George Nelson

1 week ago | artnews.com | George Nelson

While most art collectors focused on Art Basel this week, the Digital Art Mile—Basel’s first-ever digital art fair—opened its second edition on Monday. Launched last year by digital art adviser Georg Bak and ArtMeta founder Roger Haas, the fair is being held at Basel’s underground Kult Kino Camera cinema through Sunday.

1 week ago | artnews.com | George Nelson

While the Liste Art Fair is known for showcasing younger galleries and more experimental artwork, the satellite fair is now 30 years old. It’s hardly the young upstart it once was—and yet, it still manages to surprise. In 2021, the fair moved from the Warteck Brewery to Hall 3 of the Messe, bringing it closer to Art Basel proper. But the newish surroundings have come with growing pains.

1 week ago | artnews.com | Daniel Cassady |George Nelson

It’s a well-worn truth by now—or maybe a tired cliché —to say that Art Basel is as much about what happens outside the Messe Basel as within it. Beyond the VIP days, the real action can be found at night over cocktails and private dinners, where collectors, dealers, artists, and advisors close deals, swap gossip, and forge relationships that ripple across the art world for months—sometimes years—to come.

1 week ago | artnews.com | Daniel Cassady |George Nelson

For decades, Art Basel in Switzerland was the only fair that mattered—the undisputed apex of the art market calendar. But in 2025, that certainty has splintered. With a bloated and chaotic global fair circuit and new contenders arriving every year (oh, hello Art Basel Qatar), even loyalists have started to ask: is Basel still top dog? For the galleries that brought the right material, it would seem so.

1 week ago | artnews.com | Harrison Jacobs |Daniel Cassady |George Nelson |Angelica Villa

Back in 1970, when Art Basel was founded, there were just a handful of major fairs. Today, however, by some estimates, there are more than 300 art fairs. But even still, Art Basel remains the main fair for many of the dealers showing in Switzerland this week. David Fleiss, the cofounder of Paris’s Galerie 1900-2000, participated in the 1970 and 1971 editions of the fair, before taking a long hiatus until the ’90s. He’s been going ever since. “The fair is the fair for us.