Launched on Thursday, Art021 Hong Kong marks the entry of the city’s newest international art fair franchise into an already crowded market. Organizers tell Amy Mullins that their focus is on enhancing HK’s stature as a global cultural hub.
For many years, Hong Kong was perceived as a cultural wasteland. The success of high-profile, multinational art-fair brands — Art Basel, Art Central and Affordable Art Fair — in the city has put paid to such cynicism, validating Hong Kong’s role as an international hub of contemporary art.
While institutes like Tai Kwun — the former police headquarters turned heritage and arts compound — and the M+ museum are at the forefront of the city’s thriving contemporary art scene, auction giants Sotheby’s and Christie’s are opening new high-specification, design-forward showrooms to cash in on the obvious interest from local and overseas buyers. Sotheby’s Maison opened in Chater House in July, and Christie’s new space in the Zaha Hadid-designed The Henderson is due in September.
All this begs the question: Does Hong Kong really need another art fair?
READ MORE: Art021 forges links with the Global South in Hong Kong
“We believe that Hong Kong has the potential to host a vibrant art week in the second half of the year,” says Art021 Group co-founder David Chau. On Thursday, the company launched the inaugural Art021 Hong Kong (Art021HK) at different venues across the city. According to Chau, Art021HK stands out from the rest. He says the fair “seeks to break away from the many established formats and bring a fresh and innovative set of art events to Hong Kong, while hoping to raise the visibility of contemporary art in the Sinophone community”.
Giving emerging artists a voice
Art021 is the first art fair brand from the Chinese mainland to start a Hong Kong edition. Founded in Shanghai in 2013, the brand has a mandate to showcase contemporary art from around the globe, with a focus on West Asia, South Asia and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The range stretches wide enough to include the alternating stripes-patterned geometric wall-mounted installations by Daniel Buren represented by Mennour Gallery in Paris as well as Liu Bing’s (Arch Gallery, Changsha, Hunan province) two-dimensional, naive-style paintings exploring the relationship between humans and nature.
Art021HK also aims to raise Hong Kong’s stature as a cultural hub for the Global South. The brand is prepared to act on its ambition to engage with art from the world’s emerging regions and give their creators a voice on the global stage.
Some of the most engaging works in Art021HK are by artists with roots in West Asia. For instance, Teheran’s Dastan Gallery has curated a series titled One Thousand and One Nights, inspired by the well-known Middle-Eastern folktales. Featured artists include Iranian-American Tala Madani, Teheran-born painters Farrokh Mahdavi and Pooya Aryanpour, and painter Alia Ahmad from Saudi Arabia. Teheran-born Amir H Fallah, represented by Gallery All of Los Angeles, where the artist now lives, displays his interest in the themes of displacement and cultural hybridity.
This being the maiden edition of the fair, participating galleries are more keen “to establish good connections with the local collectors” rather than focusing on sales, says Summer Sun, director of the Shanghai-based Rén Space gallery.
“We do not have a traditional permanent gallery space like many others. That gives us an edge to showcase art and creativity in an unconventional capacity, especially in this digital age, where the potential is seemingly endless,” says Hamida Ha, chief operations officer of 3125c Galleria. The online platform deals in art, fashion, film and music, and is created by entrepreneurs of whom many have Chinese roots but are based in different corners of the globe. Ha says 3125c Galleria’s participation in Art021HK is “aimed at providing a nurturing space to connect artists and audience, and organically grow the community”.
Greater Bay Area showcase
A significant component of Art021HK is the first-ever GBA Art Week. The event is aimed at stoking collaboration between the art market in Hong Kong and art communities located within the GBA. Chau expects art tourism between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong to get a boost as a result.
Among the 40-plus galleries participating in the GBA Art Week are Lan Gallery and Pingshan Art Museum from Shenzhen and Hong Kong’s WKM Gallery and Tang Contemporary Art. WKM is hosting Japanese artist Megumi Shinozaki’s first solo exhibition, Meridiem, in Hong Kong to mark the occasion. The display features a series of installations in which handmade paper flowers are combined with their fresh-cut natural counterparts. “These two contrasting approaches — one that makes use of paper to create eternal blossoms, and the other a tribute to the ephemerality of the natural cycle of life — together represent the central theme of Shinozaki’s practice,” says WKM Gallery founder, William Kayne Mukai.
Art021HK’s Expansion section seeks to broaden the scope for conceptual art projects by encouraging visitors to engage with both the artworks as well as the venue. The Fringe Club, a Grade-1 heritage building, serves as the location for art exhibitions, talks as well as live performances. Curated by Zheng Shengtian, Art Dialogues Between China, Mexico and the Global South (1952-1973), features Li Binyuan’s immersive The Long Farewell, which combines sculpture and interactive video installations to interrogate the layers of human existence.
“By showcasing rare archives, including exhibition catalogues, photographs and videos, the exhibition unravels the history of cultural exchange,” says Chau.
A selection of experimental video works by both emerging and well-established artists, including Yang Fudong and Qiu Anxiong from the Chinese mainland and acclaimed Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul screen in the Videos section, displaying the constantly shifting concepts and practices adopted by artists working in the audio-visual medium.
Art in the park
Art021HK has partnered with unconventional venues for its public art showcase. Between them, the central lawn of Victoria Park and the Fringe Club rooftop serve as the location for 10 public art pieces. Chau says he wanted to “reach a broader audience while creating a vibrant atmosphere for art appreciation in Hong Kong by integrating art into everyday life”.
The stellar lineup includes the American sculptor Joy Brown and the Beijing-born Shang Liang, both represented by Shanghai’s Mao Space. The latter’s work seeks to reinterpret the human body by imagining it taking the shape of everyday objects. Installed in Victoria Park, Li Chen’s 198-centimeter sculpture Ephemeral Beauty, brought to Art021HK by Asia Art Center, shows a black stone figure engaged in spiritual contemplation. Camille Henrot’s (Mennour, Paris) bronze piece explores the tension between humans and the environment.
The top draw at Victoria Park, however, might be an edition of Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE — Red Outside Violet Inside (1966-99) series. The famous stacked letters first appeared in a Christmas card released by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965, and then, in 1970, as a corten steel sculpture in Indianapolis. The image has been reinterpreted in Hebrew, Spanish and Italian, and different iterations of the sculpture have graced public spaces in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Türkiye, South Korea, Japan and India among other countries.
ALSO READ: Better than fair
For over half a century, the iconic artwork has “evolved into a symbol of peace, unity, and the enduring power of love”, says a spokesperson from the multinational Pace Gallery, which represents the artist. “By presenting a piece from the artist’s early series, Art021HK provides a window into the genesis of Indiana’s visionary artistry.”
If you go
Art021 Hong Kong
Date: Through Sept 8
Venues:
1. Phillips Asia headquarters, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, Kowloon
2. Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty
3. Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central
4. Victoria Park, Causeway Bay
5. Various venues across different cities in the Greater Bay Area
