Pharrell Williams was spotted at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. Artist Rashid Johnson posed with fans, as did Beeple and Takashi Murakami. Missing from the event circuit was Qatar Museums President Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Not to mention a number of great collectors from around the world: Abdullah AI-Turki, born in Saudi Arabia and based in London, Uli Sigg and Maja Hoffmann in Switzerland, and Mima Reyes from Puerto Rico.
Despite reports of the city’s decline in recent years, Hong Kong remains one of the most convenient places for the art world to do business. Its unique geographical location makes it an ideal location for dealers and customers, especially those from all over Asia, and, of course, there is the high concentration of wealth.
This year, some visitors said they attended more than two dozen events, ranging from gallery openings to parties and dinners, and few complained about their busy schedules.
“It looks like there are more events and things are much more elaborate this year than in the pre-Covid era. So many stars of the art world are here in Hong Kong,” said curator Wong Ka Ying, who is also an artist, told Artnet News.
Art consultant Thomas Stauffer, co-founder of Gerber and Stauffer Fine Arts in Zurich, shared a similar view. It was the first time he had returned to Hong Kong since the last Art Basel in the city in March 2019. “It’s a busy week and many galleries and luxury brands are competing for the attention of the Hong Kong art crowd. It has been a fruitful and rewarding journey to reconnect and continue the art collecting dialogue with our Asian clients after not being able to meet in person for over three years,” he told Artnet News. .
The ecstatic vibe felt by both the international art crowd and local actors on the ground, whether at fairs like Art Basel or Art Central, dinners and parties at M+ or HKGTA Town Club, a new hotspot right in the heart of the city’s central district, is an important statement that the city is ready to reemerge on the world stage after years of pandemic and political turmoil.
“Hong Kong is back,” as many collectors visiting the city told Artnet News.
An art installation titled ‘Solitude of Silences’ by South Korean artist Gimhongsok is displayed at Art Basel in Hong Kong on March 23, 2023. Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images.
A starry international week
The return of eminent collectors from mainland China such as Qiao Zhibing, founder of Tank Shanghai; entrepreneur Chong Zhou; Lu Xun, co-founder of the Sifang Art Museum in Nanjing; and fashion entrepreneur Li Lin have delighted many gallerists. Many Mandarin-speaking tour groups packed the aisles on the first VIP day, and there was no shortage of a well-dressed Gen-Z crowd.
Stauffer observed that works by Western artists such as Emily Mae Smith, Derek Fordjour and Bernard Frize have been popular among the Asian crowd and sales are growing rapidly. Many dealers noted throughout the week of the show, especially for artwork in the $100,000 to $500,000 price range.
“We see fewer Europeans and Americans coming to the show. It’s a very cultured scene, mostly dominated by mainland Chinese, who may be traveling for the first time since Covid, as well as South Korean collectors. There are also Japanese and Southeast Asians,” Tian Liang, Asia director at Timothy Taylor, told Artnet News.
This is the London-based dealer’s first exhibition with Art Basel Hong Kong since 2018. The gallery has so far sold works to Asian institutions and private collectors for between 50,000 and 1 million million, including a portrait of Alex Katz in an area museum, Liang noted. The gallery also brought British painter Leon Kossoff to Asia for the first time and successfully sold the work to private collectors in the region.
“There’s so much energy, and there are so many young, educated, strong collectors who really know what they’re looking for and who are deeply engaged in art history,” she said. “Art Basel Hong Kong is the future; I think it will be the most important fair in the world in five years.
HONG KONG, CHINA – MARCH 21: Guests attend Prada Frames Hong Kong at M+ Museum on March 21, 2023 in Hong Kong, China. (Photo by Keith Tsuji/Getty Images for Prada)
“M+ is A+”
Among those who have traveled through Asia are collectors Marcel Crespò and Timothy Tan from the Philippines. Sources on the ground have also spotted Korean collectors such as SM Entertainment founder Sooman Lee, JaeMyung Noh and So Young Lee. There is also a significant presence of Taiwanese collectors, including Leo Shih, Jenny Yeh and Vickey Chen.
Art Central director Corey Andrew Barr noted that the importance of young collectors in their 30s and 40s says a lot about people’s interests in Hong Kong. “There has been great anticipation to find out what is happening in Hong Kong, such as M+ and other institutional developments in the city since their last visit here in 2019,” he told Artnet News. “They will definitely have the experience of connecting more intimately with Hong Kong art and Hong Kong artists.”
Indeed, art fairs are not the only attractions of Art Week. Many have praised the arts programs the city has to offer, especially at M+, which has just welcomed international visitors for the first time since its inception. open in 2021. “M+ is A+,” Noh remarked.
Seoul-based dealer Jason Haam, who sold four works by rising Korean star Moka Lee for between $43,000 and $60,000 to collectors in Hong Kong, Korea and Belgium, said he has no hadn’t been to the parties but was impressed by the museums. “M+ is the very first truly top-notch serious institution in Asia. It makes me so proud to be in this part of the world,” the dealership said.
He urged the West to rethink a narrative about the Asian art market. “It’s really upsetting for me to hear people pit Hong Kong against [other Asian cities]. Hey, Europe has Paris, Berlin and London. The United States has Los Angeles and New York. There are many hubs in the West.
Veteran Hong Kong gallery owner Catherine Kwai of Kwai Fung Hin, who has sold paintings by Li Huayi and Lalan in the region of HK$5-6 million ($636,955-$764,346) to new Asian clients, has noted that she felt Hong Kong had transformed, and M+, along with other new institutions including the Palace Museum and the revamped Museum of Art, played a key role in attracting a crowd of serious international artists in Hong Kong.
Kwai also praised the government’s efforts to organize the Top of the Museum on March 24 and 25, which brings together world museum leaders such as Michael Govan, CEO of LACMA, Klaus Biesenbach, director of the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin, and the director of the Gallerie degli Uffizi Eike Schmidt, as well as museum directors from Thailand, Singapore and Mainland China.
“Hong Kong for a few years was very quiet and people didn’t visit. Now people are coming back and we’re very happy,” Kwai told Artnet News. take things for granted. Everyone is trying very hard this time.
Ice water: between here and there (2023) by Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-Wah, a new work on display at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Courtesy of the artist.
Breathing room
For a young generation in Hong Kong emerging from the trauma of political unrest after the 2019 pro-democracy protests and the imposition of the national security law the following year, the vibrancy of art week gives a breath of fresh air away from it all. Persecution of dissidents, a repression of civil society, and censorship creative expressions continue to operate in the background, but many appreciate the opportunity to feel “normal” again.
Stanley Wong, 32, a financial columnist who writes under the pseudonym Muddy Water, started collecting three years ago while stuck in Hong Kong, and has already amassed a collection of some 200 works, mostly from local artists. This year’s art week is his first as a collector. He has already acquired at least five works this week.
“I feel like things are back to normal this week, reminding me of the good old days,” Wong told Artnet News.
He noted that some people’s sense of helplessness has caused them to adopt a pleasure-seeking attitude towards life. The past two years have seen the rise of local Canto-pop culture and food as restaurants reopened, and the new emphasis on contemporary art is also a result, he added.
“Art becomes a pathway to emotional release,” he said. “But it also gives us the opportunity to learn about Hong Kong’s many great artists.”
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