A crowded Art Basel Hong Kong has begun, following the inaugural Gallery Weekend in Beijing and numerous private museum events in Shanghai. It seems Hong Kong is expanding to the Mainland and the international art bedouin are unfazed by airport deserts and airline desserts.
Art Central opened Monday evening and Art Basel on a Tuesday – so the start of the week is the new weekend. Initial sales reports have been positive with few grumbles (there are always some).
Encounters, Hong Kong’s version of Art Unlimited, is strong but doesn’t upset the general art show milieu – it’s still not Art Unlimited, and that’s a pity because Hong Kong needs some big thinking (even if its apartments are too small for it).
Not for the first time the bejewelled Pedder Building looks increasingly tarnished by its loony rents (even Abercrombie & Fitch have moved out) and sometimes bland exhibitions (there was a ho-hum Urs Fishcer show at Gagosian – why?).
But Do Ho Suh at Lehmann Maupin is great – a virtual reality tour of London by its new resident Korean master. Meanwhile, across the road, are a small but perfect Otto Boll show at Axel Vervoordt and a very good painting Qiu Xiaofei show at Pace. Also not to be missed – Theaster Gates at White Cube and Tatiana Trouvé at Galerie Perrotin. (More on this soon)
But everyone is looking to Wong Chuk Hang, where even de Sarthe Gallery has recently relocated (even more on this soon too!).
PARK BENCH
Michael Parekowhai at Encounters
Pawel Althamer “The Power of Now” 2016 at neugerriemschneider
Wang Xin at DeSarthe Gallery (EVERYONE’s an artist now)
PAINTING
Cui Jie at mother’s tankstation (Dublin)
Eddie Martinez at Mitchell-Innes & Nash (New York)
Katharina Grosse at Encounters (König Galerie)
Xie Molin at Beijing Commune
Warhol and Brancusi at Paul Kasmin
ARTISTS AT AN EXHIBITION
Christo at Galerie Gmurzynska
Jiang Pengyi, Karen Smith and Chen Wei, in front of Chen Wei’s work, at Blindspot (Hong Kong)
Zhao Zhao at OSAGE Gallery
Dinh Q. Le at P.P.O.W.
Liu Kuo-song with Dr Jay Xu, Director of Asian Art Museum San Francisco (Galerie du Monde)
Gordon Cheung at Alan Cristea (London)
VIDEO FOR EVERYONE
Jiang Zhi at OSAGE
Li Bingyuan at Yang Gallery
SCULPTURE
Christo at Galerie Gmurzynska
Liu Shiyuan at White Space (Beijing)
Zhao Zhao solo show at Tang Contemporary
Joyce Ho at TKG+
Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler and Antenna Space
Gonkar Gyatso at Encounters, Pearl Lam Galleries
Aaron Curry at Almine Rech Gallery
George Rickey at Marlborough (London)
Tadashi Kawamata at Annely Juda (London)
Rirkrit Tiravanija and Alicja Kwade at Encounters
Meuser at Galerie Gisela Capitain (Cologne & Berlin)
Daniel Steegman Mangrané and Ryan Gander at Esther Schipper
Alicja Kwade and Jorinde Voigt (back) at König Galerie
PHOTOGRAPHY
Adrian Schiess at Galerie Nächst St. Stephen Rosemarie Schwarzwälder (Vienna)
LIGHT SHOW
Shinto Ohtake at S.T.P.I. (Singapore)
Kimsooja at Encounters (Kukje Gallery)