The inaugural Art Basel Awards honours key players across the globe for their contribution to contemporary art. The 2025 edition has revealed 36 medallists across nine categories: Artists – Icon, Emerging and Established, Cross Disciplinary Creators, Patrons, Institutions, Curators, Allies and Media and Storytellers.
The medallists were recognised on four key qualities including vision and innovation, skill and execution, engagement, and broader impact. They were chosen by the jury consisting of Adriano Pedrosa, Elena Filipovic, Franklin Sirmans, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Hoor Al Qasimi, Jessica Morgan, Philip Tinari, Suhanya Raffel, and the late Koyo Kouoh.
The inaugural medallists of the Art Basel Awards included David Hammons, Lubaina Himid, Joan Jonas, Adrian Piper, Betye Saar, and Cecilia Vicuña from the Artists – Icon category, Nairy Baghramian, Tony Cokes, Cao Fei, Ibrahim Mahama, Delcy Morelos, and Ho Tzu Nyen were recognised under Artists – Established and Mohammad Alfaraj, Meriem Bennani, Pan Daijing, Saodat Ismailova, Lydia Ourahmane, and Sofia Salazar Rosales received awards for Artists – Emerging. Cross-Disciplinary Creators included Saidiya Hartman, Grace Wales Bonner, and Formafantasma; Patrons honoured Shane Akeroyd, Maja Hoffmann, and Joel Wachs; Under the Institutions category were ART + PRACTICE, Jameel Arts Centre, and RAW Material Company; Curators included Candice Hopkins, Shanay Jhaveri, and Eungie Joo and Allies were Art Handlxrs*, Gasworks / Triangle Network, and Sandra Terdjman. The awards for Media and Storytellers went to Negar Azimi, Barbara Casavecchia, and The Journal of Curatorial Studies.
The awardees will be acknowledged during Art Basel in Basel to be held from 19 to 22 June 2025, as well as over the course of campaigns and initiatives throughout the year. Art Basel Awards Summit, the first yearly conference dedicated to creative leaders in the wider art world, will see the medallists headline the event.
From the 36 medallists, twelve will be chosen in a peer-reviewed process as Gold medallists, receiving the highest honour offered by Art Basel. They will be revealed at the official night of the Art Basel Awards in Miami Beach in December 2025. The Gold Medal aims to catapult the chosen awardees to the forefront of the global art stage through partnerships, commissions, philanthropic initiatives and networking, while allocating a total of almost USD 300,000 per year in philanthropic gifts and artist honorariums, thereby extending an adaptable form of support for the chosen creatives.
