10 Must-See Shows during Art Basel Hong Kong
Wolfgang Tillmans, Window Left Open, 2023. Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/Hong Kong; Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne; and Maureen Paley, London.
Izumi Kato, Untitled, 2023. ©2023 Izumi Kato. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
It’s less than a month before the Venice Biennale opens, but for now, the great and good of the art world is landing in Hong Kong for Art Basel. The fair is roaring back to its pre-2020 scale, with more than 240 galleries from 40 countries setting up booths—and collectors flocking in to snap up new acquisitions. While there, they’ll also find a litany of exhibitions and events that are taking place at the same time.
Within the city’s rich cultural scene, a few commercial galleries’ shows stand out, demonstrating the range and diversity of contemporary art shown in Hong Kong. Here, we select 10 not to miss.
Xiyadie, Fish on a chopping board, 2001. Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery.
Xiyadie, Train, 1986. Courtesy of the artist and Blindspot Gallery.
Xiyadie’s first solo exhibition at Blindspot Gallery focuses on paper cuttings dating back to the 1980s that trace important moments in the artist’s life, such as his first homosexual encounter with a train attendant during a ride to Xi’an, and the birth and eventual death of his son. “Butterfly Dream” draws its title from the artist’s pseudonym, which in Mandarin Chinese means “Siberian butterfly.” Following an exhibition of his work at New York’s Drawing Center last year, it is the largest presentation of Xiyadie’s work to date, involving more than 30 artworks that demonstrate the unique application of papercutting techniques that he learned from the women in his family.
Looking ahead, Xiyadie’s work will also be featured in the main exhibition of the 60th Venice Biennale, “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere,” which runs from April 20th to November 24th.
Wolfgang Tillmans, Ulaanbaatar Still Life, 2023. Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/Hong Kong; Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne; and Maureen Paley, London.
The second solo presentation by Wolfgang Tillmans at David Zwirner in Hong Kong draws together images that the artist captured in Addis Ababa; Berlin; Lagos; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Hong Kong; and Shenzhen, China. “The Point Is Matter” shows us Tillmans’s view of the world as he mines conceptual and social themes across decades, no matter where he looks through his lens, from quiet moments in his own studio or in snowy Mongolia, to starlight seen shimmering in the inky night sky.
The exhibition includes not only Tillmans’s photographs, but also a brand-new video work, only finalized when he was installing the show in Hong Kong. It features music composed by the artist that will be released as an album in late April.
Izumi Kato, Untitled, 2023. © 2023 Izumi Kato. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin.
Frequently described as embryonic, the figures in Izumi Kato’s artworks—with their bulbous heads and thousand-mile stare through bulging eyes—can come across as cute, unsettling, thought-provoking, or all of the above. The range of creations on view in Hong Kong appear to build off a series of sculptures displayed last year at Perrotin in Paris, with one painting showing one of Kato’s signature figures standing atop Mount Fuji, and others accompanied by animals that seem to have transparent skin.
Whether painting, drawing, or sculpture, Kato’s artworks continue to be adorably ominous, with just a hint of calamity coursing through them. The figures and their context are part of the artist’s visual language developed over two and a half decades, growing his cast of anonymous, otherworldly characters.
Lov-Lov—an “AI-like artist identity” developed by New York–based Lin Jingjing—leans deep into the uncanny valley. Their paintings show mirage-like scenes with bright, impactful hues filling the canvas, with geometric, imagined flora sparsely punctuating them. Elsewhere, in short video works lasting under a minute, artificially generated characters follow a script that sounds, semantically and syntactically, as if it were dreamed up by software, though in fact, they were composed using “a blend of existing materials.” Building upon the theme that “everything is unreal,” an installation sharing the exhibition’s title features sharp blades suspended above a reflective surface paving the gallery’s floor, a reference to humans’ automatic reactions to trauma and disaster.
This show at DE SARTHE raises interesting issues about how machines and software might take part in artmaking in the future, as well as the current, distinct aesthetic that consumer-friendly, easily usable AI tools imprint on their output.
Movana Chen, detail of Love Letters #13 (1997), 2023. © Movana Chen. Photo by Felix C Wong. Courtesy of Flowers Gallery.
Have you ever shredded a love letter? The peripatetic artist Movana Chen specializes in the act, having built an art practice using strips of paper from cut-up letters to create a paper “yarn” that she then knits into sculptures and costumes. Her latest body of work is being shown at Flowers during Art Basel Hong Kong, utilizing a collection of more than 180 pieces of correspondence that friends, family, and loved ones sent to her between 1989 and 2023. Each work is deeply personal and involves the artist revisiting the handwritten words of people who care about her. Think of this set of sculptures as a process to transform cherished memories into delicate pieces of art.
Notably, Chen’s work is also on view elsewhere in Hong Kong: at M+’s Focus Gallery; and as part of CHAT’s “Factory of Tomorrow” exhibition to mark the institution’s fifth anniversary.
Louise Giovanelli, Maenad, 2023. © DACS. Photo © White Cube (David Westwood). Courtesy of White Cube.
Louise Giovanelli, Maenad, 2023. © DACS. Photo © White Cube (David Westwood). Courtesy of White Cube.
A new set of works by Louise Giovanelli continues the artist’s use of painting as a means of representation, tightly cropping found photographs of paintings, sculptures, architecture, and other references. In the artworks showing at her current show at White Cube, a female figure is doubled, picture-in-picture, freezing moments of what appears to be ecstasy. There’s a strong theatrical element to these paintings by Giovanelli, who has an ongoing series of canvases showing curtains and drapes, priming viewers with the feeling of anticipation before a live performance starts.
“Here on Earth” is Giovanelli’s first solo exhibition in Asia. Her paintings are also being shown at He Art Museum in Foshan, a city near Hong Kong.
Renato Nicolodi, Domus Vacuitatis II, 2024. Courtesy of Axel Vervoordt Gallery.
Renato Nicolodi, UMBRACULUM II , 2024. Courtesy of Axel Vervoordt Gallery.
Belgian artist Renato Nicolodi is chiefly known for his architectural sculptures made using concrete. His second show at Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Hong Kong, “Concealment and Disclosure,” encompasses paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and a video. Nicolodi’s works draw inspiration from his own grandfather’s experience of being forced by Nazis to help build the Atlantic Wall, a defense system constructed along the coast of continental Europe during World War II. He taps into archetypical forms to create monumental constructions with recognizable architectural grammar. Even on first encounter, these empty constructs seem familiar, giving viewers the space to derive meaning for themselves.
In a first for the artist, Nicolodi has also created a video that lets the audience follow along a virtual walk through an architectural space, presenting yet another way to experience the universality of his architecture-inspired creations.
One of the more in-demand contemporary Chinese ink painters, Wucius Wong continues to deconstruct the medium in his signature style, by accentuating specific geometric elements in rolling hills and waterways. The results are otherworldly compositions that draw from centuries of Chinese tradition as well as Wong’s training in the West. His solo show at Alisan Fine Arts includes 16 works from four series developed from the 1980s to 2023—with motifs including land and sky, water scenes, city scenes, and calligraphy—showcasing Wong’s artistic progression through nearly four decades.
Wong is a key figure in the New Ink Movement, a group of artists in Hong Kong who, between the 1960s and ’80s, renewed traditional ink art by integrating modern techniques—the first artists to develop this distinct take on modernist painting in East Asia.
Kylie Manning Metronome, 2023. © Kylie Manning. Courtesy of Pace Gallery
Dreamy, theatrical, and delicate, these five large canvases and related works on paper by painter Kylie Manning were created after collaborating with Christopher Wheeldon for the New York City Ballet in 2023 to, as the choreographer put it, “form a dance within her world.” Manning’s brushstrokes capture motion and flux in that realm, with spectral figures emerging from chaotic, abstract scenes. Specifically, the artist’s sketches on paper were produced during the ballet company’s rehearsals, with each work named after a cast member: These works offer a glimpse of bodies conditioned for peak physical performance.
“Sea Change” was conceived as an evolving presentation through East Asia. Its iteration at Pace’s Hong Kong location is the second stop after Beijing’s X Museum. A third show will take place at Space K Seoul starting in August.
Maggi Hambling, About to Kiss, 2023. Courtesy of Pearl Lam Galleries.
Maggi Hambling, Sexy Dream I, 2023. Courtesy of Pearl Lam Galleries.
When Maggi Hambling was a teenager, she would stare out of her bedroom window at the night sky and paint what she saw. Drawing on this experience, as well as Chinese and Japanese ink paintings at the British Museum, “The Night” shows a new vision of this established artist’s practice in two new series of paintings, exploring moments of intimacy and the fleeting beauty of nighttime.
The presentation at Pearl Lam Galleries, named after a Rainer Maria Rilke poem, is Hambling’s first solo exhibition in Asia after her 2019 museum retrospectives at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts and the Guangdong Museum of Fine Art in Guangzhou.
