Art Basel Hong Kong 2024 – Is it the Epicentre of Asia’s Art Market?

In a make-or-break year, the 2024 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong returned to full force as the vibrant city maintains its status as a global art hub.

“Hong Kong is back!” exclaimed collector and philanthropist Vivienne Sharpe at Art Basel Hong Kong’s (ABHK) First Choice VIP Preview. As a seasoned international art fair attendee, Sharpe’s genuine enthusiasm for the Fair, the high calibre of quality art on offer and the vibrancy of the city was palpable.

The optimism amongst collectors, gallerists, artists, and the art world elite continued throughout the week. Despite the introduction of Article 23 with its reduction of democratic freedoms, Hong Kong felt alive and bursting with energy. With its tax-free port status, dedication to high-end luxury service and logistical efficiency, the city is open for business. In a make-or-break year, the 2024 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong returned to full force as the city maintains its status as a global art hub.

The eleventh edition of ABHK featured 242 galleries from Asia, America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East showcasing a diverse overview of modern and contemporary art across two floors of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). With over half of the galleries represented from the Asia-Pacific region, the Fair provides an in-depth snapshot of the art market, alongside a robust program of insightful panel discussions, large-scale installations, film, performances, and partner activations.

Although the VIP Preview days felt noticeably quieter, which allowed for a spacious experience and engaging conversations, the Fair welcomed over 75,000 visitors, with strong attendance from mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and of course Australia. The Fair also witnessed a strong presence of younger wealthy collectors from Asia, who now not only view contemporary art as an asset class, but also as a cultural and social symbol. Galleries reported a balance of slower decision making and brisk sales, noting that booths who had pre-sold works mitigated the risks of attending. Participating in the Fair is no mean financial feat, and all the galleries should be celebrated for the significant investment and effort outlaid.

In the Galleries sector, Sullivan+Strumpf’s (Sydney, Singapore) spaciously curated booth presented new works by Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran, Dawn Ng, Alex Seton, Gregory Hodge, and Lindy Lee. Whilst these artists’ practice conceptually explore a diverse range of issues, uniting them is a mastery of surface and materiality. Alex Seton enthuses, “the joy in showing, is being part of larger artistic conversations with galleries and artists of the Asia Pacific—to connect with colleagues from across the region.” Reporting strong sales, the gallery year on year continues to build its market and influence in the region.

Newly rebranded Ames Yavuz (Singapore, Sydney) presented a comprehensive overview of the gallery’s ever-increasing program of artists. Highlights included new works by Abdul Abdullah, Brook Andrew, Karen Black, and Julia Trybala. On the benefits of the Fair, Abdullah notes, “along with connecting with collectors from other regions, art fairs have given me the opportunity to meet artists and curators from around the world, and has led to exhibition opportunities throughout Asia.”

The gallery also exhibited the work of leading Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak in the Kabinett Sector. Providing insight into the artist’s work, the exquisitely designed presentation featured new sculptures and works on paper, offering a visual respite amidst the Fair. A recurring motif for the artist is the female breast, distilled into the shape of a vessel or mound, which could also resemble a temple stupa or offering bowl. Sanpitak’s practice explores the human body and form as a vessel of experience in space—a reflection on gender, religion and both profane and sacred forms.

Andrew Jensen, founder and co-director of Fox Jensen Gallery (Sydney, Auckland) states: “After four years away, it was terrific to be back. ABHK is without question the preeminent art fair in the Asia Pacific, both in terms of scale and quality.” Further, “We have participated since its inception and have always sought to combine the best works from Australasia with artists from Europe and America. The audience continues to respond well to the coherence of this approach and though there are numerous galleries presenting works that focus on the pop culture figuration that exists in Asia, our sense is that more sophisticated collectors look beyond that fashion towards deeper art historical threads.”

Fox Jensen’s elegant and considered presentation of large-scale abstract works by artists including Tomislav Nikolic, Koen Delaere, and Jan Albers alongside impressive works by the leading German artist Imi Knoebel and London-based Mark Francis, whose work is having a significant revival of form, continued to build on the gallery’s history and focused program.

Presenting in the Discoveries sector and debuting at Art Basel, Fine Arts, Sydney (Sydney) exhibited an ambitious installation by South Korean-born artist Yona Lee. In Transit, 2024, remarkably occupied the whole booth, making for both a visually dynamic and at times spatially trepidatious, yet joyful, experience. The striking piece is both a social space and sculptural form made from welded stainless tubes and everyday objects including electric light, umbrella, a clock, a daybed and table and chairs.

Of the gallery’s participation, Ryan Moore, Director, states: “It is a very effective platform for galleries, collectors, and art professionals to connect socially, do business together, meet new people and make new encounters. Australia is our base, but we are a gallery whose clients and artists are all over the world.” Moore continues, “We wanted to focus on a single artist presentation. Yona Lee is an artist whose work has developed in such a determined and distinctive way. What was striking in Hong Kong was the number of people for whom Yona Lee’s work was known from images online and in the press, but for which this was an opportunity to see and discover her work IRL for the first time.”

The Insights sector similarly provided an important platform for STATION Gallery (Sydney, Melbourne) to present the work of Lebanese Australian artist Shireen Taweel and First Nations artist Daniel Boyd. Though these artists explore issues of cultural heritage and identity in very different ways, the pairing of Boyd’s series of new paintings alongside Taweel’s three engraved copper sculptures, with their shared interest in the physical—porosity of materiality—offered an elegant and sophisticated booth.

Art Basel Hong Kong’s large-scale installation program, Encounters was curated for the ninth time by Alexie Glass-Kantor, executive director of Artspace Sydney, whose vision for this platform goes from strength to strength. The 2024 iteration featured sixteen remarkable, museum-quality works, eleven of which were new, ambitious commissions, many of which were years in the conception.

Of the sector’s theme, I am a part of all that I have met, taken from Tennyson’s Ulysses, the program evoked ideas of a journey, connection, and separation. Glass-Kantor notes: “I found myself reflecting on how each of our personal and subjective experiences are connected to the local and, by extension, to the global to form an often-fragmented universal perspective . . . Indeed art invites us to experience the world as it is felt by others and when we open ourselves to vulnerability and empathy, art can become a summation of every contact point, every caress, glance, breath, and feeling we pass through.”

Highlights included two significant installations from Sullivan+Strumpf. Yolgnu artist Naminapu Maymuru-White presented a striking, celestial forest of Larrakitj ceremonial poles depicting the Milky Way and passage of time. And not to be misled by the inherent beauty in the work, Pakistani artist Adeela Suleman’s installation,When you had enough of Paradise, provided a deceptively elegant reflection on life, war, and death. Three vast suspended metal screens made of infinitely interlinked hand-beaten stainless-steel motifs, made using the repousse technique, depicting sparrows linked at their feet by machine guns offered a space for reflection. 

Additionally, as part of Encounters, however beyond the Fair walls, in partnership with Swire Properties and ABHK, Doan, a major debut installation by Daniel Boyd was presented at Pacific Place, Admiralty – a shopping mall and popular gathering spot in the city—by STATION Gallery and Kukje Gallery (Seoul). Comprising a three-part, site-specific immersive installation—a new eleven-minute looped moving-image work set atop a mirrored floor and a wraparound window treatment featuring the artists signature perforated imagery. For locals and tourists, and high-end shoppers, the installation strategically offered an art experience beyond the traditional museum or fair context.

With the recent opening of M+ Museum of Visual Culture, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, West Kowloon Culture District’s first International Culture Summit; Hauser & Wirth’s new Annabelle Seldorf designed gallery; as well as the soon to be opened Christie’s Zaha Hadid Architects headquarters, along with a plethora of new local commercial galleries, the city retains its status as an ever-expanding global art centre. 2024 also saw the introduction of two new art fairs to the city—the boutique Supper Club, featuring twenty cutting-edge galleries from around the world at Fringe Bar, and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair was held at Christie’s. With ABHK at its core, Hong Kong Art Week’s calendar of art-to-be-seen and event-filled schedule of brunches, lunches, dinners and parties, is overwhelmingly fun, visually saturated, fast-paced and at times delightfully Perrier Jouet-filled.

EXHIBITION
Art Basel Hong Kong 
28 – 30 March 2024 
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)