Going for Gold

Meriem Bennani. Photography by Valentina Somma. Image courtesy of the artist and Art Basel.

This week, the Art Basel Awards announced the 36 medalists for its 2025 awards, highlighting artists, curators, patrons, and cultural contributors who are redrawing the map of the global art world. From Dakar to Uzbekistan, this year’s cohort spans generations and continents. Medalists include wunderkinds such as Moroccan-born and New York-based Meriem Bennani and Berlin-based Chinese artist Pan Daijing, alongside living legends like American video and performance artist Joan Jonas and New York-based Chilean fiber artist Cecilia Vicuña. Come December, the artists will gather in Miami to award 12 gold medals, selected through a peer-driven voting process.

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Organized into nine categories, the Art Basel Awards embraces creatives shaping culture from every angle. Some medalists blur the lines between disciplines: London’s Grace Wales Bonner blends Afro-Atlantic aesthetics and traditional European tailoring in her eponymous label. And Colombian artist Delcy Morelos’ large-scale earthen installations envelope viewers in scents, soil, and memory.

Cecilia Vicuña. Photography by William Jess Laird. Image courtesy of the artist and Art Basel.

Beyond individual artists, the roster also includes the organizations that support them, such as Triangle Network, a global nonprofit that offers affordable studio space and international residencies in London with partner organization Gasworks. It also recognizes behind-the-scenes names who are moving the culture, like writer Negar Azimi, who is editor-in-chief of the visionary Middle Eastern culture publication Bidoun. Across the board, the awardees share a deep commitment to exploring the impacts of colonialism, emerging digital landscapes, and fractured geographies. As Vincenzo de Bellis, director of fairs, explains, the medalists represent “a meaningful return to storytelling, used not only as an artistic device, but as a form of continuity and resistance.”

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This year’s jury includes institutional leaders such as Hoor Al Qasimi of the Sharjah Art Foundation, Philip Tinari of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, and Hans Ulrich Obrist of Serpentine Galleries in London. De Bellis places special emphasis on the work of medalist RAW Material Company in Dakar, founded by juror Koyo Kouoh who passed away this month. “Her conviction, thoughtfulness, and generosity were deeply felt throughout the process,” he says.

Meriem Bennani. Photography by Valentina Somma. Image courtesy of the artist and Art Basel.

Now, the 36 medalists turn inward, casting votes for six artists and six art collaborators to honor with the gold medal in Miami Beach come winter. Winners in the artist category will receive over $300,000 in total, along with global networking opportunities, prestige, and potential for future public exhibitions. The two established artist medalists will receive large-scale public commissions to debut during Art Basel 2026. Though medals will be given, Art Basel emphasizes that this is no competition. The international art fair positions the awardees not as winners, but as way-finders, a constellation of voices pointing toward what’s next.