While speculation continues over the effects of the economic slowdown in mainland China, the forecast looks better for the wider Asian art market at Art Basel in Hong Kong, which has its fourth edition this year. The fair is “still very much a 50-50 show” in its balance of Asian and Western galleries, says Adeline Ooi, Art Basel’s Asia director since January 2015. But its potential lies in the “wealth of material” from the continent that has yet to gain market exposure.
“The Asian market is quite young, and in terms of art history there’s so much out there that hasn’t been shared,” Ooi says. A number of Asian galleries are planning to present more historical works by artists from across Asia and the diaspora at this year’s fair.
In the Encounters section for large projects, Osage Gallery (Hong Kong and Shanghai) is showing Cargo and Decoy (1989/2010), an installation by the late Filipino conceptual artist Roberto Chabet that was inspired by his experience of the Second World War.
Solo booths of Asian artists in the main Galleries section include Eslite Gallery (Taipei) with the Chinese-American artist David Diao, Rossi & Rossi (London, Hong Kong) with the British-Pakistani artist Rasheed Araeen and, participating for the first time, the veteran Japanese dealer Galerie Nichido (Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Karuizawa, Kasama, Paris, Taipei) with Ryuzaburo Umehara, the 20th-century Western-style painter who studied under Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Yet there are almost twice as many Western as Asian newcomers on the 2016 exhibitor list. Among 239 galleries participating this year (six more than the last edition), 18 of the 28 newcomers are from Europe and the US, including Cardi Gallery (Milan, London), Xavier Hufkens (Brussels), Greene Naftali (New York) and David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles). Ooi says the change in dates from May to March last year “proved to us that this is the right time to hold the fair and made it possible for lots of galleries to join us”.
For dealers, the attraction of Hong Kong is also its significant international status. “It’s a prestigious fair and we wanted to be part of it,” says Selma Feriani (Sidi Bou Said) in the Discoveries section, the first African dealer based outside South Africa to participate in an Art Basel fair.
The local art scene “is becoming more and more international”, says Massimo de Carlo, who is due to open a space in Hong Kong during Art Basel with a show dedicated to the Franco-Chinese artist Yan Pei-Ming. “It is following a path that has been drawn ahead by the global market.”
• Art Basel in Hong Kong, Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Harbour Road, Hong Kong, 24-26 March
