Art Basel 2026: These Galleries, Whose Fate Can Change Overnight

A Japanese artist who has always been drawn to public spaces, he began creating installations in parks, forests, and empty buildings from the very start of his career, often using found objects. His works have been exhibited around the world, from Madison Square Park in Manhattan to the Centre Pompidou in Paris. This year, as part of its “Conversations with Nature” series, Ruinart—the world’s oldest Champagne house—invited him to create three wooden installations at their site located 4 rue des Crayères in Reims, France.

After making his debut on the international art scene in 1982 at the Venice Biennale, he became the first Asian to participate in the PS1 residency program in Brooklyn, now part of MoMA, which has nurtured numerous emerging artists. In New York, Kawamata met the young Andy Warhol and discovered street art together with graffiti made by the likes of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, artists who have shaped the art world in both a spectacular and timeless way.

“Between 1983 and 1984, the Soho district was in full swing,” Kawamata tells us. “Many artists were still anonymous and street art was illegal. I was very inspired by everything I discovered, especially the graffiti of Keith Haring and Basquiat. Just like them, I didn’t want to confine my installations to galleries or museums; I wanted to remain free.”

Inspired by what he saw on the streets of New York, he began building temporary makeshift shelters using cardboard. “These shelters were illegal, ephemeral, and in line with social reality. My work was like a form of street art,” he continued to explain.

Since then, the artist, who now lives between Tokyo and Paris, has become a regular at monumental installations, and wood has become his preferred language. Often dismantled after exhibitions, his works embody the idea of ​​a cycle of construction, disappearance, and renewal.

For the 56th edition of Art Basel, Ruinart, one of the long-standing partners of the fair, has chosen to install, for the first time, its dedicated space a few steps from the entrance of the "Unlimited" sector, a platform for projects that go beyond the classic framework of an art fair stand.

Offering artists the opportunity to create site-specific works, the gigantic hall allows them to present monumental installations, whether composed of colossal sculptures, murals of unlimited dimensions, photographic series, large-scale video projections, or even live performances.