Art Basel Hong Kong Pulls Chinese Collectors Out of Hibernation

After interminable pandemic restrictions, there was a giddiness to the gathering at Hong Kong Art Week. Strong sales at Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central masked the local scene's struggles.

Leaving after closing time on the first day of Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK), scissor lifts quickly manoeuvred through the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) delivering fresh wooden crates to the booths. It was evident that the day had ended with robust sales.

'Hong Kong is well and truly back,' commented Wendy Xu, White Cube's General Manager in Asia, after selling around 30 works totalling over £5 million (US $6.1 million). 'Sales were incredibly strong for us on the opening days of the fair, in particular among collectors from Mainland China,' she said.

From 21 to 25 March, 86,000 visitors attended ABHK, and 40,000 attended Art Central, both held at the HKCEC. Exhibitors at ABHK increased from 130 last year to 177, a number that fell well short of the fair's 2019 edition, which featured 242 galleries.

Strict immigration and vaccination policies coupled with the emergence of other regional art hubs in Seoul, Taipei, and Singapore, caused some galleries to skip ABHK this year. Notable absences included Paula Cooper, Sprüth Magers, and Lisson Gallery. For those that did attend, strong sales seemed to validate their decision.

Hauser & Wirth sold a painting by Mark Bradford to an Asian collection for US $3.5 million, while David Zwirner sold a painting by Elizabeth Peyton to an Asian museum for US $2.2 million. Notably, both artists have held major solo exhibitions in China in the past few years.

At a time when the traditional art world has largely returned to mocking NFTs, Beeple's photo booth-sized spinning sculpture S.2122 (2023) was purchased from LGDR by Nanjing's Deji Art Museum for a staggering US $9 million. The sculpture, which comes with a companion NFT, depicts a city building upwards to escape rising sea levels.

A brisk walk through the solo projects featured in the 'Discoveries' section provided an opportunity to detect new talents emerging from the region. Eye-catching presentations included Ad Minoliti at Galerie Crèvecœur, Alice Wang at Capsule Shanghai, Kawita Vatanajyankur at Nova Contemporary, and Ngoc Nau at Vin Gallery.

For visitors from mainland China, who have been largely unable to travel abroad for the past three years, last week was more than just an opportunity to view art. It was about emerging from hibernation, stretching their limbs, and reconnecting with people.

Countless events were held each night, including the afterparty hosted by M+, a party organised by artist Cheng Ran, and the dazzling ReStart Art Club hosted by LACMA, which involved navigating a dark maze containing performers, installations by d'strict, and spray-in-your-mouth cocktails.

Viewing art itself can be physically demanding in a bustling city like Hong Kong. People lined up for half an hour at H Queen's to see Rashid Johnson's gestural, monochrome paintings on the 16th floor at Hauser & Wirth. From there, crowds headed downstairs to Tang Contemporary Art, Whitestone Gallery, and Pace Gallery, before squeezing into Rirkrit Tiravanija's jam-packed umbrella shop at David Zwirner.

The spectacle harkens back to the days when crowds thronged the Pedder Building. The two galleries that remain, Gagosian and Pearl Lam, both showcased female painters—Katharina Grosse at the former and Cynthia Polsky at the latter. The heyday of this legendary building is history, however, as other tenants left the expensive Central area, including Hanart TZ Gallery and Ben Brown Fine Arts.

On the south side of Hong Kong Island, the art scene is thriving in industrial buildings in Wong Chuk Hang and Aberdeen. Much cheaper rents allow galleries to occupy larger spaces and present more diverse and experimental programmes compared to exhibitions in Central that primarily focus on paintings.

Highlights include installations and a video by Kimsooja at Axel Vervoordt, Jes Fan's bodily sculptures and videos interspersed in a dark labyrinth at Empty Gallery, and Shubigi Rao's multidisciplinary project at Rossi & Rossi following her presentation for Singapore at the 59th Venice Biennale.

Launching its second gallery last year in Tin Wan, Kiang Malingue presented four of Zheng Bo's film projects spanning different parts of the world, imagining the intimate connection between people and plants.

Among institutional shows, the most talked about were M+'s inaugural exhibitions, which have been open to the public since 2021, and Myth Makers at Tai Kwun Contemporary, the first major exhibition dedicated to LGBTQ+ art in Hong Kong.

These institutions demonstrate an openness, diversity, and inclusiveness that is unparalleled in mainland China. I cannot see the comprehensive archive of East Village performance art in the exhibition M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation, nor the discussion of queer art perspectives at Tai Kwun happening in Beijing.

In the Chinese capital, Cao Yu's Femme Fatale (2019), an elegantly framed photograph of a man urinating in public was taken down at Hive Center for Contemporary Art in 2019, while Somewhere Downtown: Art in 1980s New York at UCCA shied away from any suggestion of homosexuality or drug use.

And yet, there are limits to the freedom of expression in Hong Kong. A billboard artwork titled No Rioters by artist Patrick Amadon was removed from the façade of the SOGO department store in Causeway Bay, according to Artnet News. The artwork included hidden references to political prisoners accused of violating China's infamous National Security Law (NSL).

One gallerist told Ocula Magazine that the NSL has inhibited Hong Kong artists and catalysed a lot of performance-based artworks as their way to protest. During Hong Kong Art Week, however, these activities were buried beneath flourishing sales.

Unlike Seoul, where Korean artists always have a strong presence alongside international names, the focus on local art in Hong Kong remains thin. While ABHK continued to strive to maintain its international outlook, this year's Art Central offered more opportunities to local galleries with 37 out of 70 exhibitors from Hong Kong.

Few major galleries opted to showcase projects by Hong Kong-based artists during the March slot. One exception, and one of the most impressive exhibitions all week, was Michele Chu's You, Trickling (20 March–13 May 2023) at PHD Group, a gallery launched last year on the rooftop of a 20-storey building.

In her debut solo show, the Hong Kong-born artist invites the audience to light an incense stick and take a meditative walk through a maze of orange gauze, encountering fragments of paper, cigarette butts, fingernails, and water pipes.

Beyond fairs, galleries, and major institutions, there are also attempts to revitalise local communities and engage the public with art projects. At Sham Shui Po, the alternative art space Current Plans, founded by Eunice Tsang presents exhibitions and organises workshops. Its current exhibition with Tomihiro Kono and Sayaka Maruyama features a series of grotesque, surreal installations based on wigs.

At Oi! near Victoria Harbour, multimedia projects by Lu Yang, Nadim Abbas, and Choi Sai Ho are accessible, immersive, sensuous, and Instagrammable. Housed in the former clubhouse of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Oi! aims to reactivate Oil Street and encourage the exchange of ideas, contributing to a more diverse picture of Hong Kong's art scene.

Such activities, alongside the sale of multi-million dollar works by foreign artists, are integral to Hong Kong's future as an art destination. —[O]