241 premier galleries participate in Art Basel’s fifth edition in Hong Kong

The 2017 edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong features a prominent representation of galleries with exhibition spaces in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, in addition to a strong number of galleries in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Participating galleries have exhibition spaces in 34 countries and territories: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mainland China, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Along with a high number of returning exhibitors, the show will feature 29 galleries that will participate for the very first time. 10 new galleries from Asia will include A+ Contemporary, Bank, C-Space, Hive Center for Contemporary Art, imura art gallery, Jhaveri Contemporary, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, Mind Set Art Center, The Third Gallery Aya and The Third Line. 10 leading European galleries will also join the show for the first time, including Alfonso Artiaco, Galerie Buchholz, Dittrich & Schlechtriem, High Art, Kadel Willborn, König Galerie, mor charpentier, Project Native Informant, Thomas Brambilla, Waddington Custot, while nine new galleries will join from the Americas, including Aicon Gallery, Bergamin & Gomide, Clearing, Athena Contemporânea, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, kurimanzutto, Luxembourg & Dayan, Sundaram Tagore Gallery and Various Small Fires.

For the first time, Art Basel will introduce the Kabinett sector to its Hong Kong show. A highlight of Art Basel in Miami Beach, Kabinett will see galleries present a specially curated project in a separate area within their booths, ranging from one person shows, thematic group exhibitions, installations, film/video programs to collections of art historical material. Further details on the participants of Kabinett’s premiere edition in Hong Kong will be released in the coming months.

Galleries, the main sector of the show, will feature 189 exhibitors specializing in Modern and contemporary art. These galleries will present the highest quality of painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, photography, video and editioned works. Exhibitors returning after a brief hiatus include Karma International and Timothy Taylor. Many galleries who have graduated to the main Galleries sector from the Insights or Discoveries sectors will now present their overall exhibition program. These galleries include Antenna Space, Experimenter, Liang Gallery and Mujin-to Production from Asia, as well as Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler and Pi Artworks from Europe. The Galleries sector in 2017 will see Antenna Space and Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler present a joint booth in an unprecedented collaboration for two young galleries. For the full gallery list, please visit artbasel.com/hongkong/exhibitors.

The Insights sector will be dedicated to curatorial projects by 27 galleries, of which eight are completely new to the show, and will feature solo shows, exceptional historical material and strong thematic group exhibitions. This unique sector illustrates Asian art history by presenting work by important artists from Asia and the Asia Pacific region. This year’s edition features a selection of Modern work of exceptional historical quality as well as a particularly strong presentation of Chinese contemporary artists, alongside a diverse and in-depth overview of art from across the region, with artists from Algeria, Australia, Mainland China, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Highlights include a presentation of exceptional historical works by four members of Taiwan’s ‘The Fifth Moon’ avant-garde art group comprised of Chen Ting-Shih (b. 1913, d. 2002), Fong Chung-Ray (b. 1934), Hu Chi-Chung (b. 1927, d. 2012) and Liu Kuo-Sung (b. 1932), presented by Galerie du Monde; Aicon Gallery’s first time participation featuring Pakistani artist Anila Quayyum Agha (b. 1965), British-Pakistani artist Saad Qureshi (b. 1986) and Tunisian artist Rachid Koraïchi (b. 1947) in a presentation focusing on geometry, repetition and minimalism; Pakistan-based Hamra Abbas’ (b. 1976) miniature portraits of food sellers in Singapore’s Little India district, reflecting on migration and cultural identity, presented by Lawrie Shabibi; Zilberman Gallery’s return to the sector with a presentation of work by Iraqi-Kurdish artist Walid Siti (b. 1954); Osage Gallery’s group presentation ‘Moving and Trembling’, featuring video, photography and sculpture by Jiang Zhi (b. 1971), Shen Shaomin (b. 1956) and Zhao Zhao (b. 1982) that investigate the mechanisms of power and control by portraying moments weakness; Ink Studio’s presentation of Zheng Chongbin’s (b. 1961) most recent abstract ink works as well as his latest video work presented in a floating LCD format; early work by leading contemporary Japanese female photographer Yoshio Kitayama (b. 1948) presented by MEM; Leeahn Gallery’s ‘Maze of Onlookers’ (2016), a presentation of 18 CCTV monitors exploring constant and mass exposure by artist J. Park (b. 1966); a premiere of new paintings and installation by Jane Lee (b. 1963), presented by Sundaram Tagore Gallery; an exhibition featuring the work of two Australian artists, ceramicist Kirsten Coelho (b. 1966) and painter Chris Bond (b. 1975), presented by This Is No Fantasy + dianne tanzer gallery and ‘A 100km Walk’ (2012), a performance in which Shi Jin Hua (b. 1964) will draw on the wall with a pencil to complete his 100km walk throughout the show and reflect on his circumstances caused by Type 1 Diabetes, presented by Mind Set Art Center.

Art Basel in Hong Kong has seen a notable increase in applications to the Discoveries sector of its 2017 show, resulting in the strongest selection of solo and two-person exhibitions ever presented in this sector. 12 of the 25 galleries participating will be completely new to Art Basel in Hong Kong. Highlights will include Petra Cortright’s (b. 1986) series of five digital paintings on anodized aluminum presented by Société; Ishu Han’s (b. 1987) politically charged video, photography and painting examining the relationship between the individual and society at Urano; Kadel Willborn’s project by Kathrin Sonntag (b. 1981), ‘I see you seeing me see you, you’ (2014), consisting of a multi-media installation that addresses the conditions of perception, observation and cognition; ‘Dragon Mart’ by Edgardo Aragón (b. 1985), a presentation of works on paper, sculptures and installation exploring the fate of Chinese residents in Mexico from the colonial period to today, presented by mor charpentier; an installation conceived by Conrad Ventur (b. 1977) and developed in conversation with the estate of Kathleen White (b. 1960, d. 2014), which investigates the connection between technology and vision, specifically photography’s relationship with time, presented by Rokeby; Huang Po-Chih’s (b. 1980) ‘Protein Boy’ (2015), part novel, part installation and video about Huang’s father and his obsession with food and sex, presented by a.m. space; Jhaveri Contemporary’s minimalist sculpture and painting installation by Rana Begum (b. 1977); and Calvin Marcus’ (b. 1988) large-scale paintings of grass blades, accompanied by crafted birdbaths and birds, inspired by ‘Birds and Wild Grass’, a famous sixteenth century Japanese folding screen the artist has seen in the LACMA collection, presented by Clearing.

BMW Art Journey, a global collaboration between Art Basel and BMW to support emerging artists worldwide, is open to artists featured within the Discoveries sector in Hong Kong and within the Positions sector at Art Basel in Miami Beach. British artist Abigail Reynolds (b. 1975), represented by Rokeby, who was the award recipient in 2016, will this year present ‘The Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the Silk Road’ as a culmination of her experience. The next shortlist for the BMW Art Journey will be announced on Thursday, December 1, 2016 in Miami Beach.

The Encounters sector, which is dedicated to works of institutional proportions, will present large-scale sculptural installations and performances sited in prominent locations throughout the two exhibition halls. Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of the contemporary art institution Artspace in Sydney, will return to curate the sector for the third time. Further information on the works in the Encounters sector will be released in the coming months.

The popular Film sector will once again be curated by Beijing and Zurich-based curator, multi-media artist and producer Li Zhenhua. The program will be presented in collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Centre adjacent to the HKCEC. Following the success of the program’s expansion last year, the Film sector will continue to include feature-length and documentary films, with screenings taking place both at the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the HKCEC.

Conversations, the long-established morning program of talks and panel discussions, offers audiences first-hand access to renowned cultural speakers and opinion leaders from across the international art world. Complementing the Conversations program, the afternoon Salon series serves as a platform for shorter, more freestyle presentations, including artist talks, panel discussions, lectures and book launches. Full details on the talks program will be released in the coming months.

In addition, Art Basel is working closely with key cultural organizations across the city, including Asia Art Archive (AAA), the Asia Society, Para/Site Art Space, Spring Workshop and M+, Hong Kong’s new museum for visual culture, offering an associated program of events onsite and throughout the city that takes place during the week of the show. In March 2017, M+ will present ‘Ambiguously Yours: Gender in Hong Kong popular culture’. Comprising more than sixty works, this exhibition examines how Hong Kong popular culture has acted as a platform for new, progressive, and even socially subversive ideas about gender. Through select examples from film, fashion, music, photography, and print media, ‘Ambiguously Yours’ explores different representations of gender ambiguity and androgyny from the 1980s to today.

Reflecting a long-term commitment to the local art scene, Art Basel continues to support the annual Hong Kong Art Week organized by the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, taking place from October 27 – November 9, 2016.