A five-minute walk from the Messeplatz, where Basel and Liste take place, is the June Art Fair. A smaller fair hosting just 19 galleries, June Art Fair represents enterprises that are no longer emerging but are perhaps not established enough or big enough to afford participating in Art Basel.
The small selection is partly due to the space: galleries at June show their artists’ works in an underground bunker initially developed for nuclear fallout. It’s a far cry from the antiseptic convention halls. In this context, one feels they can give their full attention to the art on view.
Back upstairs from the bunker are special projects like “I was born to just hang out” by DARP, an artistic and alternative living collective from Derbyshire whose installation of seated wooden figures in T-shirts invites audiences to chill for a moment. A selection of NFTs curated by Jared Madere was also on view as part of June Art Fair’s crypto-art initiative Juneart.io. Flashing by on a TV monitor overlooking the kitchen garden outside the bunker was a surprising range of work Wretched Worm, who came up in the net-art movement; abstract painters like Joanne Robertson and Jake Cruzen; and more.
Below, ARTnews has put together a selection of the five best booths at June Art Fair.
