Nairy Baghramian And Ibrahim Mahama To Create Major New Commissions For Art Basel 2026. Artsy

Two of the most closely watched artists in this year's Art Basel program will take over some of Basel's most visible public spaces. Iranian-born, German sculptor Nairy Baghramian (b. 1971) and Ghanaian installation artist Ibrahim Mahama (b. 1987) will each unveil new site-specific works at the flagship fair in Switzerland this June, extending the fair's reach beyond the convention halls and into the city itself.

Baghramian's Modèle vivant (S'empilant) (2026) will be installed on the Messeplatz, where the work is conceived around the square's fountain. The piece consists of four lavender biomorphic forms set on geometric steel supports that frame the waterfalls. Nearby, a bench-like pedestal covered in tiles will be surrounded by photographic imprints of flies, adding a note of quiet disquiet to the otherwise open civic setting.

Mahama's The God of Small Things (2026) will appear on the Münsterplatz as a large-scale immersive environment made from suspended sculptural elements. The title borrows from Arundhati Roy's novel, while the materials point to a different history: rubber castoffs from a factory established in Ghana after the country's independence. The work continues Mahama's long-standing interest in labor, extraction, and the afterlife of industrial materials.

Both artists are part of Art Basel's inaugural class of Gold Awardees, a distinction the fair announced in February. Their commissions arrive alongside broader programming changes across the fair's sectors. Unlimited, the platform for large-scale projects, will be curated for the first time by Ruba Katrib, chief curator and director of curatorial affairs at MoMA PS1. The section will bring together 59 projects by 66 galleries, with works by Isa Genzken, Tracey Emin, and Oskar Schlemmer among the highlights.

Parcours, curated by Stefanie Hessler, will present 22 projects from 31 galleries in public spaces and historic sites across Basel, including outdoor venues, empty apartments, and shops. Hessler described public space as central to how people“live together,” and said this year's edition will explore conviviality through interventions that address ecology, labor, artistic community, and systems of value. Among the announced projects are new posters by Sarah Crowner, distributed across the tram system, and Haegue Yang's installations from her ongoing Intermediates series, which will be draped across the Mittlere Brücke and paired with equipment from an artisanal distillery.

Art Basel also said it will release further information on the main sector, as well as Kabinett, Features, Premiere, Statements, and Edition. Taken together, the announcements suggest a fair that is leaning hard into public encounter - and into the city as an active part of the exhibition itself.

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