The 2022 iterations of Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central showcased significant shifts in priorities for galleries and collectors. Madeleine Fitzpatrick found plenty of pent-up energy being unleashed at both fairs.
The impossibly realistic silhouettes, inspired by the Hong Kong skyline, cast by Angela Yuen Ka-yee’s The Puzzle VI at Art Central. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Hong Kong Art Week, featuring the city’s major annual international art fairs, Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK) and Art Central, wrapped on Sunday. Among the heartwarming images seen at the two fairs was one in which small children climbed all over a stepped platform shaped like a lily — a part of Desmond Leung Kar-hao’s (b. 1976) interactive digital installation ink art, The Bloom of Water Lilies, on show at Art Central and commissioned by fair sponsor United Overseas Bank. Visitors interacted with the artwork by standing on a petal facing one of 12 screens, their movements prompting buds to blossom, or a sudden shaft of light to fall on the “pond”.
The Pink Panther figure in Katherine Bernhardt’s Crescent Lunge at Art Basel Hong Kong attracted the selfie hunters. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The combination of exquisite Chinese ink imagery, the tranquil movements of water and petals, relaxing music, and bird sounds was an easy invitation to stillness. “The whole concept is for people to open their hearts and reconnect through the ink installation,” notes Leung, who was assisted by student artist Carolyn Yim Ho-yuet in creating the piece. “During the pandemic, everyone’s been so stressed and isolated. Now feels like the right time and place to allow everyone to reconnect.”
The fairs were postponed from March to May because of the fifth wave, and people’s desire for a dose of visual culture was palpable. ABHK, the largest contemporary art fair in Asia, welcomed nearly 40,000 visitors this year, compared with almost 30,000 in 2021, and showcased 130 galleries — a 25 percent increase on 2021. Art Central — which positions itself as an incubator for artists and galleries in the region — saw more than 27,000 visitors this year, against 25,000 in 2021. The fair’s 52 participating galleries represented a 68 percent increase over the 31 booth exhibitors in 2021.
Standing at the center of Desmond Leung Kar-hao’s The Bloom of Water Lilies installation at Art Central, young children (and their parents) interact with the digital ink drawings around them. (COURTESY OF UOB AND THE ARTIST)
Home truths
“This year we’ve seen a lot more focused presentations — whether in the form of a solo artist, one particular series of work, or something regional,” notes Adeline Ooi, Asia director of ABHK.
In the Insights section — dedicated to works by artists from the Asia-Pacific region — Fukuoka’s Mizoe Art Gallery presented an exhibition of Tomonori Toyofuku (1925-2019), whose striking works include abstract expressionist sculptures in mahogany and bronze. In Discoveries, the section for emerging artists, Mine Project showcased surrealist installations in thermal plastic (widely used in 3D printing) and beeswax, created by local artist Tap Chan (b. 1981). Both Mizoe and Mine Project made their ABHK debut this year — “a very significant opportunity”, according to Kazunobu Abe, Mizoe’s director.
David Zwirner has been a part of ABHK since its inception in 2013. The gallery’s bestsellers this year included American painter Katherine Bernhardt (b. 1975) — whose giant-format, psychedelic Pink Panthers also provided a popular photo op — and Colombian artist Oscar Murillo (b. 1986), whose massive canvases combine vivid colors and jagged black lines to unsettling effect.
Tap Chan’s Duplicity (foreground) at Art Basel Hong Kong features a real and a fake plant; The Castle (back left) is made from beeswax; and Sanitise Insanity resembles a hatstand but holds bars of soap. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
If visitors this year noticed a greater emphasis on brighter hues and color saturation, there’s good reason for that, says Leo Xu, David Zwirner’s senior director. With a number of art shows and fairs suspended, people have had to access art on their mobile devices — meaning they’re often looking at a palm-sized JPEG. “Everything has to be color saturated, high contrast, figurative,” Xu notes. “This may go against the anticipated development of art history — against how, based on the last half-century, we expected painting to evolve.
“With the use of smartphones and social media, people’s preferences have shifted more toward eye candy, toward something more accessible; (to something) less technique-based, less conceptual. Art has become more healing, more peaceful.
“I don’t think any historian, museum curator or critic could have anticipated this.”
Choi Eun-jeong ’s 3D oil painting, Oblique, did a good job of catching visitors’ attention at Art Central. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Local heroes
Xu is upbeat about this year’s sales and collector feedback. “I think both have been brilliant,” he says. “Given that a lot of international clients are not able to come, we have the privilege of spending quality time with Hong Kong-based clients. That’s given us a chance to rethink the art fair model.”
Ooi agrees: “For once we’re able to dig deep into the local market, forge new relationships, get to know people. Despite the fact that international collectors aren’t able to show up, what is beautiful is that you realize that within your own backyard, there’s so much potential.
“In the past, everyone would spend their lives running around, chasing airplanes and moving from one event to the next. Now, because we’re forced to stay home, you focus on building relationships with potential new collectors. Traditionally, a gallery could present only a small handful of artists. But here at Art Basel, when you’ve got the Online Viewing Rooms — which is something a lot of galleries have also introduced since the pandemic — it means that within your program, there are various platforms serving more artists.”
Atsuko Ninagawa, owner and director of Tokyo-based Take Ninagawa, made it to ABHK this year, having participated via a satellite booth in 2021. “We’re grateful we had the chance to reconnect, and meet old and new friends in person,” she says. “My booth was nearly sold out in the first few hours of the show.”
The gallery presented three artists including Shinro Ohtake (b. 1955), whose works sold out. The artist’s collage and assemblage pieces are atmospheric depictions of trips he has made to Hong Kong and London since the 1970s.
Says Ninagawa, “The whole experience of the show made the seven-day (hotel) quarantine worthwhile.”
Inspired by the creator’s trip to Hong Kong, four 1980 Shinro Ohtake collages reference various city locations. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
A new spin
At Art Central, Seoul-based Jason Shin showcased two highly contrasting artists: Choi Eun-jeong (b. 1966) from South Korea, and Huseyin Sami (b. 1979) from Australia. Choi’s vibrant, dystopian paintings draw the viewer in with their 3D, illusory forms. Sami, meanwhile, uses a highly technical approach to make synthetic paint on canvas resemble draped and crumpled fabric.
Contemporary by Angela Li presented works by nearly a dozen local artists, among them Angela Yuen Ka-yee (b. 1991). Yuen’s art is likely to resonate, like a visual madeleine, with those who grew up in Hong Kong in the last century. Just as Marcel Proust had his famous cake — the taste of which brought back memories of childhood — Hong Kong kids (of certain generations) may be flooded with memories on seeing these tiny plastic objects they hadn’t thought about for decades.
The artist has painstakingly collected vintage plastic toys and stationery from mom-and-pop stores in Hong Kong. Hair rollers for dolls, toy milk bottles, mini plastic rulers with shape stencils — all are generic Hong Kong objects no longer manufactured here. They are simultaneously cheap and worthless, and precious and rare.
This plastic bric-a-brac would mean very little, however, were it not for what Yuen does with it.
With the found objects arranged on a carousel, the artist creates multicolored rotating silhouettes of the Hong Kong skyline, showing landmark after landmark as the objects turn. A mini-piano game with a round casing becomes the Space Museum; two hair rollers side by side represent the HSBC Building; a doll’s milk bottle, Central Plaza; a toy sword, the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower. The resemblances are startling.
“Local collectors are much more diverse than in the past,” says Yuen. “I observe a much younger generation getting into collecting. We have all kinds of price points in Hong Kong art — some (art) is very affordable.”
Stephen Thorpe muses philosophically (and vibrantly) in Imagination and Reverie. (BILLY WONG FOR CHINA DAILY)
She points out that a big chunk of the disposable income young people would previously spend on traveling is now being invested in art.
The experts at ABHK have also noted this trend of diverted spending. “This year’s sales and sentiment, compared with last year’s, are much better,” says Henrietta Tsui-Leung, founder and CEO of local gallery Ora-Ora, which has also participated in ABHK since its inception. “We realized HK$5 million ($637,000) on the first preview day.” Given the gallery represents “the mid tier of internationally emerging artists who are well known in their own countries, with prices around $20,000 to $100,000, we were pretty happy with the energy”, says the gallery owner. Artists that proved a hit for Ora-Ora included Mai Miyake, Juri Markkula, Huang Dan, Stephen Thorpe, Xiao Xu and Peng Jian.
“Definitely, people are ready to buy,” Tsui-Leung adds. “A lot of people are renovating; people are taking care of their homes more.” David Zwirner’s Xu concurs: “People need art. They’re buying fewer luxury goods — because they don’t have anywhere to wear them. Also, when it comes to other luxury spending — real estate, boats — we might see a decrease. I think a lot of newcomers are shifting their focus to art.
“Seasoned collectors miss the opportunity to travel and see museum shows. That’s stimulated their appetite to buy and increase the quality of their collection. They’re living with their best art.
“Previously (the fairs were) such an extravaganza — you got to meet all these stellar guests, these heavyweight collectors. Now we have a clear mission: We’ve had the chance to explore local demographics. I would say this is art fair 2.0.”
Contact the writer at madeleine@chinadailyhk.com
