It's wonderful to be back in Hong Kong for Art Basel following several years of strict Covid-19 restrictions.
New York gallery Fergus McCaffrey had one of our favourite booths, showcasing two Richard Serra 'Orient' drawings (2018), several top-tier Martha Jungwirth paintings, and a 1991 Kazuo Shiraga painting that was reported to have sold for $5 million.
David Zwirner sold Jordan Wolfson's Red Sculpture (2016–2022), a puppet animatronic dangling from a chain, for $900,000 to Shanghai's Long Museum. While their Elizabeth Peyton portrait, Truffaut (2005) sold to a major Asian museum for $2.2 million.
Hauser & Wirth reported strong first day sales, with Mark Bradford's A Straight Line (2023) going for a staggering $3.5 million, and George Condo's Purple Compression, (2011) for $4.75 million. The rest of the booth met with similar success, with major works by Pat Steir, Frank Bowling, Henry Taylor, and Zhang Enli all placed in collections in Asia on the opening day.
Thaddaeus Ropac sold the Georg Baselitz Für links, Richtung Westen (2021) for €1.4 million, while also waving goodbye to two works by Zadie Xa (both for £22,000), whose gallery representation was announced by Ropac the day before the fair's opening.
Over in the 'Discoveries' section, Union Pacific's solo presentation of Nova Jiang was met with great success. Marking their first fair in Asia, the London-based gallery brought a selection of Jiang's sixteen sculptures and paintings to Hong Kong.
Born in Dalian, China and brought up in New Zealand, Nova Jiang was a favourite of ours when in Basel for Liste 2022. Read her inclusion in Liste Art Fair 2022: Five Artists to Watch here.
