Art Basel has named the 33 medalists for the second iteration of the Art Basel Awards, its annual honours programme recognising artists, curators, collectors, institutions and other art-world allies.
“This year’s cohort spans geographies, disciplines and generations, reflecting a truly interconnected art world,” Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s global director of fairs and chair of the award jury, said in a statement. “The awards are designed to capture a broad cross-section of the ecosystem, grounded in the belief that meaningful progress depends on exchange across disciplines and perspectives.”
The emerging artists category includes Farah Al Qasimi, Carla Gueye, Diego Marcon, Aziza Kadyri, Precious Okoyomon and Tiffany Sia, whose work addresses identity, migration, ecology and systems of power, according to Art Basel. The established artists category includes María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Arthur Jafa, Theaster Gates, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Julie Mehretu. The icon artists category recognises artists who have fundamentally influenced and continue to shape the art world; this year’s honourees are Barbara Kruger, Howardena Pindell and Jenny Holzer.
A cross-disciplinary category honours the artist and musician Laurie Anderson and the achitects Sumayya Vally and Kulapat Yantrasast, reflecting the increasing confluence between contemporary art and other cultural fields. The awards also recognise figures who are not artists, including collectors. Patrons named as medalists include Pamela J. Joyner, Mercedes Vilardell and the Teiger Foundation, while the curators Azu Nwagbogu, Stuart Comer and Diana Campbell are recognised in a separate category.
Institutions honoured include the Savvy Contemporary art centre in Berlin, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation in Saudi Arabia and the Brick theatre incubator in Brooklyn. In the media and storytellers category, the awards recognise the writer and critic Hilton Als, the journalist Siddhartha Mitter and Anton Vidokle, an artist and the foudner of e-flux. In a section titled Allies, Art Basel is honouring Independent Curators International, New Curators in London, and the Studio Museum in Harlem’s storied artist-in-residence programme.
The 2026 medalists will be honoured at a ceremony during Art Basel’s flagship fair in Basel, Switzerland (15-21 June), where some will take part in a series of public talks. Medalists will select a smaller group from amongst themselves to receive gold medals, to be announced during Art Basel Miami Beach in December. Artists who receive a gold award will receive more than $250,000 in flexible support, Art Basel says, including honorariums, philanthropic contributions and public commissions.
Art Basel launched the awards last year in a move to “give recognition to people and institutions for what they do almost on a daily basis”, De Bellis told The Art Newspaper at the time. “We want to reward the people who are going to make a mark on the future of the industry, so it’s more about celebrating forward-thinking, rather than past achievements.”
