This week, the art world will once again turn its eyes to Art Basel. For a few days, the conversation will be filled with extraordinary installations, ambitious gallery presentations, museum-quality works and, inevitably, the headlines about record sales.
Like many people working in the arts, I will be following it with curiosity and excitement. Art Basel is one of those rare moments when contemporary art takes centre stage and captures the attention of people far beyond our own world. That is something worth celebrating.
But before the fair even begins, I already know what it will make me think about.
Not only about the galleries occupying the most spectacular booths or the artworks changing hands for extraordinary sums, but about everything that happens long before the spotlight arrives. I think about artists working quietly in their studios, often for years, driven by conviction rather than certainty. I think about the first collectors who decide to trust a young artist. And I think about the many independent galleries that dedicate themselves to building careers one exhibition, one conversation and one relationship at a time.
People sometimes ask whether Art Basel affects a small gallery like ours. The answer is yes, but probably not in the way people imagine.
Of course, fairs like Basel influence the mood of the market. They shape conversations, create visibility and often reveal where the attention of collectors and institutions is heading. But for a gallery in Marbella, with a programme centred on emerging and mid-career artists, their impact is rarely measured in the price of a single artwork.
The real impact is more subtle. Art Basel reminds us that we are all part of the same ecosystem.
It is easy to look at the art world through the lens of the major fairs and believe that they are the whole story. In reality, they are only the most visible part of it. Beneath the surface is a vast network of artists, curators, independent galleries, collectors, framers, art handlers and cultural spaces that quietly sustain the life of contemporary art every day of the year.
Running a small gallery is very different from the image many people have of the art market. Most days are not about glamorous openings or high-profile sales. They are spent installing exhibitions, adjusting lights, preparing shipments, writing texts, visiting studios and having long conversations with artists and collectors. They are about taking risks on people you believe in and trusting that others will feel that same connection.
Perhaps that is why I have never looked at Art Basel and wished my gallery were something else. If anything, it reminds me why I value being independent.
There is a particular privilege in working closely with artists and following their journeys over time. In seeing an idea develop from a conversation in a studio to an exhibition, and perhaps one day to an international fair or a museum collection. Behind every established artist, there was once a smaller gallery willing to take a chance. Behind every important collection, there was a first acquisition made not because it was a market opportunity, but because a work spoke to someone personally.
That, to me, is the part of the art world that matters most.
I have always believed that people do not only buy art, they choose to live with it. The collectors who visit our gallery are often not searching for the next headline or the next market sensation. They are looking for a work that resonates with them, that becomes part of their home and their daily life. Those encounters happen quietly, without the noise or urgency of a fair, and yet they are every bit as important.
So as Art Basel begins and the art world gathers in Switzerland, I will be watching with admiration and interest. I will enjoy discovering new artists, seeing how galleries tell their stories and celebrating the achievements of colleagues and friends.
But I will also be thinking about the quieter side of the art world. The one built in artist studios, independent galleries and small conversations that never make the headlines.
Because while Art Basel may be one of the great stages of contemporary art, its story is still written every day in places far beyond the fair itself.
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