The 10 best Art Galleries in Basel City

Whether you’re a museum lover or a designer/ artist or simply a tourist abroad, it’s important to remember that if you take a look around, there is almost always something around to inspire your design.
Art Galleries are an awesome place to start. Whether you’re looking to see the works of the greats, your contemporaries, or get involved in a local community, these beacons of art and culture will spark your creativity. Home to one of the most important and prestigious international art fairs in the world, Basel itself is dotted with excellent, cutting-edge contemporary art galleries, many of which frequently participate in the fair. In our culture lover’s guide to this small Swiss city, we take a look at ten of the most prominent galleries and art spaces in Basel.
So, take a look at this best art galleries in basel city that Design Museum Blog presents to you and if you are in Basel, don’t miss the oportunity to visit them!

1. Cahn Jean-David
Discover ancient art in this gallery on Malzgasse. Jean-David Cahn specialises in Ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian art. This collection of sculptures and statues in marble, bronze and terracotta, vases, coins, glass and jewellery dates from around 4000 BC to 400 AD. In addition the gallery also holds an annual auction of works of art from antiquity.

2. Graf & Schelble Galerie
Admire contemporary art from Switzerland and around the world at Galerie Graf & Schelble. Set in the heart of Basel, this gallery holds five or six exhibitions each year featuring contemporary artworks. The gallery also offers consultancy services for collectors, designers and architects.

3. Kulturhaus Palazzo Liestal
The Kulturhaus Palazzo Liestal is well-known for its themed exhibitions, to which it invites external curators. The naming of an exhibition hall “Kunsthalle” (art gallery) in the small town of Liestal only became possible once people first began to understand this term not as an institutional tradition, but rather as a cultural programme. This gallery does not focus on musing on the latest contemporary works, but rather on the research of the various artistic movements. The Kulturhaus Palazzo Liestal rarely houses solo exhibitions of works by a single artist, but rather joint exhibitions featuring the works of various artists.

4. Galerie Thomas Knoell
The Thomas Knoell Gallery is located directly opposite the former Beyeler Gallery and the Kunstmuseum Basel, and started displaying exhibitions in the summer of 2011. The exhibitions on show at the gallery this year will feature paintings and sculptures in a classical modern style, including pieces by Picasso, Braque, Kirchner, Jawlensky, Klee, Corinth, Ensor, Hodler, Arp and many others. In addition, the two monumental sculptures «Ascension» (1929) and «Composition» (1933) by Otto Freundlich will also be on display.

5. Canadian Arctic Gallery
The Canadian Arctic Gallery specialises in contemporary art of the Inuit and the First Nations of Canada. Situated in the heart of Basel, this gallery presents three to four exhibitions annually demonstrating a wide variety of Inuit art with an emphasis on sculptures, mainly made from stone, bone or wood. In addition there are one or two exhibitions dedicated to printed graphics. The gallery sees its role as providing a stage for internationally renowned artists, as well as a platform for young up-and-coming artists.

6. Nicolas Krupp Galerie
The focus at the Nicolas Krupp Galerie is firmly on international contemporary avant-garde art. In addition to paintings, graphic art, sculpture and photography, the gallery also presents video installations and new media art. The former factory on Messeplatz offers the ideal surroundings for large installations. The gallery holds individual and group exhibitions six times each year and has been a regular participant in the Art Basel international art show since 2008.

7. Galerie Artstübli
Since 2004, Artstübli has been promoting the urban art scene at various alternative locations in Basel, thus ensuring a lively exchange. With the “Artyou – Urban Art Basel” platform and the “Artyou Selection” gallery series, the exhibition organizers have attracted attention both in the region and throughout Switzerland. Since the end of Art Basel 2014, the Artstübli story is continuing with a permanent exhibition and project space at a prime location at Markthalle Basel. Urban art and culture in all its facets – from graffiti to street art – is presented in an area spanning 124 m2.

8. Phopart Basel
Phopart Galerie is a place where photography and painting meet. At this gallery you can turn your own photos into works of art by printing them on photographic paper, poster paper or canvas. In addition the gallery also shows modern works by international artists from Europe and the USA.

9. Galerie Henze & Ketterer & Triebold
Henze & Ketterer & Triebold present art from classic modernism to contemporary. This gallery specialises in artists from the German expressionism movement, post-1945 abstract art, the New Figuration movement and contemporary painters and sculptors from Italy, Spain and Germany. The gallery organises regular individual and group exhibitions and also participates in international art shows, as well as acting as a curator of exhibitions in public institutions both within Switzerland and abroad.

10. Galerie Katharina Krohn
Galerie Katharina Krohn Basel focuses mainly on modern paintings. Katharina Krohn shows painting in all its facets – from monochrome to realistic. However, there is also a focus on the area between painting and sculpture, i.e. “objectness”. The gallery works with artists from Switzerland, America, Germany, England, Italy and Korea.