They say that sequels are never as good as the original. Wrong! The second edition of Art Basel Hong Kong seems to have outdone the first one in 2013, although the same number of participating galleries and the concept has been primarily the same.
In both editions of Art Basel Hong Kong, 245 galleries from 39 countries and more than 3,000 artists participated. Most of those galleries have spaces in Asia, including 24 in Hong Kong. But this year, for the first time, the program has included a segment dedicated to cinema, promoted by the Center for Arts in Hong Kong.
Marian Goodman Gallery.
Among the galleries, 171 exhibited modern and contemporary art, and 20 participated for the first time in Art Basel, including the Anna Schwartz Gallery, Applicat-Prazan, Brame & Lorenceau, the Franco Noero Galleria, the Hubert Winter Gallery, the Nikolaus Ruzicska Gallery, the Peter Kilchmann Gallery, gdm, the Gerhardsen Gerner Gallery, the Grieder Contemporary, Hammer Galleries, Mazzoleni GalleriaD’Arte, the Meessen De Clercq Gallery, the Meyer Riegger Gallery, the Michael Hoppen Gallery, Michael Lett Gallery, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, the Tokyo Gallery + BTAP and the Zach Feuer Gallery.
Grieder Contemporary.
A total of 47 galleries submitted projects of relevant artistic talent with works by artists from Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, India, Iraq, Japan, China, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. Among other noteworthy creators, we should mention the presence of the Saudi artist Ahmed Mater and Tatsuo Kawaguchi, one of the most influential Japanese conceptual artists of the postwar period.
Krinzinger Gallery.
Art Basel Hong Kong has become the benchmark of the art trade in Asia. In fact, even before the first Art Basel, Hong Kong already was third in the global art auction market after New York and London.
For 2015, Art Basel Hong Kong is planning to organize the event at an earlier date: until now, it has taken place in May, but starting next year the contemporary art event in Asia will be held in March. ■
