DUBAI: Amina Debbiche, co-founder of The Open Crate, a private boutique art consultancy based in Dubai, recently shared with Arab News her top picks from the Art Basel fair in Paris.
Art Basel Paris 2025 featured 206 galleries from 41 countries, with a strong focus on both established and new participants.
The event, which wrapped up on Sunday, featured galleries from the Middle East, including Marfa’ Projects (Beirut), ATHR Gallery (Jeddah), and Selma Feriani Gallery (Tunis/London).
Christine Safa’s ‘Deux maisons, ciel azurite’ (‘Two houses, Azurite sky’)
“At Galerie Lelong, Christine Safa’s ‘Deux maisons, ciel azurite’ (2025) presented a serene reflection on memory and place. In her signature palette of deep reds and blues, Safa conjured two houses that exist in a space between abstraction and recollection.
“The structures feel less architectural and more emotional, evoking a sense of warmth and nostalgia. The subtle layering of oil paint captured the Mediterranean light, while the composition, restrained yet profound, created a feeling of both distance and belonging.
“A work of quiet contemplation, it merged landscape and dreamscape, where color spoke as a language of intimacy and return. In 2024, Safa was awarded the 13th Jean Francois Prat Prize.”
Hayv Kahraman’s ‘Push Pull Ghost Fires’
“Hayv Kahraman’s oil and acrylic work on line, exhibited at Jack Shainman Gallery, explored themes of fragmentation and renewal through the figure of a woman poised yet dissolving.
“Her body, rendered in Kahraman’s signature mix of oil and acrylic, holds a sacred yet spectral presence, with her patterned dress referencing inherited identity.
“Ghostly tendrils veil her face, evoking both erasure and emergence. The work balances lyricism with defiance, offering a powerful meditation on memory, displacement, and the human condition.”
Idris Khan’s ‘The answer steps soundless’
“At Victoria Miro gallery, Idris Khan’s oil-based ink-on-gesso-on-aluminum piece unfolded as a meditative exploration of time and accumulation.
“The layers of oil-based ink on gessoed aluminum created a quiet rhythm, deep blues hum with both restraint and expansiveness. In Khan’s work, repetition transcends the visual, turning texture and gesture into atmospheric meditation.
“The piece speaks not through color but through absence, a monumental silence filled with devotion, memory, and the unseen.”
Amedeo Modigliani’s ‘Jeune fille aux macarons’
“Amedeo Modigliani’s ‘Jeune fille aux macarons’ (1918), exhibited at Pace Gallery, exudes a quiet elegance. With its elongated neck and mask-like face, the portrait strikes a balance between serenity and melancholy.
“Against a muted blue background, the copper tones of the figure pulse with inner light, transforming stillness into a palpable presence. Modigliani’s figure is both ethereal and earthly, a poignant icon of longing and fragility.”
Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Pluralistic vision’
“Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Pluralistic vision’ (2025), exhibited at neugerriemschneider, transformed perception into architecture.
“The installation of partially-silvered glass spheres and stainless steel, fractured and multiplied the viewer’s reflection, creating an optical field where seeing itself became a shared, shifting experience.
“As with much of Eliasson’s work, the piece invites active participation, exploring multiplicity, perspective, and the politics of observation.”
Anas Albraehe’s ‘Dreamers’
“Anas Albraehe’s ‘Dreamers’ (2025), exhibited at Mor Charpentier, offers intimate portraits of men in slumber, workers and refugees momentarily detached from the weight of their realities.
“Albraehe’s rich brushwork and radiant color transform sleep into a tender form of resistance. In this work, rest becomes a sanctuary, a fleeting space of dignity, safety, and renewal, where vulnerability turns into light.
Kader Attia’s ‘Untitled’ triptych
“Kader Attia’s work, exhibited at Mor Charpentier, is a luminous exploration of repair; intellectual, cultural, and spiritual.
“Mirrors, fragments, and sculptural juxtapositions form a dialogue between Western modernism and the non-Western influences that shaped it.
“As Attia writes in a show catalogue: ‘Reparation is a never-ending process of intellectual, cultural, and political readjustment.’ The work challenges the viewer’s reflection, revealing that fragmentation can be an act of healing.
“It is both critique and offering, inviting repair through vision.”
Ewa Juszkiewicz’s ‘Gloriosa’
“Ewa Juszkiewicz’s ‘Gloriosa’ (2025), shown at Almine Rech, reimagines the classical portrait by challenging ideas of concealment and transformation.
“The figure’s obscured face, enveloped in painterly textures and folds, subverts ideals of beauty and authorship. Juszkiewicz’s meticulous technique channels European portraiture while quietly deconstructing it, turning anonymity into power.
“‘Gloriosa’ offers a subversive portrait, not of a subject, but of the possibility of reinvention.”
Jack Pierson’s ‘Lone Wolf’
“Jack Pierson’s ‘Lone Wolf’ (2020), exhibited at Regen Projects, distilled solitude into form and material.
“Constructed from salvaged metal and wood letters, the work evokes the rugged poetry of the American road. The phrase, stark and cinematic, hovers between defiance and vulnerability.
“As with much of Pierson’s practice, words here become portraits, fragments of longing and identity, capturing the quiet heroism of solitude.”
Hassan Sharif’s ‘Untitled’
“Hassan Sharif’s ‘Untitled’ (2008), exhibited at Galleria Franco Noero, is a vibrant exploration of perception and form.
“The bold oil strokes across the canvas create a dynamic interplay of chaos and order, with fragmented objects and contrasting colors, earthy tones clashing with brighter hues.
“Sharif’s expressive, abstract approach strips away traditional representation, leaving raw brushwork and energy. This work captures a tension between control and release, offering a meditative yet dynamic encounter with the canvas.”
