Art Basel Cancels Its Last Fair Of This Year

On September 2, Art Basel officially announced that the 2020 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), originally slated for December 3–6, has been canceled, citing the “ongoing impact of the pandemic.”  

In a press release, Art Basel explained that its decision was a result of a combination of factors, including uncertainties surrounding the hosting of such large-scale public events at this time, as well as travel restrictions and quarantine measures imposed both within the United States and globally. Noah Horowitz, Art Basel’s director of Americas further added: “It is with great regret and disappointment that we announce the cancellation of our December show in Miami Beach, as we know how crucial our show is for our galleries, as well as for the greater Miami arts community and economy.” 

Participants of ABMB 2020 will not pay booth fees, and paid application fees will be rolled over to the 2021 edition, as reported by Artnet. A virtual showing of galleries originally part of the fair will be presented in December, with further details to come.

A major art event, the cancellation of ABMB marks the first year in five decades without an art fair by Art Basel, as its March Hong Kong and June Basel iterations were also canceled earlier this year. Both fairs were similarly replaced with Online Viewing Rooms (OVR) in lieu of the in-person events. The fair has also recently announced that it will host two additional OVR’s, OVR:2020 and OVR:20c. Running from September 23–26 and October 28–31, they will feature works made during this year and from the 20th-century, respectively. 

Immediately following Art Basel’s announcement, other fairs scheduled for the same time frame, namely Art Miami, CONTEXT Art Miami, and Aqua Art Miami have also announced their cancellations for this year. The organizer Art Miami Show Group plans to run an online initiative, Miami Art City, slated for December 1–6.

While the number of reported Covid-19 cases has seemingly decreased throughout Florida, the state was a hotspot for the virus for several months. The county of Miami-Dade saw an increase of 341 confirmed cases just yesterday, bringing its total to 159,400. 

The 2021 edition of ABMB is currently scheduled for December 2–5.

Margarita Cheng is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.

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