Intended for Art Basel Hong Kong, Andrew Luk's new sculpture at de Sarthe reflects on human brutality and nature.

What to Let Go?, the sixth annual Para Site International Conference (22–24 November 2018) organised by Hong Kong non-profit art organisation Para Site, took as its theme the tangled issue of heritage. Fittingly, the conference was held in the JC Cube Auditorium in the recently opened Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong's new...

The second day of What to Let Go? — Para Site 's international conference at Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong—was largely focused on the subjects of artefacts and repatriation. The day began with a local focus as Tina Pang— M+ curator of Hong Kong visual culture—presented an overview of the...

Expanding on the previous two days' themes of heritage, archives and repatriation, the third and final day of Para Site 's international conference at Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong began with an eloquent lecture delivered by artist Pio Abad, whose opening sentiments echoed the previous day's discussion by Marian Pastor...

It's not a whole lot of fun to be an American right now.

'Why cover the same ground again?' Odysseus asked in The Odyssey, one of literature's most lionised tales of homecoming. His question is echoed by New York and Telluride-based artist Christopher K Ho in the presentation CX 888 at de Sarthe Gallery, which explores the complexities of departure and arrival through a Hong Kong-specific lens. As...

Laurent Grasso, OttO (2018) (extract). HD film. 21 min 26 sec. 1/5 + 2 AP. © Laurent Grasso / ADAGP Paris, 2018. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Perrotin. Entrenched in the invisible correlations between mythology and science, French artist Laurent Grasso has lately been attempting to visualise the sacred. OttO , Grasso's solo...

Kim Yong-Ik is the understated rebel of the Korean art world. Over his 40-year career as an artist, writer, and curator, Kim has resisted categorical affiliation with dominant art movements in Korea, from the monochromatic and minimalist paintings associated with Dansaekhwa, to the sociopolitically concerned Minjung or 'people's art' in the...

On a September day in 1962, two men set out on a day trip to Lake Como in Northern Italy. One, a self-taught Italian artist who had rushed the day before from Paris to arrive on time, and the other, a senior French artist credited with irrevocably transforming the possibilities of contemporary art. A photo remains of the outing: the former...

For all its significance in the world, lovemaking lasts, on average, just eleven minutes. Or so wrote Paulo Coelho in his 2003 book Eleven Minutes, which followed a young Brazilian prostitute's sexual awakening and search for the meaning of love. On view in Hyon Gyon's solo exhibition Cruel World at Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong (21...

A comparison between the control and study of nature in 'The Garden' and Hong Kong’s unique political situation is clear in this exhibition.

Albert Yonathan Setyawan believes there's a holiness in recurrence. Born in Bandung, the Indonesian artist is known for his drawings and performances, but is perhaps most widely recognised for his masterfully made and diminutive ceramic sculptures, replicated by the hundreds and arranged in geometric or mandala-like formations. Ritual is integral...

Looking at one of Hiroshi Senju 's waterfall paintings feels akin to being alone inside a dark cave with a private cascade. They are not Niagara, Yosemite or Victoria; Hiroshi Senju's intimate waterfalls descend in pairs, trios or many columns of water, conveying a gentle rush. Mist emanates as water droplets (in reality, splashes of translucent...

Indonesian artist duo indieguerillas, comprised of husband and wife Dyatmiko 'Miko' Lancur Bawono and Santi Ariestyowanti, was formed in 1999 in Yogyakarta as a graphic design firm. If the 'indie' of their name is an allusion to both Indonesia and their artistic self-determination, the reference to a lawless fighting strategy denotes a defiant...

On a spring morning in Seoul, in a neighbourhood hushed enough to feel removed from the city, I met with collector and gallerist Hyun-Sook Lee at her home. Indications of the depth of her art collection were evident even from outside. In the garden was a 1968 metal sculpture by Alexander Calder, its form curving upwards like a black hook among...

A former Liverpool rock musician with notable 1980s hits to his name, British artist Ged Quinn (b. 1963, UK) now comes off as an avid reader. Among the literary references in his current exhibition of paintings— Rose, Cherry, Iron Rust, Flamingo at Pearl Lam Gallery in Hong Kong (26 May–8 July 2017)—are magical realism, German art...

Serbian-born artist Djordje Ozbolt is known for his use of humour to address social and political issues through eclectic painting, sculpture and drawings. His works are always vibrant, often motley and sometimes sarcastic. No one can accuse him of not knowing his craft: Ozbolt studied architecture in Belgrade before moving to London, where he...

National tensions were high in the weeks leading up to Art Busan (2–5 June 2017). Three days before the opening of the fair in the South Korean port city, an article in the Korea Joongang Daily announced that due to an ongoing diplomatic feud between Seoul and Beijing over a United States antimissile system, fewer Chinese galleries would...

Taiwan's contribution to the 57 th Venice Biennale is an exhaustive record of the passing of time—an ostensibly banal proceeding that has here been reframed in a monumental way. Staged in Palazzo delle Prigioni, Doing Time (13 May–26 November 2017) is a long overdue presentation of Taiwanese artist Tehching Hsieh's oeuvre of time-based...

A 17-metre-long boat made of rattan, beeswax and string hangs in the Singapore Pavilion in the Sale d'Armi building at the Arsenale for the 57th Venice Biennale (13 May–26 November 2017). The ship is the centrepiece of Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge (2017), a presentation by multidisciplinary artist Zai Kuning. It is his fifth such...

Initiated by Singapore-based Gajah Gallery in 2012, Yogyakarta Art Lab (YAL) is a foundry and production house located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. With a small staff expertly trained in a variety of metal production techniques, the lab's purpose is to engage international artists to experiment with new mediums in order to expand their practices....

A familiar childhood activity to many, the game of 'exquisite corpse' was invented by the Surrealists as a means of assembling disparate images—usually of bodies—to create an unusual and often humorous result. To play, one player draws part of an image, then folds the paper so as to hide their work and reveal only a hint of what the...

At six in the morning, the crows of brown city-dwelling roosters began. Then came the howling dogs, the melodic chants, the children's voices, and the roar of motorbikes, punctuated by the cacophony of honking horns; hit-or-miss substitutes for traffic signs. The sun had risen high above the hazy cloud of dust in Kathmandu. In Lalitpur, an ancient...

In Part One of this conversation, Tyler Russell, executive director and curator of Centre A | Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, outlined Vancouver's problematic colonial history and the early history of the non-profit that aimed to nurture Asian art. Below, he discusses the marginalisation of non-English speaking...