Hong Kong’s flagship art fairs Art Basel and Art Central are back at their best from 22 to 25 March at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and offer ambitious and large-scale programmes.
To help you navigate the abundance of artworks, installations, artists and galleries, we have selected a few highlights to make the best of your cultural journey.
ART BASEL Highlights
Art Basel will welcome 177 galleries from 32 countries, including the return of all the fair’s special sectors, including Encounters, Kabinett, Conversations, and Film.
Trevor Yeung, Mr. Cuddles Under the Eave (2021)
Encounters
After a three-year hiatus, the Encounters section is back, consisting of thirteen large-scale works interspersed throughout the fair under the theme “This present, moment”. This year’s Encounters highlights two Hong Kong artists, Trevor Yeung and Jaffa Lam.
Presented by Blindspot Gallery, Trevor Yeung’s installation Mr. Cuddles Under the Eave (2021), composed of 13 uprooted money trees suspended from the ceiling, is intended to “articulate the complexities of human emotion and relationships.”
Anna Freeman Bentley, Reminders, 2022
Contemporary Women Artists at Simon Lee Gallery
Simon Lee Gallery will focus on contemporary women artists, showcasing new work by France-Lise McGurn, Rachel Howard, Clare Woods and Anna Freeman Bentley. The contemplation of experiencing nature veering towards abstraction unite Clare Woods‘ new flower paintings, Rachel Howard‘s shadowy night painting, the light of the moon inspiring Mai-Thu Perret‘s ceramics alongside the heavenly constellation of Angela Bulloch.
S.2122 by Beeple, 2023, LGDR
LGDR will present S.2122 (2023), a major new kinetic and immersive sculpture from Beeple (Mike Winkelmann), endlessly evolving digital video loop shown on a seven-foot-tall spinning rectangular sculpture, which reveals the illusion of what Beeple describes as a “city block.”
Mak Ying Tung 2, Home Sweet Home: Feng Shui Painting, Water 2 (2021).
Perceptible Escapisms at DE SARTHE
DE SARTHE will present Perceptible Escapisms, featuring new works by artists Lin Jingjing, Mak2, Wang Jiajia, Wang Xin, and Zhong Wei. Through visual explorations of the Internet and online culture, the featured works contemplate the evolution of existence in the technological era. With the rapid development of new technology and the constant influx of new information, living or escaping in the metaverse has become a source of inspiration as well as a creative tool for artists.
Gravity by Awol Erizku at Pacific Place
Exhibited at Pacific Place, this monumental installation by Awol Erizku marks the first time Art Basel Hong Kong Encounters has mounted an off-site project beyond the boundaries of the fair. Featuring a towering sculpture standing at ten meters tall and modelled after the antepenultimate pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, this interactive and immersive installation is presented by Ben Brown Fine Arts and supported by Swire Properties, Partner of Art Basel, and Partner of Art Basel Off-site Encounters.
ART CENTRAL Highlights
The largest Fair since 2019, Art Central 2023 will welcome seventy-two galleries from around the world, presenting the work of close to four hundred artists, presenting a diverse range of contemporary art, and a four-day programme of large-scale installations, talks, performance and digital media.
Glows in the Night by Yang Yongliang
Internationally-acclaimed Chinese artist Yang Yongliang’s video artwork, Glows in the Night (2019), will be presented on an impressively-scaled LED installation of 18 metres: the largest-ever presentation of the artwork and largest presentation by the artist in Hong Kong.
An Aggregation-Space by BAHK Seon-Ghi
One of the four large-scale installations of the 2023 Yi Tai Sculpture & Installation Projects, An Aggregation-Space 2023, specially made for Art Central by Korean artist BAHK Seon-Ghi, doubles as a maze that welcomes the audience to walk through it. Its black charcoal parts float precisely in space to form geometric perspectives at unexpected angles, suggesting an examination of human rationality.
SENS Gallery Debut at Art Central
Hong Kong-based SENS Gallery is participating for the first time to the fair. Their inaugural booth will bring together eleven artists from across the globe, highlighting the vivacity of the new gallery: Andrés Lozano (Spain), David Surman (UK), Emily Pope (Canada), Fan Jing (China), Guo Jing (China), Jess Xiaoyi Han (China), Kora Moya Rojo (Spain), Leyli Rashidi Rauf (Iran), Sara Bonache (Spain), Tosin Kalejaye (Nigeria) and Zhu Xinyu (China).
Dickson Yewn, 11:03 in no man’s land, 1998
Hong Kong Artists Dickson Yewn, Chen and Zhang and Ho Siu Chong at Literati Artspace
The exhibition in the Gwo Wai Curated Booth features conceptual photographic works by Dickson Yewn, inspired by the ceremonial vessels and jade of the Warring States period (475 BCE – 403 BCE), in conversation with the collaboration work of artists Chen and Zhang, which offers a conflicting-secular view set in a historical background based on the romance of the Three Kingdoms (220 – 280 AD). The curated booth also introduces the works of Ho Siu Chong, a skilled craftsman whose collection actualises an orthodox perception of beauty in Chinese history, synthesised by the thoughts of Confucius.
Children’s Workshops & Tours
Art Loop will offer interactive art tours to introduce art and art history to children between 4 and 12 years old, who will be led to walk through gallery booths and curated projects at the fair.
Sovereign Art Foundation will host a self-guided tour and an interactive and educational workshop centred around experiencing emotions through art.
All information can be found here:
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