On October 22, amid a slew of event cancellations as anti-government protests continue to erupt periodically across the city, Art Basel Hong Kong announced the galleries taking part in the fair’s 2020 edition. Slated to take place from March 19–21, the eighth Art Basel Hong Kong will feature 242 galleries—the same number as in 2019—from 31 countries and territories, marking a slight decline from the 35 international locales represented the year before. Newcomers making their debut in 2020 include Bangkok CityCity Gallery; Fine Arts, Sydney; Green Art Gallery (Dubai); P21 (Seoul); Konrad Fischer Galerie (Düsseldorf / Berlin); David Lewis (New York); Jessica Silverman Gallery (San Francisco); Park View / Paul Soto (Los Angeles); Southard Reid (London); and Galerie Gregor Staiger (Zurich).
The majority of the exhibitors will present works in the Galleries sector, across the two floors of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. The sector’s 196 booths were selected by a committee comprising Massimo De Carlo (of the eponymous gallery, in Milan, London, and Hong Kong); Emi Eu, director of STPI – Creative Workshop and Gallery, in Singapore; David Maupin, co-founder of Lehmann Maupin (New York / Hong Kong / Seoul); Urs Meile of Galerie Urs Meile (Beijing / Lucerne); Atsuko Ninagawa from Take Ninagawa, in Tokyo; Bo Young Song, managing director of Kukje Gallery (Seoul / Busan); and Zhang Wei of Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou). Meanwhile, Insights, dedicated to thematic exhibitions about artists from Asia, will include 21 presentations, and Discoveries, featuring emerging artists, will spotlight 25 galleries. The panel of gallerists who advised on these two sectors includes: Vanessa Carlos, director of Carlos / Ishikawa, London; Jun Tirtadji, the founder of ROH Projects, Jakarta; and Simon Wang of Antenna Space, Shanghai.
As in previous years, Encounters, which highlights large-scale installations, will be curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, executive director of Artspace, Sydney. Curator and artist Li Zhenhua will assemble the Film program, and writer and editor Stephanie Bailey will organize talks for Conversation. Details for these sectors, as well as for Kabinett, which comprises art-historically driven exhibitions attached to gallery booths, are forthcoming.
Marking the 50th anniversary of Art Basel—established in Switzerland, and with additional editions launched in 2002 in Miami Beach and Hong Kong in 2013—will be a special project overseen by Berlin-based curator Kasper König, and staged across all three fairs. The Hong Kong presentation will be curated by Christina Li.
The list of galleries for Art Basel Hong Kong 2020 can be found here.
Chloe Chu is the managing editor of ArtAsiaPacific.
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