Art Miami Beach 2025 Review: The Fair Factor Rebounds

Written By Renée Vara

The 23rd Edition of Art|Basel Miami Beach 2025 drew over 80,000 visitors and hosted 283 galleries from 43 countries, including 48 first-time exhibitors. It also featured representation from 240 museums and foundations worldwide. Despite these impressive numbers, this year Art Miami Week saw overall attendance decrease. However, the portion of high-quality visitors appeared higher than in past years, as the onlookers and partiers were fewer in attendance. A high proportion of serious collectors arrived over the weekend, with active buying starting by Monday. UBS|Miami Basel extending its VIP First Choice from just Wednesday to include Thursday morning has proven to be a brilliant business move.

Attendance at the main fair was strong, with the established market trend of rapid sales for in-demand female and BIPOC artists clearly evident. This mirrored ongoing shifts in the collecting landscape, broadening the narrative of art history. Sales of in-demand artists in these collecting categories were brisk, contributing to the fair's busy atmosphere. Despite buyers taking longer to commit, sales proved robust. Many dealers reported multiple holds even on the second day, signifying more patience and a greater openness to dialogue in the purchasing process. Some dealers, such as Jack Shainman [Booth H23] and 303 Gallery [Booth D24], seemingly sold or had on hold as much as 70% of their booth by the end of the First Choice days or mid-Thursday.

My overall sense of the main fair was that historic and blue-chip 20th-century art was less liquid, except for commercial superstars such as Jaume Plensa, who had robust sales ranging from $250,000 to $550,000 at both Richard Gray Gallery [Booth H9] and Lelong Gallery [Booth E14] by Thursday afternoon. In addition, the emerging art sections, although a refocus of the fair, were received with a bit of skepticism, except for the theatrics of Beeple’s work in the Zero10 digital section, which by Friday drew crowds who waved in rock concert style to receive a free NFT. However, that Beeple, the hero of the NFT market and the all-time historic record holder, would decide to make a material work and give away some of his NFTs for free. This is further indication that the NFT market is on life support. Beeple was joined by Heft and Art Blocks, who also had several NFT reported sales at the fair, but less than a handful of galleries participating in this market is a drop in the bucket and isn't indicative of a market's revival. Both the digital section, and Es Devlin’s outdoor installation at the Faena Hotel, where I attended a dinner on Tuesday night, were so overcrowded by "fans" that it was nearly impossible to experience, further underscoring how social media has become essential to artists’ branding and reception in the art market.

Trends in exhibition and storytelling continued to draw buyers’ and viewers' attention, and many dealers were keen to be relevant to meet changing demand. Thematic booths, such as Jeffrey Deitch's [Booth A2], highlighted the "female gaze" and championed overlooked female artists, including Vanessa Beecroft, for whom Deitch crafted her stardom in the 1990s and early 2000s. In addition, installations continued to demonstrate a focus on storytelling and ethnographic art, which were evident in the newer Meridians section of institutionally scaled works entitled “The Shape of Time.” Curated by Yasmil Raymond, it reflected the fair’s perspective of what makes contemporary art meaningful:

“The 2025 edition foregrounds the multiplicity of American art — not as a single narrative but as a constellation of perspectives." 

- Vincenzo de Bellis, Chief Artistic Officer and Global Director of Fairs, Art Basel

Buying activity spanned the entire spectrum, from the very accessible price points at Aqua Art Miami, where works by smaller, unknown artists were priced as low as $75, to the six-digit range of blue-chip works at Art|Basel. This pattern reflects a growing maturation of existing trends, characterized by a high degree of selectivity. Aqua Art Miami, which showcased smaller galleries and art purveyors, offered a wide range of quality. Despite this variability, many buyers were attracted by the low, emerging prices available throughout the fair and the “fun” of participating in the Miami art experience economy. This level of interest points to a stronger mass-market confidence, a mood that was distinctly missing last year.

New and lesser-known galleries had a strong presence even at smaller fairs, including Art Miami, Context Art Miami, and Untitled Art Fair. At Untitled, numerous galleries achieved a 70% sell-through rate for their booths. For instance, the Gene Gallery [Booth C9] from Shanghai, run by an SVA graduate in its first showing at Miami, reported 80% of its booth sold out by Friday. All the fairs abandoned their old rules of fixed exhibitions, and across the board smartly allowed exhibitors to rotate their booths, providing fresh inventory during the course of the week, and allowing dealers to replace sold works or reconfigure curatorial choices to calibrate their booths to the pulse of buyers’ appetites and seriousness. 

Although many high-demand artists sold out within the first two hours of VIP Previews at each fair, sales continued to be consistent throughout the week. I observed that holds placed as early as Tuesday morning were still being secured by buyers on Saturday. It was clear that, as the week progressed, fairgoers transitioned from collectors to buyers to viewers - providing a steady flow of new attendees and activity every day, and sales were, as one dealer noted, “good but not crazy.” Certain fairs, which traditionally sell out on the first day like NADA, did not disappoint, and even smaller or new galleries to NADA with less of an emerging “track record” amongst insiders, successfully rotated their booths due to strong sales. It appears most emerging to established dealers I spoke with were happy with sales by Thursday at several of the satellite fairs, including Untitled, NADA, and Art Miami. Emerging art tended to perform much better, evidenced by buyers' consensus and sales at the satellite fairs, rather than those featured at the expanded curatorial sections in the main fair at Art|Basel. Perhaps this is about context, or even more conservative price points at the satellite fairs that encourage more risk-taking by buyers. Since booths at satellite fairs provide smaller galleries a more experimental business strategy and lower expenses, they can afford to keep emerging art accessible to new collectors.

Areas most neglected this year and the slowest appeared to be those of blue-chip, or “classic contemporary,” and historic art. Art|Basel’s own sales report mentioned million-dollar sales from a handful of top-tier galleries with notable absences from Gagosian Gallery [Booth G6], Mnuchin Gallery [Booth H14], Richard Gray Gallery [Booth H9], and other major players. Even the most qualified collectors expressed that there were better "buys" to be had at auction, especially if the work was not particularly rare or the artist had a prolific career, as choices feel more abundant in the secondary market. Thus, no market pressure or event momentum appeared to be enticing buyers in this area, and overall, the market was robust but very selective to the most promising artists, dealers known to be career-making, and discrete collecting categories expressing unique narratives. Sales of works by stars of contemporary or emerging contemporary were swift, including a limited supply of works by Suchitra Mattai. Certain unstoppable artists, such as Louise Bourgeois and Nick Cave, are still finding an insatiable market appetite, despite price points that have continued to escalate. It appears that these artists are so in demand, powerfully representative of neglected areas of art history, and endlessly appealing to new audiences that buyers are comforted that the market hasn’t yet topped out, as both asking prices and sales were strong.

All in all, the fairs, from NADA to Art Miami to Art|Basel, appear to have experienced stronger sales by volume, if not by value, with the general pervasive sentiment that the fair week represented a rebound from the past two lackluster years. Certainly, some fairs that have been waning in reception found the courage to rebrand and improve their overall appeal. Perhaps the winner of the "comeback kid” on the fair circuit this year would go to Design Miami. Curated by Glenn Adamson, it featured 70 galleries, of which 25 were new exhibitors, and expanded to include “design art” and “craft” rather than merely the catchall category of "design.” Buyers sought unique, handmade, and anti-mass-produced work, a preference reflecting the desire for tangible objects in the digital and late mechanical production age, especially given the ubiquity of 3D printing. The fair highlighted this trend, showcasing its resilience and renewal by focusing on contemporary makers and eliding the categories of fine art, design, and craft, with historic design being less prominent. Not insignificantly, the reinstated Trump tariffs kept several notable overseas galleries from participating, reshaping the fair’s composition this year. Some icons of the historic design market were notably absent as exhibitors, including Paris-based dealer Patrick Seguin.

Although verbal and anecdotal reports from various dealers will remain inconsistent, underscoring a selective market with buyers continuing to be highly discriminating as to what is “Good, Better and Best,” the overall atmosphere of the week was one of optimism, a contrast to its palpable absence from the vibe of the past several years. However, this fair week is a testament that dealers, artists, and even buyers cannot rest on their old notions and ideals of “quality”, as the unexpected happens in a rapidly evolving marketplace. In support of this, ARTnet recently reported some collecting outlooks which many in the U.S. may be surprised to learn: 

Most enthusiastic about art and antiques are those in the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa). Over one third, or 35 percent, of billionaires plan to significantly or slightly increase their art investments in that broad area, home to the UK, one of the world’s largest art markets. In the Asia-Pacific region, one-quarter plan to increase their art and antiquities purchases; China is another of the world’s largest art markets. Just 15 percent of those in the Americas, home to the U.S., the world’s largest art market, expressed the same intention. 

This finding is not what many would expect, but it underscores a widening cultural divergence and how established collectors, market makers, artists, and curators will find growth and new audiences in less expected places. Past recipes of success will not ensure survival or thriving in the future. While overall results from the fairs were promising and the consensus from 2025 seemed to point to a more active sales landscape compared to recent years, the week’s lesson suggests success demands radical innovation and reconfiguration, which, as these findings allude to, may well be found abroad. 

Additional Resources:

All art © of artists and/or galleries. All content and images © VARA ART unless otherwise credited.

Renée Vara
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