Everywhen in Practice: Representing Contemporary Aboriginal Art Across Time, Place and Platform​.

This panel explored the Everywhen: Contemporary Aboriginal Art Pavilion and introduced the audience to Aboriginal concepts expressed through a wide range of artistic practices presented at the VOLTA Pavilion.

Speakers: Adam Knight, Founder, Adam Knight Fine Art; Konstantina, Artist, represented by Arts d’Australie • Stéphane Jacob; Jasmine Coe, Founder, Coe Gallery; Onome Ekeh, FHNW, Institute of Gender, Art and Nature. Moderator: Tamsin Hong, Curator, Serpentine

Shifting Grounds: Geopolitics and the Evolving Global Market

This panel examined the shifting geopolitical dynamics shaping the global art market over the past year. The discussion explored key developments, including market volatility, evolving collector behaviour, and the increasing democratisation of access to art.

Speakers: Lee Cavaliere, Artistic Director, VOLTA; Emilia de Stasio, Founder, Artscapy; Anders Petterson, Founder & CEO, ArtTac; Adriano Picinati di Torcello, Director, Global Art & Finance, Deloitte.
Moderator: Tallulah Bär, Cultural Strategist, Afroswissters

Tours were led by Dr. Gal Harmat, senior researcher at swisspeace and provided an intriguing art-led discourse on peace building, geopolitics and cultural identity.

A curated selection of artworks priced at and under CHF 5,000, The 5000 Edit reflects VOLTAs longstanding commitment to the emerging market - creating opportunities to discover new artists and make informed, meaningful acquisitions. Developed in response to the thriving under $50,000 segment of the market, the initiative offers an entry point for new and evolving collectors, while supporting artists at a pivotal stage in their practice. 

Bringing together over 30 galleries, The 5000 edit presented a diverse selection of works available to discover both at the fair and online. 

Artwork: Julia Faber, Air-Flower, 2025, Oil on wood Ø 32cm. Courtesy RODLER GSCHWENTER GALLERY

Explore VOLTA’s 2026 Curatorial highlights, from spotlighting experimental curatorial practices from emerging galleries in new section Frische!; encouraging cross-cultural dialogue through a dedication Pavilion Everywhen: Contemporary Aboriginal Art; and celebrating the presence of 15 Swiss galleries.

Discover the 2026 Curatorial Highlights here.

Artwork: FU-Hau Shiuan, In the Palm of One’s Hand, 2025, oil on canvas, 72 x 90cm. Courtesy Donna Art

Artists were present in the room for Frische! Friday for visitors to explore exceptional emerging talent and speak directly to discover the inspiration behind their work.

In partnership with This is Basel, the 2026 edition of VOLTA once again paid tribute to the fair’s founding city. Basel residents experienced VOLTA with complimentary access from 19 - 21 June, 2 - 4PM, as a gesture of appreciation for the city's long-standing support of the fair. 

VOLTA was proud to present Flowing Upstream a project by Martin Wöllenstein in collaboration with Supreme Masqueraders Society (Ghana) andImpari (Germany) and curated by CarlosCabral Nunes, director of Perve Galeria, Lisbon.

Flowing Upstream is a multidisciplinary exhibition project that uses discarded costumes from West Africa’s largest carnival—the Ankos Masquerade in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana— as its primary material. Each year, more than 10,000 costumes are handcrafted by different masquerade associations for the festival. After the event, many of these costumes are discarded or resold. In collaboration with Ghana’s largest masquerade club, the Supreme Masqueraders Society, hundreds of discarded costumes were dismantled and reassembled into patchwork textiles. In the exhibition, these textiles function as modular, mobile walls, forming an immersive architectural maze.

Live performances took place around the installation at VOLTA throughout the fair.