INTERVIEW Art Basel Hong Kong's return to be touchstone of Asia's post-pandemic art market
The 2023 iteration of Art Basel Hong Kong, the largest art fair in the Asia-Pacific region, attracted some 86,000 visitors, primarily from the region, to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center. This year's fair, running from March 26 to 30, returns to its pre-pandemic scale and anticipates an even more diverse attendance. Courtesy of Art Basel
After four rocky years of grappling with COVID-19 and experiencing periods of reduced size, Art Basel Hong Kong is making a comeback at its pre-pandemic scale.
The largest art fair in the Asia-Pacific region is set to return to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center from March 26 to 30. It will host 243 galleries from 40 countries and territories, marking a significant increase of 37 percent compared to last year.
Art Basel Hong Kong Director Angelle Siyang-Le / Courtesy of Art Basel
While the results of its 2023 edition, which drew some 86,000 visitors primarily from the region, surpassed expectations, the fair's director, Angelle Siyang-Le, anticipates an even more diverse attendance for the forthcoming iteration, for a good reason.
"Last year, the show opened only a month after the reopening of Hong Kong, which meant a lot of the audience from afar — including Europe and the U.S. — was not able to return," she said during a recent video interview with The Korea Times, referring to the city’s mandatory quarantine that was in place until January 2023.
This year, her team anticipates a more dynamic mix of collectors and institutional representatives from around the world. Attendees are also encouraged to explore the changing cultural scene of the city, now anchored by two new sprawling landmarks — the contemporary art museum M+ and the Palace Museum, both of which opened their doors at the height of the pandemic. Additionally, the fair comes on the heels of the first-ever Hong Kong International Cultural Summit at the West Kowloon Cultural District.
“When it comes to collectors attending the show, statistically, there have been more younger, and newer, collectors year-on-year,” the director remarked, adding that there has been a noticeable upswing in the number of antiquarians and collectibles enthusiasts expanding their collections to include modern and contemporary art, particularly over the pandemic years.
“[The emergence of] these newer categories of collectors is a phenomenon that we've observed since [the onset of] COVID-19.”
Installation view of Yang Haegue's "The Randing Intermediates – Underbelly Alienage Duo" (2020) at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila, Philippines / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery
Many leading international dealers are returning to the show, including Galleria Continua, Hauser & Wirth, Sprüth Magers and Lisson Gallery.
Among the participating exhibitors are 10 players from Korea — Arario Gallery, Gallery Baton, Hakgojae Gallery, Johyun Gallery, Kukje Gallery, Leeahn Gallery, One and J. Gallery, PKM Gallery, Wooson and Whistle — along with blue-chip dealers that have opened outposts in Seoul over the last six years, such as Gladstone Gallery, White Cube, Perrotin, Pace Gallery and Esther Schipper.
Across the expanded sectors of the Hong Kong fair, a series of noteworthy presentations will shine a spotlight on both established and emerging Korean artists.
In the Encounters section, dedicated to large-scale projects, Yang Haegue, renowned for her peculiar-looking sculptural assemblages that blend ethnic craft with modern industrial production to bridge divergent times, places and cultures, puts forth "Contingent Spheres."
This expansive installation synthesizes two of Yang’s works: a pair of biomorphic rattan sculptures and a set of suspended serpentine tentacles woven with white artificial straw and metal ropes with bells. These hybrid pieces evoke multiple cultural reference points, including the Binakol weaving pattern found in traditional Philippine textiles, 1960s Op Art and even a Korean folktale that tells the origin of the sun and the moon.
Two Korean creatives from different generations will be highlighted in curated solo presentations: the late “dansaekhwa” (monochrome painting) master Park Seo-bo by Busan-based Johyun Gallery and rising “artist of steel” Lee Yona by the Australian dealer Fine Arts, Sydney.
Park’s signature canvas works, “Ecriture,” draw attention to his decades of meditative gestural strides and the rhythmic physicality of the surface, while Lee’s large new installation, “In Transit,” is a labyrinth constructed from stainless-steel tubes and ready-made everyday objects, serving as both a social space and a sculpture.
Lee Yona's "Kit-set In-transit" (2020) / Courtesy of the artist and Fine Arts, Sydney
In addition to the expanded gallery booths and sectors, there are several “first-time highlights” both within and outside the fair venue, according to Siyang-Le.
“It’s the first time we’re collaborating with Tai Kwun [a 19th-century colonial prison compound converted into an arts complex with galleries, eateries and live performance spaces] for Artists’ Night. It’s the first time we have a designated public program destination on-site, where we’re grouping all the public sectors [Film, Conversations and open-format experimental presentations] into one area to allow people to engage with the art industry firsthand even without a ticket,” she said.
There will also be a first-time on-site collaboration between Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Week Tokyo, Japan’s largest citywide initiative for contemporary art, taking the form of AWT Bar, conversation panels and a curated tour.
“We would like to activate the Asia-Pacific region from our platform in Hong Kong and really be a connector for the region. So in the future, we would love to see more of these activations from different parts of Asia also having a presence at the show,” the director noted.
Overall, given the backdrop of economic slowdown and political instability, the performance of Art Basel Hong Kong — nestled in the second-largest art market after the U.S. according to Art Basel and UBS’s "Art Market Report 2024" — will serve as a crucial touchstone of the post-pandemic art market in Asia.
The 2023 edition of Frieze Seoul, held at COEX in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, from Sept. 6 to 9, drew around 70,000 visitors from 36 countries. Courtesy of Lets Studio and Frieze
Asia as fastest-growing art market
In recent years, Asia's burgeoning art fair scene has witnessed a wave of newcomers such as Frieze Seoul, Art SG, Taipei Dangdai and Tokyo Gendai, joining their more established counterparts like Art Basel Hong Kong and West Bund Art & Design in Shanghai.
The emergence of these new fairs is a testament to the rapid and explosive growth of the region's art market over the last decade or so, according to Siyang-Le.
“Asia is the fastest growing continent when it comes to the art market. Our region has seen tremendous development, not only from the art fair or auction points of view but in terms of the entire art scene," she said.
“There is now a stronger gallery scene, with more international galleries opening here. And over the past 10 plus years, [Western dealers’] level of understanding of Asia has been bridged, as in there is an understanding that Asia has its own models and etiquette to operate art business," she added.
"We now also have a stronger public infrastructure for art, particularly in the modern and contemporary sectors, not just classic antiquity. Korea, Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore and Taiwan — all these different parts of the region are paying more attention to cultural growth and giving the priority to the development of modern and contemporary art.”
Given the backdrop of economic slowdown and political instability, the performance of Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 will serve as a crucial touchstone of the post-pandemic art market in Asia. Courtesy of Art Basel
Some have raised concerns about the apparent saturation of Asia's art calendar, suggesting that an influx of fairs may lead to intensified competition for a limited pool of collectors. However, the director of Art Basel Hong Kong views this phenomenon more as a chance for each city to cater to the diverse needs of an expanding group of collectors and galleries that are making their way into the region, with quality art fairs serving as their pivotal "congregation points."
"Firstly, this is very much an opportunity for Asia to assert itself on a competitive footing with the rest of the world. In Europe and America, international art fairs and biennales have been a fixture for decades. Now, Asia is coming into its own," she observed.
“And this situation actually encourages different parts of Asia to take their local art scenes more seriously. M+, for example, has its own collection of Hong Kong artists. I know that Korea pays a lot of attention to cultivating its contemporary art history. During my visit to Frieze Seoul last September, I was very glad to see that the key institutions were staging Korean artist shows and educating the audience about the country's art history."
Only when each location deepens its investment in its unique cultural identity — for instance, Korea with its rising number of younger collectors coupled with long art history, Singapore as a key hub for Southeast Asia, and Hong Kong as a global meeting spot for collectors, museum professionals and curators — can the region maintain and enhance this crucial momentum.
“That's why we want to see Seoul’s art market and scene continue to flourish, because it is mutually complementary [and beneficial] for us when we together educate on Asia's contemporary art scene on a global level," she said.