Art Basel 2025: Miami Returns to the Contemporary Capital
After the October stop in Paris, Art Basel returned to doing what Miami does best: turning an art fair into a tropical state of collective anticipation. The other night, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the opening of the 2025 edition officially kicked off Miami Art Week — that sprawling ecosystem of more than twenty fairs, exhibitions, parties, and glamorous sightings that will swallow the city whole until December 7.
Inside the Convention Center, however, the true center of gravity remains Art Basel Miami Beach, running December 5–7: 287 galleries from 44 countries, two-thirds from the Americas, and 41 newcomers — many from the Global South, from Cuba to Peru — confirming that the compass of today’s art world points steadily southward. Yet the surprise of the opening wasn’t the numbers but the mood: an edition that feels like the most “rethought” in years, with new sections, a sharper focus on emerging practices, and a sustainability program that finally acts more than it declares.
The new Premiere sector, dedicated to works from the past five years, immediately triggered a treasure-hunt mentality among curators and collectors; Meridians, expanded this year along Ocean Drive, dropped monumental installations and environmental projects like question marks into the urban landscape; Nova and Kabinett wove together young revelations and intimate retrospectives, a reminder that while the market thrives on the present, it breathes in the long rhythms of history.
The preview drew many familiar faces from the international scene — but the true protagonist seemed to be Miami itself, which every December proves how art here operates as both cultural and economic accelerator. A fair generating hundreds of millions of dollars while simultaneously redefining what it means to be a global platform.
The rest of the week will unfold on its own terms, but one thing is already clear: the opening has set the pace, and Miami has followed it with its usual, unmistakable, luminous choreography.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Michele Illuzzi
