In Collins Park, a ping pong table waits for players. It is also a sculpture, one of six designed by artists for Between Tides, a participatory project from Public Art Fund that invites visitors to pick up a paddle and play. Free and open to the public, it is a fitting first stop for Art Basel Miami Beach in 2026, a fair that has spent the past year asking how a large gathering of galleries can feel more open, more navigable and more connected to the city around it.
The fair takes place at the Miami Beach Convention Center from December 4 to 6, with VIP Preview Days on December 2 and 3. It brings together 272 exhibitors from more than 40 countries and territories, and it remains the most significant commercial moment in the U.S. art market calendar. UBS serves as Global Lead Partner.
Inside the Convention Center, the first thing to notice is the room itself. Miami Beach is the only Art Basel show presented on a single floor, and this year that floor has been substantially reconfigured. Shaped by feedback from the Selection Committee, exhibitors and visitors, the new plan occupies roughly 12% less space, and the main sector, Galleries, has about 10% fewer exhibitors. Four hospitality plazas replace the previous five, which opens longer sightlines across the hall and lets a visitor read the fair as a whole rather than as separate neighborhoods. Blue chip galleries once grouped in a single area are now distributed throughout, so programs of very different scales, profiles and geographies sit closer together.
Within that layout, 254 galleries present museum caliber Modern and postwar works alongside the contemporary practices shaping the field today. Galleries is the largest sector with 204 exhibitors, and it includes Kabinett, where 28 focused presentations sit inside exhibitors’ booths and offer a closer encounter with a single artist, a historical body of work or a thematic idea. Nova gathers 20 galleries showing new work by up to three artists each. Positions offers 12 solo projects by emerging artists. Survey brings 16 historically focused presentations by 18 galleries, drawing attention to practices that deserve a second look. More than 30 galleries take part for the first time, most of them through these project based sectors, whose changing line ups bring new voices and historical rediscoveries to each edition.
Some faces are familiar. Seven galleries return to Galleries after time away: Pilar Corrias, DC Moore Gallery, Alison Jacques, Kerlin Gallery, Modern Art, Edward Tyler Nahem and Mariane Ibrahim. Selma Feriani Gallery, from La Goulette, comes back after eight years and makes its Galleries debut, having shown in Nova in 2018. Arario Gallery from Seoul and Galería Casado Santapau from Madrid enter the main sector directly.
Much of the fair looks toward the Americas. More than two thirds of participating galleries operate spaces there, and the roster includes galleries from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Peru, Chile, Guatemala, Cuba and The Bahamas. Brazil again forms the third largest national contingent. Longstanding regional anchors return, among them Raquel Arnaud, OMR, Simões de Assis, Galería Sur, Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte, Nara Roesler, Almeida & Dale, Isla Flotante, A Gentil Carioca, Mendes Wood DM and Gomide&Co, and they share the floor with a rising generation gaining recognition at home and abroad.
Several stories stand out. El Apartamento, the first gallery based in Cuba to participate in the fair, returns to Galleries and opened a Miami space in late 2025. Galería Isabel Aninat advances to the main sector after a previous appearance in Nova. De Sousa Galería and Galería de las Misiones make their debuts in Survey, while Galeria Nora Fisch and TERN Gallery join Positions.
Closer to home, the American picture is broad. Twenty three galleries across the fair have spaces in Los Angeles. Luis De Jesus Los Angeles and Nazarian / Curcio advance to Galleries, first time exhibitor Mariposa joins Survey, and Moskowitz Bayse and Sea View enter Positions. Chicago is represented in the main sector by Gray, moniquemeloche, Document, Patron and Mariane Ibrahim. In South Florida, Fredric Snitzer Gallery, David Castillo, Gavlak and Nina Johnson return, and Spinello Projects makes its Galleries debut after earlier participation in Nova. Eric Firestone Gallery expanded to West Palm Beach earlier this year, a sign of continued investment in the regional scene. Omer Tiroche Gallery, The Bonnier Gallery and Andrew Reed Gallery join Survey for the first time, and Piero Atchugarry Gallery advances to Galleries.
Sam Falls, Golden Hours, 2025
Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco
New York contributes first time participants across three sectors. Storage, King’s Leap and Harkawik join Positions, Sargent’s Daughters and Marinaro enter Nova, and Fort Gansevoort debuts in Survey. Ryan Lee, Lomex and Welancora Gallery move up to Galleries, and Yancey Richardson Gallery returns for the first time since 2021. Galleries from Houston, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Portland, including Adams and Ollman after a hiatus, extend the map beyond the usual centers.
Walk further and the fair widens again. Substantial contingents from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium and South Korea meet the Americas here, along with galleries from Canada, Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Uganda, the Philippines and Singapore. Five countries appear for the first time: The Bahamas through TERN Gallery, Estonia through Temnikova & Kasela, Georgia through Bukia Vakhania, Ghana through Gallery 1957 and Hungary through Ani Molnár.
The range of programs is just as wide. Acquavella Galleries, Cardi Gallery, Galerie Karsten Greve, Gray, Skarstedt, Tornabuoni Art and Vedovi Gallery bring depth in Modern and postwar work. Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, White Cube, Pace Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Paula Cooper Gallery, Galerie Max Hetzler, Thaddaeus Ropac, Sprüth Magers, Esther Schipper and Xavier Hufkens anchor the blue chip end. Luhring Augustine, neugerriemschneider, Edel Assanti, Johyun Gallery, Nanzuka, David Kordansky Gallery and Tina Kim Gallery add generational and curatorial variety. Galleries with roots on both sides of the market, such as Mendes Wood DM, Nara Roesler, Leon Tovar Gallery, mor charpentier and Galerie Nordenhake, carry sustained engagement with Latin American art into international conversation.
A different kind of looking happens in Zero 10, Art Basel’s global initiative for art of the digital era. Now in its second Miami Beach edition, one year after its launch, it presents Generation, its largest showing yet, and completes the initiative’s first global cycle after editions in Asia and Europe. Twenty two galleries and platforms take part, four of them also exhibiting in Galleries, and the presentation gathers 19 projects by artists including Jon Rafman, Refik Anadol and Sarah Meyohas. Curated by Karen Archey with Eli Scheinman, it also marks the start of a new phase. Nicole Sales Giles, who joined Art Basel in September 2026, becomes Zero 10’s first Global Head and will guide its growth into a year round platform, deepening ties with artists, galleries, studios, collectors and institutions. Archey leads the curatorial department at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen in Düsseldorf and was Curator of Contemporary Art at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam from 2017 to 2025. Scheinman, who has shaped Zero 10 since its beginning, continues as Strategic Advisor.
The city itself becomes part of the program. Alongside the Collins Park tables, which are by Moko Fukuyama, Ilana Harris-Babou, Las Hermanas Iglesias, Carlos H. Matos, Amalia Pica and SUPERFLEX and curated by Gabriela López Dena, the Turrell Art Foundation and Art Basel, supported by Pace Gallery, will unveil a significant new body of work by James Turrell outdoors, also free to the public, with details to follow in the coming weeks. Between Tides turns to community, cultural exchange and ecology through play, and Amalia Pica’s solo exhibition Lecturas Posibles opens at the same time at The Bass. Art Basel’s Conversations program adds a full day on the relationship between art and sport, with the complete schedule to be announced soon.
Museums and collections across South Florida open their own chapters. The Bass presents Yuko Mohri, Pedro y Juana and Gabriel Rico. Pérez Art Museum Miami shows Picasso, Klee and Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen, Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols, John Baldessari: The End of the Line and Anina Major: The Sacred Mangrove. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami opens exhibitions devoted to Carroll Dunham and Diego Singh, along with a new stairwell commission by Naudline Pierre. The Lowe Art Museum presents Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Let the Picture Lead: Helen Frankenthaler and Her Circle, and Dustin Yellin: Psychogeographies. The Norton Museum of Art shows Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery and Blazing Light: Photographs by Mimi Plumb. The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse offers a realism exhibition and a Yuko Mohri installation, with a project room for Jordi Alcaraz and Mimmo Paladino, and YoungArts presents Hank Willis Thomas alongside Resident Open Studios.
For collectors and institutions, the fair expands its program and expects its largest contingent of museum groups across Art Basel’s 2026 shows. A weeklong schedule of guided visits, intimate conversations and invitation only gatherings is designed to bring visitors into closer contact with the galleries and their presentations. The City of Miami Beach Legacy Purchase Prize and the CPGA and Villa Albertine Prize return to support participating artists and galleries.
The week begins, in a sense, the night before the fair opens. On Thursday, December 3, the Official Art Basel Awards Night takes place at the New World Center in Miami Beach, with support from the City of Miami Beach and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. Presented in partnership with BOSS, the Art Basel Awards return for a second edition as the first global honors recognizing excellence across the contemporary art ecosystem. The 2026 Gold Awardees will be revealed following a peer vote among this year’s Medalists, who span nine categories and include Barbara Kruger, Howardena Pindell, Jenny Holzer, Arthur Jafa, Julie Mehretu, María Magdalena Campos Pons and Theaster Gates, alongside Laurie Anderson, Hilton Als, Pamela J. Joyner, the Diriyah Biennale Foundation and the Studio Museum in Harlem Artist in Residence Program. The evening will also present the second BOSS Award for Outstanding Achievement, following artist Meriem Bennani in 2025. Gold Awardees in the artist categories collectively receive more than USD 250,000 each year in flexible support to develop and present ambitious work internationally.
By the time the doors close on December 6, visitors will have crossed a single, more open floor, looked at work from every corner of the Americas and beyond, and perhaps lost a rally or two on a sculpture in the park. The question the week leaves behind is a simple one: what changes when an art fair gives people room to look, and room to play?
