For the 2026 edition of Art Basel, Ortuzar is pleased to present a focused selection of paintings and sculptures by artists central to its program, marking the gallery's first participation in the fair's Basel edition. Anchored by early works by Suzanne Jackson, sculptures by Claire Falkenstein, and major works by Lynda Benglis, the presentation at Booth E15 places historic and contemporary works in dialogue. Works by gallery artists—including André Cadere, Donna Huddleston, Jacqueline de Jong, Kurt Kauper, and Maruja Mallo—appear alongside those of Lois Dodd, Jean Dubuffet, Agnes Martin, and Paul Thek, among many others. Through these juxtapositions, the presentation foregrounds affinities across generations, tracing shared approaches to form, figuration, abstraction, and material experimentation.

The gallery’s presentation in Basel is staged amid a period of sustained institutional recognition for the artists in its program, several of whom are concurrently the subject of museum exhibitions across Europe and the United States. Anchoring the booth is a suite of early works by Suzanne Jackson, including the debut of a never-before-seen painting from the 1970s, on view as "Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love?" continues at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, before traveling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in September. Nearby is a hanging sculpture by Lee Bontecou, composed of welded steel and worn canvas, and, in an adjoining area, wall-mounted sculptures by Lynda Benglis, including examples from her pleats and knots series—works that precede the artist's forthcoming retrospective at Kunstmuseum Basel in early 2027.

A section of the presentation is dedicated to the work of Claire Falkenstein, featuring examples from her Sun and Fusion series, the former begun during her years in Paris and Rome in the 1950s. There she developed the latticed networks of wire that dissolve the distinction between interior and exterior, reading at once as expansion and compression. The presentation follows Ortuzar's representation of the Claire Falkenstein Foundation and anticipates "Claire Falkenstein: Zero to Infinity," opening at the San Diego Museum of Art in November 2026.

Also on view is Agnes Martin's Untitled #7 (1990), from the artist's important series of gray-banded paintings of the 1980s and 1990s. Its alternating bands of lighter and darker grays, subtly inscribed with hand-drawn graphite lines, hold minimalist restraint in balance with the trace of the artist's hand.

Figuration appears in distinct registers in works by Maruja Mallo, Sylvia Sleigh, and Takako Yamaguchi. Mallo's La Red (1938), a major work from her Religion of Work series, marks her decisive turn toward precision, symmetry, and proportion. Nearby, Sleigh's portrait of Francine du Plessix Gray privileges likeness over allegory, attending to the sitter's individuality; a retrospective of Sleigh's work opens at MAMCO Genève later this year. Yamaguchi's Innocent Bystander #7 (1988) lifts a nude from Lucas Cranach the Elder and resets her within a fantasy landscape, synthesizing idioms from Art Nouveau to Japanese decorative arts.

Sculpture is approached through radically different formal languages across the booth. Yoko Ono's Glass Hammer (1967/2019)—a work first exhibited in her landmark “Half-A-Wind Show” at Lisson Gallery—turns to Plexiglas to unsettle the boundary between object and environment. Megumi Yuasa's Sem título [Untitled] (1980s) expands sculptural language from another direction, fusing Japanese and Brazilian materials and traditions.

Beyond the booth, Ortuzar's presence in Basel extends to the fair's Unlimited sector, where the gallery joins Fraenkel Gallery to restage Peter Hujar's legendary 1986 exhibition at Gracie Mansion Gallery, mounted one year before the artist's death. A dense, non-hierarchical grid of seventy portraits, nudes, landscapes, animals, and urban scenes, the installation reveals how Hujar conceived relationships among images across genres and subjects. Though both galleries have previously recreated the exhibition within their own spaces, this marks its first presentation in Europe.

Taken together, the works on view reflect the gallery's commitment to illuminating overlooked histories, expanding established narratives, and championing the artists whose contributions continue to reshape the landscape of modern and contemporary art