Exploring Non-Representational Painting at Kunsthaus Baselland in Basel
What is the place and relevance of contemporary painting today? This is the central question explored by the Regionale 19 exhibition, currently hosted by Kunsthaus Baselland. Bringing together 20 artists from across the tri-national region, the showcase focuses entirely on non-representational painting, investigating how contemporary practices continue to evolve, push boundaries, and engage with surrounding spaces.
Discovering Contemporary Painting and Regional Artists in Basel
Visitors to the exhibition will encounter large-format works and immersive installations from a diverse group of regional and international creators. The featured artists approach the medium from vastly different perspectives, testing the limits where painting intersects with sculpture, photography, architecture, and sound.
Among the participants, Anna Amadio examines the physical space surrounding a picture by meticulously recreating historical brushstrokes before peeling away colorful acrylic skins to reveal the negative space underneath. Anja Braun expands the definition of the medium further by introducing acoustic elements into her violet concrete installations, creating a sonorous object that emits natural sounds. Meanwhile, Adrian Falkner bridges the gap between graffiti and traditional exhibition spaces, utilizing raw, weathered surfaces and paper fragments to question the nature of the traditional White Cube.
Other contributors, such as Corsin Fontana, build dense, tactile color fields using oil pastels, while Katrin Freisager merges photography with alchemy by capturing close-up compositions of pigments and water suspended in glass cylinders. Visitors can also experience Vivian Suter’s unstretched canvases—created in the rainforests of Guatemala and shaped directly by the surrounding elements—alongside meticulous tactile explorations from artists like Bruno Seitz, Maria Magdalena Z’Graggen, and Markus Weggenmann.
Parallel Projects and Visitor Experiences
In addition to the main group presentation, the institution's Annex hosts L’univers de Germaine, a three-part video project by artists Muda Mathis, Sus Zwick, and Hipp Mathi. This parallel work focuses on Germaine Winterberg, an 82-year-old traveler and notable Basel figure.
For those planning a visit to the galleries in the Dreispitz district, further details and regional context can be explored through regionale.org.
To plan your cultural itinerary across the city, discover more local highlights on Musemap (musemap.art), where you can browse current exhibitions, search for specific museums, or view the interactive city map.
