound artist Stefanie Egedy will also stage an immersive ritual, titled “Sonic Energetics,” alongside the group exhibit every 30 minutes during the institution’s open hours.
“Marvelous Persona” by Osama Al Rayyan and Kelly Tissot
Where: City Salts
When: Through September 11
Why It’s Worth a Look: Pulling together threads of magical realism and the uncanny, Al Rayyan’s paintings and sculptures meld with Tissot’s large-scale photography, realizing a fictional character that shifts between the artists’ two distinct practices. The intimate garage-box exhibition also marks the Basel-based artist couple’s first joint exhibition.
Know Before You Go: City Salts founder Samuel Leuenberger has also curated Art Basel’s Messeplatz Project, an urban project that transforms local architectural with murals and painting.
“Extrasensory” by Chloe Wise
Where: Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger
When: Through September 6
Why It’s Worth a Look: The New York-based Wise presents her first major institutional solo in Switzerland with her most ambitious large-scale, multi-channel film project to date. Built upon previous installations such as “Myth Information,” 2025, in New York, “Extrasensory” utilizes religious, mythological, suburban, and alien imagery to challenge the reliability of perception and image-making on three immersive screens surrounding the viewer.
Know Before You Go: Viewers can also catch a conversation between Wise and “Extrasensory” curator Samuel Leuenberger on June 18, covering the genesis of the project, its themes, and its production.
“Max Beckmann”
Where: Hauser & Wirth
When: Through July 11
Why It’s Worth a Look: One of the foremost German painters of the 20th century, Beckmann opposed the codification of his work as part of the Expressionist or New Objectivity schools. Viewers can feel just how sui generis the late artist’s practice was in this showing, which includes renowned diaristic paintings and self-portraits, such as Die Erschrockene (The Frightened Woman), as well as other, rarely exhibited works.
Know Before You Go: After joining the medical corps during World War I, Beckmann suffered a nervous breakdown and the subjects of his work turned sharp and nightmarish, a shift that only increased after the outbreak of World War II.
“Flowers: Jealousy” by Tobias Kaspar
Where: Wilde
When: Through September 30
Why It’s Worth a Look: Kaspar began this body of work over a decade ago while working in textile production for haute couture houses in St. Gallen, Switzerland, the foremost city in embroidery. Inspired by Japanese fashion houses’ floral motifs, the Swiss painter constructs a reflective, pastel vision of the textile industry and traditional patterning.
Know Before You Go: “Flowers” is the first part of the two-chapter “Jealousy” exhibition. Kaspar’s second installation, entitled “Revenge,” is due to open at Wilde’s Geneva location in July.
Air Service Basel 2026
Where: Air Service Basel, by appointment
When: Through June 21
Why It’s Worth a Look: Presented in front of Basel’s scenic runways, this extensive group exhibition from Lo Brutto Stahl features 41 international artists. With a mixture of mediums and participants, from architectural and spatial artist Dora Budor to the fabric artist Franz Erhard Walther, the exhibition takes over the entirety of the city’s private airport.
Know Before You Go: The gallery was included in CULTURED‘s inaugural Young Dealers list last June.
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