As the youngest of Art Basel's three satellite fairs, Volta promises visitors exciting discoveries.

The discovery and excitement are likely to be mutual for newcomers making their first trade show appearances here.

Among them is Ishita Chakraborty.

At the Artpowher Contemporary (Zurich) stand, she has put together dozens of small terracotta mushrooms, whose tones evoke associations with human skin colors, in variously diverse groups – sometimes more diffuse, sometimes more compact.

In this way they create a field of tension on the floor, and each step through the installation "Europe" (8200 francs) becomes more conscious.

The artist accepts crushed mushrooms, that is in the nature of things.

The mushrooms were potted communally, as is traditional in Chakraborty's native country of India.

In 1920, Piet Mondrian, to whom the Fondation Beyeler is currently dedicating a major show, wrote down fundamental ideas about abstract painting.

A hundred years later, the Spaniard Cristina Gamón seeks new levels of abstraction.

Gamón's paintings at the Shiras Gallery (Valencia) are intellectual games as well as sensual experiences: unlike Mondrian, you can feel them with your fingers.

The artist works with reflective Plexiglas.

Edges and joints in the surface are created by cutting out motifs with the laser and inserting them elsewhere.

Organically curved, some cut-outs are reminiscent of a color palette.

At the same time, the frame construction shines through.

Ironically, the frame, which at first glance could be mistaken for a window bar,

In addition to its quota of more than fifty percent female artists, the Volta has placed a focus on the Middle East and Arabia.

Away from the regional pavilion, the Palestinian artist Samah Shihadi is presenting realistic charcoal drawings at Tabari Artspace (Dubai).

"Landscape (Abandoned House)" ($16,800) shows the ruins of a house in a village that now stands on Israeli soil.

Shihadi's other paintings look forward rather than to the past: three of her five self-portraits ($10,000 each) are inspired by tarot cards, from which she tries to read the future.

Her self-portrait with four arms, each holding a different object, could demonstrate the omnipotence of a Hindu deity or show modern woman multitasking.

Volta

, Elys Basel, until June 19, admission CHF 25.90