Design Miami—the fair that now shows alongside Art Basel in Miami and Switzerland—is likely to complete the set and launch in Hong Kong. Plans are at an early stage, with a fully-fledged fair penciled in for 2017 and a “presence” next year, according to Farris Bukhari, the communications manager for Design Miami. He confirms that at the moment the team behind the latest drive into Asia is the same as for the Miami and Basel fairs—headed by the director Rodman Primack. “Hong Kong has a huge design, fashion and technology scene, so it seems to be the perfect location for our fair,” Bukhari says.
In 2007, Design Miami and the Art Basel fairs were reportedly looking into branching out to Beijing, but Hong Kong has since proved more conducive to the international art trade. Bukhari says that the momentum built by Art Basel since its launch in Hong Kong in 2013 has been encouraging.
Meanwhile, the Art Basel fair is set to clash with Easter in 2016 (Good Friday is 25 March and the fair’s public dates are 24 to 26 March). Marc Spiegler, the director of Art Basel, says that while the timing is “not ideal”, the fair’s VIP days will be earlier in the week (beginning on Tuesday 22 March, and for longer than the three hour evening session held at this year’s event), meaning that many visitors and dealers from outside Asia could make it back home for the holiday period.
