On May 15th, Art Basel announced 36 medalists for the inaugural Art Basel Awards, a new initiative recognizing outstanding individuals and institutions shaping contemporary culture. The honorees include some of today’s most revered artists and other creative leaders, including David Hammons, Lubaina Himid, Joan Jonas, Betye Saar, fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, and cultural theorist Saidiya Hartman. The final 12 gold medals will be awarded in December during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Presented in partnership with BOSS, the 2025 Art Basel Awards span nine categories, three of which are devoted to artists: emerging, established, and icon. Six additional categories include cross-disciplinary creators, curators, museums and institutions, patrons, allies, and media and storytellers.
Speaking at a press dinner in New York in April, Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz framed the awards as part of a larger vision for the company outside its famed art fairs: “When we go beyond the moments of the fairs, we believe that Art Basel can be more active—and in many ways has a responsibility to be more active—to serve the community of artists, galleries, museums, institutions, collectors,” he said. “The spirit of the awards really was about how to further support the progression of artists’ careers, how to recognize excellence in the industry.” He added that the art world does not have a leading awards platform, “so we’re aspiring to fill that void.”
While many art fairs distribute awards to recognize exhibiting artists and galleries, often through sponsorship from brands and institutions, the Art Basel Awards are novel as a standalone initiative with year-round programming. In the art world, the most prestigious accolades for artists are typically awarded by foundations and institutions, such as the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, the MacArthur “Genius Grant,” and the Turner Prize.
Lubaina Himid, who won the Turner Prize in 2017 and will represent the U.K. at the 2026 Venice Biennale, is recognized in the Art Basel Awards’s icon category. A pioneer of the British Black Arts Movement, the artist is known for her paintings and sculptures that reframe historical narratives. In the established category, Delcy Morelos is honored for her expansive earthworks, which have transformed spaces like Dia Chelsea in New York and the Arsenale at the 2022 Venice Biennale with sensorial installations rooted in Indigenous traditions. Among the emerging voices is Meriem Bennani, whose witty video installations and sculptures draw on the flow of global culture in the digital age.
Medalists in the cross-disciplinary creators category include the acclaimed fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, who was prominently featured at the 2025 Met Gala; Italian design studio Formafantasma, which is recognized for its ecologically conscious work; and writer and theorist Saidiya Hartman, who was named for her influential work on cultural memory and history.
The inaugural cohort of medalists was selected by an international jury of major museum leaders and curators, chaired by Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s director of fairs and exhibition platforms. Jurors included Hoor Al Qasimi, president and director of the Sharjah Art Foundation; Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London; and the late Koyo Kouoh, who passed away last week and was executive director of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town and curator of the 61st Venice Biennale. The jury selected the 36 medalists from a pool of nominees submitted by a global network of anonymous individuals.
De Bellis noted that, while the awards are cross-disciplinary, the emphasis on artists is intentional. “This structure may evolve over time,” he told Artsy, “but we wanted to begin by showing just how much we care about artists.”
The 36 medalists will be celebrated during Art Basel’s flagship fair in Switzerland in mid-June. They will take part in the first Art Basel Awards Summit, a public day of talks and panels. This December, during Art Basel Miami Beach, the medalists will vote among themselves to determine the 12 gold medalists.
A total of $300,000 will be distributed among the gold medalists through unrestricted honorariums, philanthropic gifts, and public commissions. According to Horowitz and de Bellis, the program is designed not only to honor excellence but also to foster artists’ careers, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and mentorship.
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