Art HK Showcases World's Best Works
By admin on 2015-01-12

The Hong Kong International Art Fair, or Art HK 10, has increased to include 154 galleries from 29 countries in its third year, affirming its position as the leading modern and contemporary art fair in Asia.

The fair is hoping to see the sales of such works as Andy Warhol's Myths, the event's most valuable item, with an estimating price tag of $12 million and Picasso's 1936 portrait of Marie Therese, brought by Gagosian Gallery.

Opening to the public at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center Thursday, the four-day fair has already attracted a mix of international collectors, curators, museum directors and visitors.

Among the exhibitors this year are an array of notable names such as White Cube, Ben Brown Fine Arts from London, Sperone Westwater, Lehmann Maupin from New York and Hauser & Wirth from Zurich. These galleries have brought high profile works by the likes of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Jim Lamie, to name but a few.

"What is so interesting about ART HK is that it brings top galleries from all over the world into Hong Kong to give collectors, particularly new collectors, a chance to get exposure to works from international galleries," commented Richard Chang, a collector based in Beijing and New York. "At the same time, it also gives local galleries that normally would not have a chance to show at other art fairs in Europe or in the United States a chance to show a lot of global talent."

Fair Director Magnus Renfrew explained that the inclusion of a diverse range of works is also what sets Art HK apart.

"In the West, many of art fairs have been focused on the Western galleries and the work primarily from a Western cultural background. We felt that it was very necessary to try to create an art fair that reflects the new world order and reflects the diversity of the work been produced today, " Renfrew said.

For this year's fair, roughly 65 percent of the galleries are from Asia, including 22 from the Chinese mainland, 18 from Hong Kong and four from Taiwan. Long March Space from Beijing, bringing 20 art works, is new to the fair this year.

"Although Contemporary art in Hong Kong is not as diversified as that of Beijing, the city has a dominant position in the art market in Asia Pacific," said Li Danqing, sales manager at Long March Space. "The fact that the city is geographically positioned at the heart of Asia and it has no restrictions including taxes on the import or export of art, combined with its long history of art collection and the advantage of language are the reasons why Hong Kong has emerged as Asia's primary destination for art."

The fair also features diverse solo presentations from a number of the world's most respected contemporary artists. Highlights include Chinese artist Liu Ye for Sperone Westwater, Japanese artists Yoshitomo Nara for Marianne Boesky and Aya Takano for Emmanuel Perrotin and acclaimed Glasgow artist Jim Lambie for The Modern Institute.

Chinese contemporary artist Liu Ye, whose painting Bright Road sold for a record $2.45 million at Sotheby's in April, is leading an exciting lineup of contemporary Chinese art. Within one hour of the collector's preview opening, five out of Liu's 13 works were bought by collectors from China, Europe, the US and Singapore. The organizer told the Global Times that Liu's painting Teresa Teng, one of the five sold works, fetched at least $120,000.

"The essence of contemporary art is to lead you to think about the questions that you normally would not think about," Liu said. "My works are a thorough exploration of innocent and beauty."

Apart from showcasing some of the world's best modern and contemporary art, the fair will also hold panel discussions, debates and educational events to discuss trends and its collection.

Renfrew said that the future is very exciting for China's art market in the long term.

"It is still a very early stage for the market, but we are seeing these big changes beginning to happen," he commented. "Many collectors started their collections in collect-ing traditional materials."

"As taste developed, people begin to be more adventurous, so we've seen the movement of people collecting 20th century figurative painting into contem-porary Chinese painting, Renfew continued. "A number of collectors buying Chinese contemporary art from an early age have now started to buy international contemporary art," he said.