Art Basel Returns With The Fourth Edition Opening In Hong Kong

Art Basel opens today of its fourth edition in Hong Kong whose Lead Partner is UBS featuring 239 premier galleries from 35 countries and territories, presenting works of the highest quality that range from the Modern period of the early 20th century to the most contemporary artists of today. Art Basel will be a showcase for art from the region of Asia and Asia-Pacific, where half of its galleries have exhibition spaces. Art Basel stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary works, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. In addition to ambitious stands featuring leading galleries from around the globe, each show's singular exhibition sectors spotlight the latest developments in the visual arts, offering visitors new ideas and new inspiration.

Art Basel in Hong Kong will be open to the public from Thursday, March 24 to Saturday, March 26, 2016, and will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Alongside a strong presence of returning galleries from across the globe, this year’s edition features 28 galleries that will participate in the Hong Kong show of Art Basel for the first time. Nine new galleries join from Asia. The upcoming edition features a particularly strong representation of galleries with exhibition spaces in Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, in addition to those with spaces in Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The Insights sector will be dedicated to curatorial projects by 28 galleries with spaces in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region and will feature solo shows, exceptional historical material, and strong thematic group exhibitions. This year’s edition features a particularly strong presentation of Modern work, with around half of the galleries presenting material from this period. This year’s Insights will provide a particularly diverse and in-depth overview of art from across the region with featured artists from Australia, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Japan, Mainland China, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Turkey.

Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace in Sydney returns to curate the Encounters sector of Art Basel in Hong Kong for the second time, presenting 16 artworks by artists from 12 countries and territories: Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Mainland China, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The sector is a unique platform that transcends the traditional art fair stand, presenting large-scale sculptural installations and will feature work by Brook Andrew, Charles Avery, Hans Berg and Nathalie Djurberg, Roberto Chabet, Chen Zhen, Isa Genzken, Kyungah Ham, Arik Levy, Peter Liversidge, Richard Maloy, Tintin Wulia, Tromarama, Keiji Uematsu, Lawrence Weiner, Pae White and Zhang Ding.

The Discoveries sector will present its strongest showcase of emerging artists so far with solo- and two-person exhibitions presented by 24 galleries. For this year’s edition, five of the galleries will be completely new to the show, while another six return after a brief hiatus.

Last year saw the inaugural BMW Art Journey, a collaboration between BMW and Art Basel to support emerging artists, awarded to Hong Kong-based artist Samson Young (b. 1979). At the 2016 show in Hong Kong, first works from Samson Young’s project, ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Journey Into the Sonic History of Conflict' will be on view and the next shortlist for the BMW Art Journey will be announced.

The Encounters sector will show artworks on an institutional scale, presenting largescale sculptural installation pieces 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 for this edition to curate the sector for the second time. Further innformation on the works in the Encounters sector will be released in the coming months. 

The popular Film sector will return this year, and will once again be curated by Beijingand 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. The program will also be expanded to include feature-length and documentary films, with screenings taking place at the HKCEC for the first time. 

Conversations, the long-established morning program of talks and panel discussions offers audiences first-hand access to renowned cultural speakers and opinion-formers 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.

 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 future museum for visual culture, offering an associated program of events onsite and throughout the city that takes place during the week of the show.

For details, visit Art Basel Hong Kong 2016