Art Basel’s ‘Meet the artists’ series presents contemporary creatives shaping today’s cultural landscape 

Known for her monumental, site-specific installations and vivid spray-painted environments, Katharina Grosse has long challenged conventional ideas of what painting can be – and where it belongs. Whether working with unstretched canvases, entire buildings, or urban landscapes, she approaches each surface as a place of potential.

In this episode of ‘Meet the artists’ Grosse welcomes Art Basel to her custom-designed studio in Berlin to discuss the solitude, scale, and impulse behind her process. She also delves into the works she developed while at her New Zealand studio – canvases that, once rolled up and sent back to Berlin, pass briefly through her studio before moving on to exhibitions and fairs.

For Grosse, painting is a way to challenge fixed ideas of image-making. ‘The way that I expose the painting to public space is a goodbye to the image as we know it,’ she explains. ‘Nobody can own it or everybody can, in their own way.’

Her upcoming project at Messeplatz during Art Basel in June – her largest public work to date – continues this trajectory. A massive painting that will cover the plaza and facades, the work embodies her belief that painting doesn’t have to be eternal to be powerful. ‘When half your work isn’t there anymore,’ she says, ‘it gives a powerful understanding of how time passes.’

The artist’s Messeplatz project will be visible during Art Basel in Basel, from June 19–22, 2025. More information here.

Katharina Grosse will join Messeplatz project curator Natalia Grabowska for the Premiere artist talk during Art Basel Conversations on Thursday, June 19, at 11:30am. RSVP for the talk here.

Katharina Grosse is the Guest Artist for this edition of the Art Basel Shop. She has created hand-painted, limited-edition soccer balls, printed transparent Loqi bags, and a special edition of packing tape – translating her signature vibrant gestures into collectible everyday objects. All items are available exclusively at the onsite Art Basel Shop. 

Katharina Grosse is represented by Gagosian (New York, Basel, London, Hong Kong, Paris, Rome), Galerie Max Hetzler (Berlin, London, Paris), and Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder (Vienna).

Current exhibitions include ‘Wunderbild’ at Deichtorhallen Hamburg (Hall of Contemporary Art) through September 14, 2025 and ‘The Sprayed Dear’ at Staatsgalerie Stuttgart through January 11, 2026.