Art Basel Hong Kong 2023: 4 Directors Introduce Their Booths
Senior staff at Whistle, Gajah, Liang, and Tina Keng give an early look at the works they're bringing to this year's fair.
Ram Han, Bye Bye Meat (2023). Anodised aluminium light panel, digital pigment print, needle-scratch drawing on backlit film. 150 x 200 x 9 cm. Courtesy the artist and Whistle Gallery.
Kyungmin Lee, Director at Whistle, Seoul
Whistle will participate in ABHK's Discoveries sector with Ram Han, an emerging Korean artist whose work is sophisticated and cutting-edge. We are particularly excited to show the large-scale light panel Bye Bye Meat (2023) and Full of fortune (2023), a VR piece that makes use of the Oculus Rift.
At a breadth of two metres, Bye Bye Meat is, at first glance, a dreamlike landscape of florid and organic abstraction. Looking closer, its lush, lurid colours become monstrous, resembling the torrent of images generated by AI.
In Full of fortune (2023), various dishes are set on a table. The participant clears the dishes using the Oculus Rift to make a fortune cookie appear. Upon opening the cookie, they will find messages made in conversation with AI.
In all of her works for Art Basel Hong Kong, Ram Han has incorporated AI by inputting text prompts and then expanding upon, collaging them, or redrawing the results. Full of fortune not only retrieves these forgotten communications but relies upon the viewer to unfold them.
Jasdeep Sandhu, Director at Gajah Gallery, Singapore
Suzann Victor's painting A Patchwork Tells a Thousand Histories (2023) is a seminal piece in her practice, where she thoughtfully employs the lens medium to capture the complexity of subjects who had been othered and obscured in colonial photographs. This piece is particularly special because she foregrounds subjects personal to her—those from Singapore's migrant histories.
Yunizar's new painting 2 Laki-Laki Berotot (2 Muscular Men) is another highlight, revealing colours stronger and more vivid than the earthy and muted palettes of his earlier works. The painting is a double portrait of two 'muscular' men surrounded by flowers and animals, unveiling Yunizar's intriguing observations on the psyche of everyday, anonymous people around him in Indonesia.
Other works at our booth include Jane Lee's immersive, three-dimensional works in stainless steel, which are a radical diversion from her textured paintings, and Yunizar's bronze sculptures, which depict creatures who are only becoming more surreal.
Several of thesewere made in collaboration with the Yogya Art Lab (YAL), the gallery's art space and foundry in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where artists are encouraged to explore new, unconventional mediums.
Claudia Chen, Director of Liang Gallery, Taipei
For our 30th anniversary year, we will feature representative works by ten Taiwanese artists—including Chen Cheng-Po, Chu Teh-Chun, and Shiy De Jinn—made from the 1920s until 2023.
One of the highlights is Chen's oil painting Tamsui Scenery II (1935), which he painted after returning to Taiwan from teaching in Shanghai. It is one of Chen's most iconic works, depicting the interweaving Western and traditional Minnan-style architecture in Tamsui, Taipei. The interplay of red brick buildings and walls with the green of the trees is a distinctive feature of the painting.
Another highlight is Hsu Yunghsu's 2019-37 (2019), which was made using the body as a tool.
The giant ceramic sculpture is tense and stunning, the result of the artist overcoming technical challenges and unusual firing conditions.
Tina Keng, Executive Director of Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei
The rise of modern art in the Chinese world has often accompanied periods of migration and exile. Whether compelled by the devastation of war or in pursuit of further education, immigration or oversea studies are a catalyst for the collision and diffusion of ideas for artists in the last century.
Cultural identity has become an unavoidable undercurrent in their contemplation of art.
At ABHK, we're highlighting the works of two artists, Sanyu and Yun Gee, in an exploration of aesthetics inspired by their personal journeys. Both artists have shaped a seminal aspect of Chinese art, allowing them to observe differences between the self and the other.
We're also pleased to present works by Su Xiaobai, Sopheap Pich, Peng Wei, and Su Meng-Hung. Rooted in a deconstruction of Eastern culture and reinterpretation of Western art theory, their artistic vocabulary mirrors the spiritual, intellectual, and practical aspects of artistic creation. —[O]
