American sculptor Cameron Clayborn and Croatian textile artist Hana Miletić have been awarded the twenty-second Baloise Art Prize. The CHF 30,000 ($32,500) award is presented annually to artists exhibiting in the Statements section of Art Basel. The Baloise Group, which administers the prize in partnership with the fair, will purchase works by both artists and donate them to the Hamburger Bahnhof–Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, and Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg.

Clayborn, who grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, recieved his MFA from the Yale University School of Art in New Haven. His practice has in the past encompassed design, performance, and community organizing in addition to sculpture. At Art Basel, works from his series “Homegrown,” 2021, took the form of ceiling-hung, shield-like structures. Created from modest materials including paper, popcorn ceiling paint, and insulation made from shredded blue jeans, the works examine the relationship between vulnerability and power, appearing at once sturdy and fragile. On the walls, various works titled roompiercer (with tool), all 2021, fluid, organic forms, each pierced with a sharp needle, conjured a similar dissonance.

The Zagreb-born Miletić, who lives and works in Brussels and Zagreb, investigates the consequences of political and economic changes, evoked through woven textiles, which she typically creates on a 1970s-era loom, and which are informed by her earlier work as a street photographer. Miletić considers the “slow,” manual process of weaving a way of countering social conditions such as acceleration and standardization. Her project at Art Basel featured recent works from her series “Materials”, 2015–, which focuses on everyday repairs in public spaces, such as those to cars and buildings, reflecting on economic hardship and personal resilience.