Visitors to ART HK 10 in front of a work by H. C. Berg. Courtesy Galerie Forsblom. Photo: © Ron Yue
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ART HK 10. James Cohan Gallery. Yinka Shonibare. Woman on Flying Machine, 2008. Courtesy ART HK
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ART HK 10. Ota Fine Arts. Yayoi Kusama. Pumpkin, 2010. Courtesy ART HK
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ART HK 10, Rirkrit Tiravanija installation. Courtesy ART HK
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ART HK 10. Marianne Boesky Gallery. Yoshitomo Nara. Rock 'n Roll the Roll, 2009. Courtesy ART HK
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ART HK 10, Keitai Girl Performance. Courtesy ART HK
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Last year was already spectacular, with big names like White Cube, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth or Emmanuel Perrotin taking part, all of which will be at ART HK 11 as well. Among this year’s new participants are influential galleries such as Sadie Coles HQ and Victoria Miro of London, as well as New Delhi’s Nature Morte. All in all, more than 160 galleries from 30 countries are represented at Hong Kong’s Covention and Exhibition Centre. No doubt, the ART HK has established itself within a very short time as Asia’s most important art fair and as a platform for contemporary positions. The standing of the fair is further underscored by the news that the owners of the Art Basel and Art Basel/Miami Beach have acquired the majority of the shares of ART HK’s operating company.
>From early on, Deutsche Bank has been convinced of the fair’s potential. The positive mood during the first two years, created in part through fair director Magnus Renfrew’s versatile accompanying program, was so overwhelming that Deutsche Bank decided to support the fair as its Lead Sponsor. The fair strongly promotes the mediation and interpretation of art, with numerous talks and lectures by international artists, curators, and collectors. The number of visitors testifies to ART HK’s appeal to a wider public, with its emphasis on contemporary art. Over 46,000 fans flocked to ART HK 10 in the spacious Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Deutsche Bank also had a presentation, showing contemporary photography from the corporate collection in its lounge, and, concurrently at the local Goethe-Institute, an exhibition of two photographers who are also part of the collection.
This year, Deutsche Bank is again represented at the fair with a lounge. Under the title Brand new perspectives, it presents a selection of works that were acquired for the Deutsche Bank Collection Hong Kong. Since fall 2010, they have been on display in the new interiors of the bank at the International Commerce Centre, the booming city’s highest building at 484 m (1,588 ft). With a mix of contemporary and traditional media – ranging from modern computer animations to drawings that appear almost calligraphic – 40 young and aspiring artists, as well as some renowed ones, from China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong convey their views of different realities of life at the beginning of the new millennium. In the lounge, works of artists such as Anothermountainman, Cao Fei or Yuan Shun are on display. The collaboration with the Goethe-Institute is also continued: Here, Deutsche Bank presents an exhibition of the two youngest artists of the Hong Kong collection. Urban Utopia - If and only if shows works by Ho Sin Tung (*1986) and Tang Kwok Hin (*1983), both of whom belong to the most interesting talents of Hong Kong’s art scene.
As the most important economic hub of the global market, Asia has also become a vibrant experimental ground for cultural production. This is also documented by the swift success of the ART HK which not only attracts numerous important collectors but also the global players of the art scene. And with its new section ASIA ONE, ART HK 11 now does even more justice to Asia’s prominence as a site of art production: Asian galleries are each featuring one artist from the region. ART FUTURES is another major contribution to the fair’s quality. Since 2010, this section has given young galleries a forum for presenting exciting newcomers. The most promising artist of this section will be awarded the ART FUTURES prize, which Shahzia Sikander won in 2010. The Pakistani American artist is represented in the Deutsche Bank Collection with several works on paper.
In Hong Kong, the development of the West Kowloon Cultural District will be advanced further. Lars Nittve, founding director of the Tate Modern, is now in charge of the long-planned M+ Museum for visual arts. As an accomplished specialist, he is bound to bring the project to a successful conclusion. Moreover, the city has become one of the most important trading places for art, besides New York and London. This is also evinced by the opening of the new Gagosian Gallery. Hong Kong, it seems, is on the fast track to become one of the new global art capitals.
ART HK 11
26–29 May 2011
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Urban Utopia - If and only if
May 5 – July 2, 2011
Goethe-Galerie, Goethe-Institute Hong Kong
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