Pairing curated installations of Modern and contemporary work with stimulating programming, Art Basel’s 2015 edition featured strong sales across all levels of the market. Presenting 267 leading international galleries from 32 countries, the show attracted an attendance of 77,000 over five days, including major private collectors as well as directors, curators, trustees and patrons of nearly 200 museum and institution groups. Collectors from over 110 countries attended the show, with firsttime collectors coming from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Romania, Togo and Zimbabwe. The show was spearheaded by Noah Horowitz, Art Basel’s newly appointed Director Americas.

Art Basel, whose Lead Partner is UBS, once again confirmed its position as the premier art fair in the Americas, with over half of all exhibitors having gallery spaces in the region. Along with a robust roster of returning galleries – reflecting a 98 percent reapplication rate – 29 exhibitors participated in Miami Beach for the first time, including several young European galleries: Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (Berlin), Galeria Plan B (Cluj, Berlin), Galerie Gregor Staiger (Zurich) and KOW (Berlin). Three galleries from Asia came to Miami Beach for the first time: Beijing Art Now Gallery (Beijing), Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Tokyo, Beijing) and White Space Beijing (Beijing). New galleries from the United States included George Adams Gallery (New York), Castelli Gallery (New York), Essex Street (New York), François Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles) and Jenkins Johnson Gallery (San Francisco, New York).

Attendees included curators, directors and patrons groups from important institutions from around the world, including Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago); Aspen Art Museum (Aspen); Burger Collection (Hong Kong); Brooklyn Museum (New York); Centre Pompidou (Paris); Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland); Carnegie Museum (Pittsburgh); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.); Institute of Contemporary Arts (London); KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin); La Maison Rouge – Fondation Antoine de Galbert (Paris); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles); Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires); Museo de Arte de Lima (Lima); The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Los Angeles); Museu de Arte de São Paulo (São Paulo); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Chicago); Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (Cleveland); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston); Museum of Modern Art (New York); MoMA PS1 (New York); Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas); Palais de Tokyo (Paris); Philadelphia Art Museum (Philadelphia); The Power Plant (Toronto); Serpentine Galleries (London); Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York); Tate (London); Walker Art Center (Minneapolis) and Whitney Museum of American Art (New York).

Participating galleries described their experiences with enthusiasm:

'It was surprising to see how Art Basel in Miami Beach, which already had in the previous years a top standard, could still increase its level by showing high quality art and attracting many new collectors from around the world. We are very happy that we could place all of the important works we brought, and were positively surprised by the connoisseurship of many visitors.' Thaddaeus Ropac, Founder & Director, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, Salzburg

'We wish we had brought more work because we've sold 80 percent of the booth. We're really happy that sales have been across the board from historical to younger artists.’ Andrea Rosen, President, Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York

'Art Basel in Miami Beach gets stronger each year, and the key factor in its success is the mix of collectors buying emerging artists along with collectors, museums and foundations buying mid-career and historic work at much higher price points. Visitors are focused on the fair itself, rather than being distracted outside. I only wish that all fairs could be to the ultimate level of Art Basel.’ Alison Jacques, Owner, Alison Jacques Gallery, London

This year featured one of the strongest Galleries sectors ever, with 191 of the world’s leading established galleries, including first-time exhibitors Andrew Edlin Gallery (New York) and Mazzoleni (Turin, London), as well as galleries returning after a brief hiatus: Galerie Barbara Thumm (Berlin) and ProjecteSD (Barcelona). Highlights included an installation of works by Louise Nevelson at Pace (New York, London, Menlo Park, Beijing, Hong Kong), a solo booth dedicated to Robert Mangold at Galería Elvira González (Madrid), 'Man in Blue VI' (1954) by Francis Bacon at Van de Weghe Fine Art (New York), ‘Tutto’ (1992-1994) by Alighiero Boetti at Tornabuoni Art (Paris), Jimmie Durham’s enormous ‘Still Life with Xitle and Spirit’ (2007) at Peter Freeman, Inc. (New York, Paris) and delicately textured Dansaekhwa paintings by Ha Chong-Hyun at Kukje Gallery / Tina Kim Gallery (Seoul, New York). The artists presented reflected the show’s international focus – from Emirati artist Hassan Sharif at Alexander Gray Associates (New York) and Chinese artist Zhang Ding at Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna), to Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa at Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana), and Brazilian artists José Bento, Fabiano Gonper, Laura Lima and Maria Nepomuceno at A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janiero).

The third year of Edition, Art Basel’s sector dedicated to works in multiple or prints, featured 12 galleries: Alan Cristea Gallery (London), Carolina Nitsch (New York), Crown Point Press (San Francisco), Gemini G.E.L. LLC (Los Angeles), Pace Prints (New York), Paragon (London), Paul Stolper Gallery (London), Polígrafa Obra Gràfica (Barcelona), Sabine Knust (Munich), STPI (Singapore), Two Palms (New York) and ULAE (Bay Shore).

Featuring work made in the last three years, Nova presented 34 galleries, from Tobias Madison and Matthew Lutz-Kinoy at Freedman Fitzpatrick (Los Angeles) to Elias Hansen, Shinro Ohtake and Aki Sasamoto at Take Ninagawa (Tokyo). Featured artists included Keren Cytter at Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art (Tel-Aviv); Ciprian Mureşan and Navid Nuur at Galeria Plan B (Cluj, Berlin); Luciano Figueiredo, Sandra Gamarra and Mauro Piva at Galeria Leme (São Paulo); Antoine Catala and Gregory Edwards at 47 Canal (New York); Nicholas Mangan, Labor (Mexico City); Sam Anderson, and Phoebe Collings-James and Noel McKenna at mother’s tankstation (Dublin).

Among the 16 exhibitors in Positions, 12 were first-time participants in the sector. Artists included Dan Bayles at François Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles), Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz at Marcelle Alix (Paris), Vittorio Brodmann at Galerie Gregor Staiger (Zurich), Henning Fehr and Philipp Rühr at Galerie Max Mayer (Dusseldorf), GCC at Project Native Informant (London), Jiieh G Hur at One and J. Gallery (Seoul), Fritzia Irizar at Arredondo \ Arozarena (Mexico City), Daniel Keller at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (Berlin), Andrei Koschmieder at Real Fine Art (New York), Jaromír Novotný at hunt kastner (Prague), Sean Paul at Thomas Duncan Gallery (Los Angeles), Romy Pocztaruk at SIM Galeria (Curitiba), B. Ingrid Olson at Simone Subal Gallery (New York), Villa Design Group at Mathew Gallery (Berlin, New York), Thomas Wachholz at RaebervonStenglin (Zurich) and He Xiangyu at White Space Beijing (Beijing).

Returning for its second year, Survey presented 14 projects of works made before 2000. A platform highlighting works rarely seen in an art-fair context, the sector included a single-artist display of nine videos by Peter Campus at Cristin Tierney Gallery (New York) presented together for the first time in over 30 years; one of the largest selections of photographs by Roy DeCarava at Jenkins Johnson Gallery (San Francisco, New York); and an overview of work by Dorothy Iannone at Peres Projects (Berlin). The sector also featured work by Charles Burchfield at DC Moore Gallery (New York), Gianni Colombo at Robilant +Voena (London, Milan, St. Moritz), Rosalyn Drexler at Garth Greenan Gallery (New York), Heinz Mack at Beck & Eggeling (Dusseldorf), Roberto Burle Marx at Bergamin & Gomide (São Paulo), Shinjiro Okamoto at Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Tokyo), Miguel Ángel Rojas at espaivisor (Valencia), Peter Saul at George Adams Gallery (New York), Keith Sonnier at Castelli Gallery (New York), Ettore Spalletti at Vistamare (Pescara) and Wang Jinsong at Beijing Art Now Gallery (Beijing).

A decade after its inauguration in 2005, Kabinett presented 27 curated exhibitions installed within booths across the show. Highlights included an installation by Isa Melsheimer at Galerie Jocelyn Wolff (Paris), early paintings by Richard Pettibone at Galerie 1900-2000 (Paris), paintings by Ana Sacerdote at Jorge Mara - La Ruche (Buenos Aires), vintage photographs by Agnès Varda at Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris, Brussels) and Chris Burden at Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna). Two exhibitors from Edition participated in Kabinett: Alan Cristea Gallery (London) with two works by Michael CraigMartin and Two Palms (New York) with a suite of 11 line etchings by Chris Ofili, whose entwined figures are only revealed upon close inspection of the fine lines.

Public, always a highlight of the Miami Beach show, was curated for the third consecutive year by Nicholas Baume, Director and Chief Curator of New York's Public Art Fund, and featured 27 large-scale and site-specific installations and performances by 26 leading and emerging artists from over 11 countries set within Collins Park. Presented under the theme ‘Metaforms’, the sector featured Olaf Breuning, James Capper, Tony Cragg, Melvin Edwards, Sam Falls, Sylvie Fleury, Katharina Grosse, Matt Johnson, Jacob Kassay, Kris Martin, Rubén Ortiz Torres, Athena Papadopoulos, Ishmael Randall-Weeks, Sterling Ruby, Michael Sailstorfer, Tomás Saraceno, Tony Tasset, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Francisco Ugarte, Timm Ulrichs, Marianne Vitale, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Hank Willis Thomas, Robert Wilson, Yan Xing and Yu Xiao. Through 'tc: temporary contemporary', over a dozen works will remain on view through February 2016. Produced for the fifth year running in partnership with the Bass Museum of Art, Public officially opened on Wednesday, December 2, with performances by Xavier Cha, Ryan Gander, Pope.L and Yan Xing.

Curated by David Gryn, Director of Daata Editions and London’s Artprojx, the show’s Film program included over 50 films and video works by and about artists drawn from the show's participating galleries. The program featured four nights of free screenings in SoundScape Park on the 7,000-square-foot outdoor projection wall of the Frank Gehry designed New World Center. Artists included Ida Applebroog, Anna Barham, Breda Beban, Janet Biggs, Sue de Beer, Rineke Dijkstra, Tracey Emin, Barbara Hammer, Shirazeh Houshiary, Jaki Irvine, Anna K.E. & Florian Meisenberg, Jumana Manna, Howardena Pindell, Cauleen Smith, Catherine Sullivan and Marnie Weber. First-time curator Marian Masone, Senior Programing Advisor, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, selected the feature film: ‘Troublemakers – The Story of Land Art’ (2015) by filmmaker James Crump. The special screening took place at the Colony Theatre.

The show’s daily talks program brought together leading figures from around the world and was attended by over 1,800 visitors. Conversations opened with the Premiere Artist Talk between Jenny Holzer and Trevor Paglen. Hans Ulrich Obrist led a panel on ‘The Artist as Slow Traveler’ with Shilpa Gupta, Paulo Nazareth, Stephen Shore, Shahzia Sikander and Samson Young. In ‘Should Art Schools Prepare Artists for the Art World?’, András Szántó discussed the role of an art school education with Sanford Biggers, Nicolas Bourriaud, Howard Singerman and Rosanne Somerson, while on Sunday, December 6, artist Nicole Eisenman spoke with her gallerist Susanne Vielmetter. The Salon program featured curator Stéphane Aquin in conversation about the Cuban art scene with the artist Carlos Garaicoa and art historian Iliana Cepero Amador. Additional panels considered the role of the archive, the ethics of art advising, audio and sound works, collecting as a political act, the evolution of contemporary art in Los Angeles, and new hybrid art spaces.