ART HK becomes Art Basel Hong Kong but retains Asia focus

Posted on 15/01/2013



Art Basel, which bought a 60 percent share in ART HK in 2011, has announced the line up and outlook for the 2013 edition of the fair, newly dubbed Art Basel Hong Kong.

Aside from a name change, other significant alterations to Asia’s premier art fair include a reduced gallery list, revamped exhibition sections and an Asian gallery representation that is marginally higher than in 2012.

Magnus Renfrew, Asia Director, Art Basel. © Art Basel 2012.

Magnus Renfrew, Asia Director, Art Basel. © Art Basel 2012.

There are 124 galleries that operate in Asia exhibiting in the 2013 edition of the Hong Kong fair, which is approximately 50 percent of the total exhibitor number.

The majority of these art spaces are in East Asia (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan), although there is a strong contingent from Southeast Asia (Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia), India and Turkey. The Middle East is represented by one Dubai-based gallery and another gallery has a branch in Pakistan.

The Asia galleries list:

A total of 245 galleries will be attending Art Basel Hong Kong in 2013, with representation from 35 countries and territories in Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. Click here for the full list of exhibiting galleries on the Art Basel Hong Kong website.

According to the fair organisers, the event “will be presented across four sectors: Galleries, Insights, Discoveries and Encounters”.

Galleries, the main sector of Art Basel’s Hong Kong edition, will present 171 Modern and contemporary art galleries … with a strong presence by Modern art galleries.

 

The Insights sector, sited at the heart of both floor levels, will present 47 galleries from Asia and the Asia-Pacific region with curatorial projects developed specifically for the show.

 

The Discoveries sector will present a particularly strong showcase of solo and two-person exhibitions by emerging contemporary artists from across the world with an accompanying USD25,000 Discoveries prize, which will be awarded to one artist presented within this sector.

 

The Encounters sector will provide visitors with the opportunity to see artworks on an institutional scale, presenting large-scale sculptural and installation pieces by leading artists from around the world, sited in prominent locations throughout the two exhibition halls. Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo and curator of Sharjah Biennial 11, will curate the sector in 2013.

Former ART HK director Magnus Renfrew stays on with the fair as Asia Director for Art Basel, and for him, the “most important thing that Art Basel brings is increased international profile.”

Art Basel Hong Kong will take place Thursday 23 May to Sunday 26 May 2013 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).

KN/HH

Brush up on former editions of the fair. Review our extensive coverage of ART HK 12 here and ART HK 11 here. Browse through all our ART HK coverage, going right back to 2009, here.

Related Topics: art fairs, Hong Kong art events, market watch – galleries

Related Posts:

Subscribe to Art Radar for more on art fairs in Asia

This entry was posted in Classic/Contemporary, Connecting Asia to itself, Fairs, Galleries, Globalisation, Globalisation of art, Hong Kong, Promoting art and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>