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0 Kendra Jayne Patrick’s booth was buzzing at Art Basel on Tuesday during the V.I.P. opening as visitors crowded in to admire — and consider buying — pieces by the tapestry artist Qualeasha Wood, whose work is currently on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In the past, Patrick would not have been eligible to participate in the fair, because her New York gallery has no permanent physical space. But over the past year, Art Basel changed its admission requirements and made a concerted effort to invite previously marginalized galleries to apply.
“We wanted to lower the obstacles to entry — not around quality, but around how long you had to be in business and what the nature of your business is,” said Marc Spiegler, Art Basel’s global director. “These galleries have enough hurdles without our having these regulations, which are outdated.”
The shift was noteworthy, given that Art Basel’s online iteration in June 2020 did not include a single African-American-owned gallery. The 253 galleries in the Miami Beach Convention Center this year featured several first-time participants of color, including four galleries owned by Black Americans, three from Africa, eight from Latin America, and one from Korea.
This increasing diversity was just one way the pandemic altered the Art Basel Miami Beach fair’s first in-person gathering since 2019. There were also required health screenings, timed entry of visitors, and mandatory masks (with loudspeaker reminders to keep them on). And some galleries reported not receiving art pieces (and booth furniture) in time because of supply-chain problems.
The galleries from South Africa made it to the fair just under the wire, given the emergence of the Omicron variant and President Biden’s decision to restrict travel from the country starting Nov. 29. Rather than feel ostracized, these galleries said visitors went out of their way to welcome them at the fair — a few keep-your-distance jokes notwithstanding
