Art Basel Awards 2025: Formafantasma and Barbara Casavecchia the award-winning Italians

The Italians Formafantasma and Barbara Casavecchia are among the 36 prize-winners - announced on 15 May - of the Art Basel Awards, the Swiss fair's new recognition dedicated to excellence in the world of contemporary art, which celebrates not only artists but also key figures in the art ecosystem, from curators to philanthropists, from technicians to storytellers, and aims at an interdisciplinary approach that brings together fashion, design, music, film and the performing arts.

The Formafantasma studio, founded by Andrea Trimarchi (1983) and Simone Farresin (1980), was honoured in the 'Cross-disciplinary Creators' category for their pioneering approach combining design, art and social criticism. With their projects, the two designers explore crucial issues such as sustainability and the history of materials, redefining the role of design in the contemporary context. Barbara Casavecchia is a critic and independent curator, lives between Milan and Venice, teaches at the Brera Academy and Naba, is editor in chief of Mousse and has written for trade and non trade magazines such as frieze, Art Review, Art Agenda, Mousse, D/La Repubblica, Spike.

With the aim of creating opportunities for collaboration in the cultural landscape, all award-winners will have access to Art Basel's global network, partnership opportunities and recognition through global visibility campaigns throughout the year. The award-winners will be celebrated at a reception on 19 June at the Kunstmuseum Basel and will also participate in the Art Basel Awards Summit, debuting on 20 June during Art Basel in Basel, designed to amplify awareness of their work and impact in the cultural sphere.
The 36 award-winners will vote to select 12 so-called "Gold Medalists" from among themselves, six within the three artist categories ("Icon", "Established" and "Emerging") and six among the other categories (Cross-disciplinary Creators, Patrons, Institutions, Curators, Allies, Media and Storytellers). The 'Gold Medalists' will be announced at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2025. The six winning artists will receive a monetary prize of $300,000, divided into €50,000 each. For Emerging and Established artists it will be an unrestricted honorarium, while for Icon artists it will be intended as a donation to an organisation of their choice. In addition, Gold Medalists in the Established Artist category will receive a major public commission that will make its debut at Art Basel in Basel in 2026.

Iconic artists include Black Art pioneers such as American David Hammons and British Lubaina Himid, who will represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2026. There is conceptual artist Adrian Piper, who has confronted audiences with issues of gender, race and society, and Cecilia Vicuña, with her practice based on indigenous wisdom and environmental activism. Among the established artists are Ghanaian Ibrahim Mahama, well known in Italy (represented by Apalazzo), as well as Chinese Cao Fei and Singaporean artist Ho Tsu Nyen. Among the emerging artists, on the other hand, we find the filmmaker from Uzbekistan (a country that is increasingly entering the art map)Saodat Ismailova, 44, who evokes the history of Central Asia with women as protagonists, and Meriem Bennani, to whom the Fondazione Prada has recently dedicated a solo exhibition.

The selection of awardees reflects a global view of the art world. Among the institutions are Jameel Art Center, based in Dubai and Jeddah, and Raw Material Company, based in Dakar. Equally global are the jurors, who include Vincenzo de Bellis and other well-known names from the Western art world such as Elena Filipovic and Hans Ulrich Obrist, but also Sheikh Hoor Al Kasimi (Sharjah Art Foundation), the curator of the last Biennale Adriano Pedrosa, Suhanya Raffel from the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, Philipp Tinari from the Ucca in Beijing and Shanghai, up to the late Koyo Kouoh, who passed away prematurely a few days ago, a year after her appointment as curator of the Venice Biennale.