Thundering threads: highlights from Art Basel Miami Beach’s Meridians sector, which showcases large-scale works

Art Basel Miami Beach’s Meridians sector marks its fifth year with a new curator, Yasmil Raymond, formerly of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and currently rector of the Städelschule art school in Frankfurt. “This is my first time curating for an art fair,” Raymond says proudly, noting that she sees the Meridians section as a place for artists at the peak of their careers. “I wanted the least amount of walls,” she says of her curatorial vision, likening the open section of large-scale works to an agora filled with pieces relating to “becoming, movements, transformation and metamorphosis”. Here, Raymond offers a tour of some of this year’s highlights.

Lee ShinJa, Dawn (1980s), Tina Kim

“There are many works using yarn and tapestry in Meridians this year. Lee invites people to look at her works from the 1980s as paintings. The artist is in her 90s—she survived both World War II and the Korean War, and she established the department of fibre arts at Duksung Women’s University in Seoul. She is like a parallel to Anni Albers at the Bauhaus.”

Antonis Donef, Untitled (2014-20), Casado Santapau, Kalfayan

“This work is a 12-metre-long collage and calligraphic ink drawing made over six years. The Greek artist Antonis Donef took old books and encyclopaedias in different languages and combined them using a sort of journaling or dialectic method. I call it a ‘large miniature’.”

Alice Aycock, Goya (2024), Thomas Schulte

“This tornado was made specifically for Art Basel. It’s called Goya because in the Spanish painter’s etchings, when he wanted to perform wind, he made these turbulent markings. Aycock works with architects to render her plans, then takes those to a welder. This work speaks to the ambition of great artists.”

Yuichi Hirako, Seeding (2024), Baton, The Modern Institute

“Made of solid wood, this work at first looks childlike, but then you start to notice the family, the elements of a house, the packed books and guitar—maybe it’s a journey of necessity rather than an adventure. This is a subtle but powerful contemplation on climate change forcing mass migrations.”

Roberto Huarcaya, Amazogramas (2014), Rolf Art

“This Peruvian photographer spent two years trying to document a remote region of the Amazon. But he found that he couldn’t capture the majesty of the trees, so he went for the most basic form of photography. He made this giant photogram by attaching photosensitive paper to bamboo sticks. He also put the paper up on a palm tree during a storm and with the resulting lightning, the paper was exposed.”

Chiachio & Giannone, La Famille Dans La Joyeuse Verdure (2013-19), Ruth Benzacar

“The two artists are a couple who spent six years making this family portrait with their dog using European tapestry-making techniques. They’re wearing Guaraní headdresses, and there’s a lusciousness and beauty to the scene that’s like paradise, like Eden. There is also an alcove, where you can sit down and look at the work more closely.”

Rachel Feinstein, Metal Storm (2024), Gagosian

“This sculpture of three witches was inspired by a 16th-century etching by Hans Baldung Grien. It’s a monument to the power of women—the opposite of what Grien was trying to depict. At the time, it was thought that if a woman looked between her legs at someone, she cast a spell on them—as one of the figures does here.”