Art Basel Awards Name 36 Inaugural Medalists
183May 16, 2025
Art Basel has announced thirty-six winners of its newArt Basel Awards, intended to recognize artists and other creators, curators, and institutions, as well as those who perform the less visible work of bringing them to light, including philanthropists, journalists, and fabricators. Presented by Art Basel in partnership with BOSS, theawardsspan nine categories: Artists–Icon; Artists–Established; Artists–Emerging; Cross-Disciplinary Creators; Patrons; Institutions; Curators; Allies; Media and Storytellers. The winners will divide among them roughly $300,000 in honorariums, and, according to a press release, will receive “access to global networks, philanthropic initiatives, tailored partnerships, and high-profile commissions” designed to elevate their international profiles.
“The Art Basel Awards are not a competition, but a beacon,” said Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s director of fairs and exhibition platforms in a statement. “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.”
The winners were selected by a jury whose members included Hoor al Qasimi, director and president of the Sharjah Art Foundation; Kunstmuseum Basel director Elena Filipovic; thelate Koyo Kouoh, who had been curating the 2026 Venice Biennale; Jessica Morgan, director of the Dia Art Foundation in New York; Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine in London; Adriano Pedrosa, director of MASP São Paulo; Suhanya Raffel, director of M+ in Hong Kong; Franklin Sirmans, director of the Pérez Art Museum Miami; and Philip Tinari, director and CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.
Among this year’s winners are installation artist Cecilia Vicuña, sculptor and video artist Meriem Bennani, fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, curator Candice Hopkins, Andy Warhol Foundation president Joel Wachs, the Dubai-based Jameel Arts Centre, writer Negar Azimi, and Art Handlxrs*, a group promoting the presence of BIPOC, queer, nonbinary, trans, and female-identifying people in the arts.
The awardees will be recognized at a June 19 event taking place at the Kunstmuseum Basel during the run of Art Basel’s flagship fair, and will participate in a summit, open to the public the following day, at Messe Basel. Later in the year, the awardees will choose from among themselves twelve so-called gold medalists—six artists and six “champions and collaborators,” according to the press release—who will be revealed at Art Basel Miami Beach in December.
A full list of winners is below.
Artists–IconDavid HammonsLubaina HimidJoan JonasAdrian PiperBetye SaarCecilia Vicuña
Artists–EstablishedNairy BaghramianTony CokesCao FeiIbrahim MahamaDelcy MorelosHo Tzu Nyen
Artists–EmergingMohammad AlfarajMeriem BennaniPan DaijingSaodat IsmailovaLydia OurahmaneSofia Salazar Rosales
Cross-Disciplinary CreatorsFormafantasmaSaidiya HartmanGrace Wales Bonner
PatronsShane AkeroydMaja HoffmannJoel Wachs
InstitutionsART + PRACTICEJameel Arts CentreRAW Material Company
CuratorsCandice HopkinsShanay JhaveriEungie Joo
AlliesArt Handlxrs*Gasworks / Triangle NetworkSandra Terdjman
Media and StorytellersNegar AzimiBarbara CasavecchiaThe Journal of Curatorial Studies