Art Basel's new fair in Hong Kong to retain its Asian edge

Art Basel is moving quickly to set to rest any fears that ART HK will lose its Asian edge as it evolves into Art Basel in Hong Kong. Magnus Renfrew will continue to direct the fair in his new capacity as Art Basel's Director Asia and the region is well represented on the selection committee. The jury for the inaugural edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong is:
Emi Eu, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore
Shireen Gandhy, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, India
Suzie Kim, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
Maho Kubota, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo, Japan
David Maupin, Lehman Maupin, New York, USA
Urs Meile, Galerie Urs Meile, Bejing, China and Lucerne, Switzerland
Massimo De Carlo, Massimo De Carlo, Milan, Italy
Zhang Wei, Vitamin Creative Space, Gungzhou and Beijing, China
They have also brought on Atsuko Ninagawa of Tokyo's Take Ninagawa and Finola Jones of Dublin's mother's tankstation to assist with the selection of emerging galleries.
Image: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, venue for the inaugural edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong

New York Times on ART HK

The New York Times reports on ART HK. Read more...
Image: Choi Jeong Hwa's Breathing Flower - Red Lotus, one of the pieces selected by Yuko Hasegawa for ART HK's project series

From New Plymouth's coastal walkway to ART HK

Yin Xiuzhen's Black Hole is one of the ten pieces selected by Yuko Hasegawa and located throughout ART HK. The piece was first exhibited on New Plymouth's waterfront walkway as an extension to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery exhibition China in Four Seasons: Song Dong + Yin Xiuzhen in 2010. Image: Yin Xiuzhen, Black Hole (2010), installed at New Plymouth's waterfront walkway with Len Lye's Wind Wand in the background; and installed at ART HK 2010

STARKWHITE at ART HK Booth 3C17

Images: Jin Jiangbo's interactive projection Rules of Nature and works from his Dialogue with Nature series, Starkwhite booth 3C17, ART HK. Read our press release here.

Better, not bigger - the NYT on ART HK 12

The New York Times reports on ART HK 12 and developments under the new Art Basel ownership of the fair, including a suite of installations in 10 locations at the fair, selected by Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator at Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art. Read more...
Image: Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention centre, venue for ART HK 12

STARKWHITE at ART HK, Booth 3C17

This week we are at ART HK presenting a solo show by Shanghai-based artist Jin Jiangbo. You can read our press release here.
Image: from Jin Jiangbo's Dialogue with Nature series, Starkwhite at ART HK, Booth 3C17, 17-20 May 2012

Influential collectors and directors discuss the future of private museums at ART HK forum

This year's edition of ART HK will include The Private Museum Forum, in which influential private museum owners and directors from across the world will come together to discuss shared goals and concerns, including how they might develop shared programmes in the same way that public museums frequently do. The Private Museum Forum debuted last year, but this time the fair has revealed that the VIP event will be complemented by a public session, in the hope of bringing the importance of the private museum to a wider audience.
Image: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the venue for ART HK 2012

Starkwhite at ART HK 2012

ART HK 2012 takes place next week in the city's convention and exhibition centre. This year we will present a solo show by Shanghai-based artist Jin Jiangbo. The show will include Rules of Nature, a landscape in the manner of traditional Chinese ink-and-wash painting, but staged as an interactive projection, and in an adjacent space we will present a suite of digital photographs from his recent Dialogue with Nature series. You can read our press release here.
Image: from Jin Jiangbo's Dialogue with Nature series, Starkwhite at ART HK, Booth 3C17, 17-20 May 2012

White Cube to open an outpost in Hong Kong

White Cube will be the latest major western gallery to open a branch in China according to the Financial Times. Scheduled to open in Hong Kong early next year, it will follow Gagosian's gallery launch there in January. A few years ago Hong Kong wasn't on the international art map, but recently it has emerged as a powerful new Asian art hub fueled by the rise of ART HK and a younger generation of Chinese tastemakers interested in buying Western art.

Magnus Renfrew on ART HK 11

Magnus Renfrew, director of ART HK 11, talks about the changing nature of the fair and the appetites of Chinese and Asia-Pacific collectors. Play video

Ai Weiwei's Marble Arm at ART HK

There is just one work by Ai Weiwei in the current edition of ART HK. Marble Arm can be viewed at the Galerie Urs Meile booth. The piece is on reserve, but the artistic director of Galerie Urs Meile has declined to reveal the buyer.

Image: Ai Weiwei's Marble Arm currently on display at the Galerie Urs Meile booth, ART HK 2011

ART HK 2011 launched

ART HK opened last night with a lively vernissage. Predictably, the direction the fair will take under its new owners was the subject of many conversations. The early signs are promising for those hoping the fair will retain its distinctive point of difference. Speaking by telephone from Switzerland, Art Basel co-director Marc Spiegler said: "We are not interested in copying and pasting the same fair on three locations. Along with the greater interest in China, we are looking at many rising markets from Australia and New Zealand, to Singapore and Indonesia. The Asian market is developing so quickly, it's hard to say what it will look like in five years." Read more...

ART HK and Art Basel join forces

Asian Art Fairs Ltd has announced a new development for ART HK - Hong Kong International Art Fair. MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel) Ltd, the organiser of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, will take a majority ownership in Asian Art Fairs Ltd.

Following ART HK later this month, next year's edition will take place from February 2 to 5 so that its timing fits better with the dates of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach. Next year's edition will remain under the show's current ART HK name, with Magnus Renfrew remaining as director. In the mid-term ART HK is to be integrated into the Art Basel brand as the third platform for the international art show.

Art HK and Art Basel to join forces?

The Art Newspaper reports that the increasingly blue-chip fair Art HK is in talks with Art Basel about a possible collaboration. Tim Etchells, one of the owners of ART HK, has confirmed that discussions are underway, but also says the fair has been approached by other people and that it's definitely not a done deal. 

Starkwhite in the lineup for ART HK 2011

We are pleased to announce that we will be returning to ART HK in 2011 (we were at the 2009 and 2010 editions of the fair). While we will continue to work with art fairs in Europe and the USA - over the past two years we've participated in Art Basel's Art Statements and Art Unlimited, The Armory Show, Art Cologne and Art Los Angeles Contemporary - we are also committed to working with the art fairs that are emerging in the Asia/Pacific region such as ART HK.

The lineup of galleries for ART HK 2011 includes: 1301PE, ARNDT, Beijing Commune, Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Blum & Poe, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, James Cohan Gallery, Sadie Coles HQ, CONTEMPORARY FINE ARTS, Gagosian Gallery, Gladstone Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Long March Space, Marian Goodman Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Sean Kelly Gallery, Kukje Gallery, Yvon Lambert, Kate MacGarry, Galerie Urs Meile, Victoria Miro Gallery, The Modern Institute, NANZUKA UNDERGROUND, ONE AND J Gallery, Pace Beijing, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sperone Westwater, Spruth Magers Berlin London, Vilma Gold Gallery, Vitamin Space, White Cube and David Zwirner.

ART HK is clearly on the rise. The third edition of Art HK in 2010 attracted 47,000 visitors (up from 30,000 the previous year) compared to 60,000 for Art Basel and The Armory Show and is expected to increase in 2011. The international visitor mix was reflected in the fair's VIP list, which included influential collectors from Australia, China, France, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and the USA, along with art museum directors and curators such as: 

Richard Armstrong, Director, Guggenheim Museum

Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg, Director, Los Angeles County Museum

Joseph Thompson, Director, MASS MoCA

Olga Viso, Director, Walker Art Center

Elizabeth Ann MacGregor, Director, MCA Sydney

Jock Reynolds, Director, Yale Art Gallery

Nigel Hurst, Director of the Saatchi Gallery, London

Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator, Guggenheim Museum

Maxwell Hearn, Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Shinji Kohmoto, Chief Curator, National Museum of Art, Kyoto

Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo

Yuike Kamiya, Chief Curator, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art

Barbara London, Associate Curator Museum of Modern Art

Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-director of Exhibitions, Serpentine Gallery  

Annette Schonholzer and Marc Spiegler, Co-directors, Art Basel

Image: Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre, venue for ART HK

ART HK on the rise

"Lots of people have their eye on Hong Kong - it is the best performing market and China's bonded warehouse", Iwan Wirth told the The Art Newspaper earlier this year. ART HK director Magnus Renfrew is rapidly establishing himself as one of the gatekeepers of this haven for tax-free art sales and this year takes 92nd place on The Power 100, ArtReview's guide to the general trends, networks and forces that shape the art world.

We presented John Reynolds' A Table of Dynasties at ART HK 2009 and a group show at ART HK 2010 and we'll be announcing our lineup for the 2011 edition of the fair in the New Year.

Image: Magnus Renfrew, director of ART HK

Asian art hubs

This link takes you to a Sydney Morning Herald article by John McDonald on the emergence of ART HK as a powerful new Asian art hub and what it means for Australia, and in particular for the Melbourne Art Fair and Australian collectors. 

Showcasing Hirst at ART HK

ARTRON.net reports that Hirst is still a major brand name in the East - where brand names are all-important. As any visitor to Hong Kong knows, the city-scape is awash with designer hoardings and Hirst is one of the names, along with Warhol and Picasso, that rings the right bells for new Asian buyers.

At this year's edition of ART HK, White Cube capitalised on the Asian fascination with brands by showing Hirst's work in a "special project stand", separate to their main booth, dominated by a fluttering dove in formaldehyde, The Inescapable Truth (2005). According to director Tim Marlow, this is the first time any formaldehyde work has been shown in Asia and by the end of the first day it had been sold to an Asian collector for £1.75m. 

This link takes you to an article on ART HK and more on White Cube's strategy to showcase Hirst at the fair.

Images: White Cube's special project stand at ART HK 2010

ART HK: Day 2

ART HK Vernissage

The third edition of ART HK opened last night with a preview followed by a lively vernissage. Over 10,000 people poured into the event over a few hours fueling predictions that the fair will easily beat last years record attendance of just over 30,000 visitors. With many galleries reporting good sales on the first night, Art HK appears to be off to a good start.