What’s Happening: “Doom porn” was nowhere to be found at Art Basel, where strong sales were buoyed by manifold ways to experience blue-chip art outside the busy fair halls.

The Download: The forecast isn’t particularly sunny for the art market. As marquee modern and contemporary auctions recently failed to meet their year-over-year numbers, Christie’s is reeling from a devastating ransomware attack while its main competitor, Sotheby’s, is weighing significant job cuts. Such “doom porn” was nowhere to be found in the bucolic Swiss city of Basel, though, where the flagship fair Art Basel’s latest edition wrapped up yesterday to strong sales and renewed confidence in the market’s resilience. Instead, the vibe was breezy—owing in part to what some dealers describe as this year’s more “humane pace” but also the multiple ways to experience art from beyond Messe Basel’s crowded halls of besuited collectors.

Perhaps the most visible was a recreation of Agnes Denes’ iconic Wheatfield—A Confrontation on Messeplatz, in which the lauded land artist resurfaces issues of waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns that remain just as urgent now as they were in 1982, when she first staged the work in Battery Park in the shadows of the World Trade Center. Petrit Halilaj illuminated the former Hotel Merian with a constellation of fallen stars that made the Rhine riverfront sparkle. Basel Social Club, a roving showcase of open-air sculptures and performances that unfolded across a 100-acre swath of farmland about 15 minutes south of the fair, also offered a much-needed breather.

Visitors not only wandered freely around rolling fields to experience works by Tomás Saraceno and David Medalla that don’t quite fit into the proportions of a cramped fair booth, but also indulged in outdoor activities like picking strawberries and watching cows graze. Now in its third year, the free-to-enter show refuses to brand itself as a fair but still offers a valuable selling platform for galleries who paid a modest €2,500 ($2,676) to participate. The appeal lies both in the pastoral setting and the lower stakes that lend themselves well to experiencing art without the pressure of making sales. Beer-drinking visitors reportedly lounged on sofas in the fields to watch films in a woodland clearing; cows even licked some of the sculptures.

In Their Own Words: “People come to Basel and say, ‘I did Kunsthalle, I did the fair,’” Yael Salomonowitz, a curator who founded Basel Social Club with gallerist Robbie Fitzpatrick and artist Hannah Weinberger, told the Art Newspaper. “We want to offer a real experience—something less consumable. We want to decelerate time.”

Surface Says: Maybe “fairtigue” finally has a cure.

Have a news story our readers need to see? Write to our editors.

Reach the design world every morning. Find out more about advertising in the Design Dispatch.

From today until June 28, Gem Wines, chef Flynn McGarry’s beloved Lower East Side bar-à-vin, is taking over Spring Place’s Tribeca rooftop. The beloved Forsyth Street spot will bring its hyperfresh seafood and low-intervention wine lists to the membership club, which McGarry describes as “exactly where I’d want to be in the summer,” with its Hudson River views, landscaped terrace, and waterfront breeze.

The chef’s focus on local sourcing means guests can look forward to striped bass harvested from Montauk, dressed with roasted tomatoes and shiso, and plated on region-specific seafood towers. The wine list will complement the coastal fare with a sampling of the 200-some natural wine producers McGarry favors at Gem’s Lower East Side locale. “In my mind, rooftops are not usually associated with quality,” he says, but we anticipate this collaboration will turn that tide.

When: Until Sept. 8

Where: Power Station of Art, Shanghai

What: The São Paulo–based furniture studio’s first major show in Asia unites more than 50 pioneering pieces that trace the thoughts and actions that have shaped its trajectory, from childhood references and never-before-seen personal objects to original drawings and prototypes. They reside in a cabinet of curiosities that Humberto Campana designed to mimic stalactites and stalagmites, where works materialize from behind organic-shaped columns like a game of hide-and-seek.

It’s not just you: the primary colors and playful forms of the London-based designer Jay Heston’s Barney Mirrors activate a near-irrepressible urge to smile. Chalk it up to the happy-making effects of neotenic design, or to the fact that they’re made and casted by hand. Heston, a self-taught designer, honed his craft through hands-on experimentation, a method which the mirror’s textural frames pay homage to. $443

Studio PCH is a creative studio located in Venice, California, that designs warm, exciting, and sophisticated spaces, with a focus on high-end hospitality. Encompassing both architectural and interior design, Studio PCH has completed recent projects such as Nobu Los Cabos, which was shortlisted for a World Architecture Festival award.

Surface Says: This California-based studio, led by French architect Severine Tatangelo, continues to bring the characteristics of home to hotels, restaurants, and commercial spaces.

Heave a sigh of relief: Martha’s Vineyard won’t be devoid of weed this summer.

The wreckage of the ship that Shackleton died on has finally been discovered.

Instead of a dating app, your next romance may await at a running club.

Don’t @ the stans, but pop music is sounding somewhat forgettable lately.