The Art Basel Awards Announce 2025 Medalists Shaping the Future of Art
Thirty-Six Visionaries Recognized in Landmark Global Honors Celebrating the Contemporary Art World
The Art Basel Awards are the first global honors dedicated to recognizing and advancing excellence across the contemporary art world — celebrating visionaries spanning the industry whose work is shaping the next generation of cutting-edge artistry. Path-breaking artists, cross-disciplinary creators in fashion, design, music, and performance; curators; institutions; patrons and foundations; writers and journalists; and the specialists behind the scenes, from studio managers to fabricators, are honored in Art Basel’s debut year of its landmark annual award cycle.
From a nominee pool of the world’s most influential voices and promising rising talents, an International Jury of experts awards 36 Medalists for their vanguard vision, skill, and impact.
Among them:
- Lubaina Himid – British Black Arts pioneer reshaping the canon, and representing the UK at the 2026 Venice Biennale
- Adrian Piper – Legendary first-generation Conceptual artist challenging race, identity, and power with fearless intellect
- Meriem Bennani – Remixing digital culture, postcolonial critique, and absurdist wit through video and sculpture practice
- Pan Daijing – Sound visionary building raw, immersive worlds across performance and choreography
- Grace Wales Bonner – Fashion’s rising star fusing style, literature, and diasporic storytelling
- Formafantasma – Italian design duo captivating the world's leading brands with radical investigations in design thought
- Candice Hopkins – Trailblazing Carcross/Tagish First Nation advancing the art historical narrative through Indigenous leadership and vision
- RAW Material Company – Dakar's experimental art incubator and think tank, established by the late, visionary museum leader, curator, and Art Basel Awards Juror Koyo Kouoh
Founded on the conviction that the future of art relies not only on artists but also on the ecosystems that sustain them, the Art Basel Awards confer Medals across nine categories – Icon Artists, Established Artists, Emerging Artists, Cross-Disciplinary Creators, Patrons, Institutions, Curators, Allies, and Storytellers – set a new precedent for honoring and strengthening the complex, interwoven networks that power and sustain artistic production today.
"The Art Basel Awards are not a competition, but a beacon. They shine a light on those working with radical vision, skill, and commitment to building communities of practice and exchange."
Vincenzo de Bellis, Chair, Art Basel Awards and Director of Fairs & Exhibition Platforms, Art Basel
Medalists will be recognized during Art Basel’s historic flagship fair in Switzerland in June and through year-round global campaigns and initiatives. Additionally, on June 20, Medalists will headline the first annual Art Basel Awards Summit — Art Basel’s debut thought leadership conference in business of art, convening the most influential figures in the global art world and creative industries — also held in Basel.
Later this year, Medalists will pilot a peer-driven process, whereby they will vote to select up to 12 Gold Medalists from among themselves — half of them artists — representing the Art Basel Awards' highest honor and a new model of recognition in which future changemakers are uniquely elevated by their peers.
Gold Medals in the artist categories confer immediate, flexible support by distributing a total of nearly USD 300,000 annually in honorariums and philanthropic gifts, as well as global networking, tailored partnerships, and high-profile commissions designed to propel artists’ work onto new global platforms. With a focus on artist recipients in the pilot year, Gold Medalists in the Emerging Artist category will each receive an unrestricted honorarium of USD 50,000; Gold Medalists in the Established Artist category will each be awarded an honorarium of USD 50,000, alongside a large-scale public commission to debut during Art Basel in Basel in June 2026; and for Gold Medalists in the Icon Artist category, a donation of USD 50,000 will be made by Art Basel to an organization of the artist's choosing, in their name.
Gold Medalists will be revealed in December 2025 during the Official Night of the Art Basel Awards in Miami Beach.
The Art Basel Awards are presented in partnership with renowned fashion brand BOSS, the core brand of HUGO BOSS. The Art Basel Awards embody HUGO BOSS Group’s longstanding commitment to inspiring discovery and dialog at the intersection of fashion and art.
Learn more about this year's Medalists in the Art Basel Awards press dossier.
Full list of Medalists:
ARTISTS – ICON
- David Hammons
- Lubaina Himid
- Joan Jonas
- Adrian Piper
- Betye Saar
- Cecilia Vicuña
ARTISTS – ESTABLISHED
- Nairy Baghramian
- Tony Cokes
- Cao Fei
- Ibrahim Mahama
- Delcy Morelos
- Ho Tzu Nyen
ARTISTS – EMERGING
- Mohammad Alfaraj
- Meriem Bennani
- Pan Daijing
- Saodat Ismailova
- Lydia Ourahmane
- Sofia Salazar Rosales
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY CREATORS
- Formafantasma
- Saidiya Hartman
- Grace Wales Bonner
PATRONS
- Shane Akeroyd
- Maja Hoffmann
- Joel Wachs
INSTITUTIONS
- ART + PRACTICE
- Jameel Arts Centre
- RAW Material Company
CURATORS
- Candice Hopkins
- Shanay Jhaveri
- Eungie Joo
ALLIES
- Art Handlxrs*
- Gasworks / Triangle Network
- Sandra Terdjman
MEDIA AND STORYTELLERS
- Negar Azimi
- Barbara Casavecchia
- The Journal of Curatorial Studies
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In loving memory of Koyo Kouoh (December 24, 1967 – May 10, 2025)
The Art Basel Awards are deeply grateful for Koyo's spirited participation as a Juror of this year's edition and her unwavering commitment to the Awards' mission to uplift the next generation of cultural changemakers, of which she was emblematic. The Awards honor Koyo's life and carry forward her enduring example and legacy.