For those not always in their midst in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore or elsewhere in Asia, Art Basel Hong Kong is an annual chance to visit galleries whose programs don’t always reach beyond the region.
Magician Space (booth 1C27), whose Beijing location has just doubled in size, will show nine artists with a slant towards painting and sculpture (one might notice how the younger sculptors’ work compares with Ai Weiwei’s). Look out for subtle works by Liu Chuang and Yu Honglei; Yu will also feature alongside his wife Guan Xiao (who just opened a solo exhibition at the CAPC MoCA in Bordeaux) at Antenna Space in the Insights section (booth 3D20).
Abstraction will likely prevail in 3C07, where Beijing Commune will include popular formalists Xie Molin, Wang Guangle and Shang Yixin, with a possible injection of humour from Song Ta. For a beautiful color gradient, head to Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery to see Zhang Xuerui (3D11).
Leo Xu Projects (3C04) is taking Li Qing to the fair, and is also hosting the offsite exhibition “The Mud of Compound Experience” with the excellent Dublin gallery Mother’s Tankstation at 98 Apliu Street, Kowloon. MTS’s booth (1B25) at the fair includes Cui Jie, the first Chinese artist to be represented by the gallery.
In addition to its booth 1D25, Galerie Urs Meile is showing Cheng Ran’s much-lauded new work “In Course of the Miraculous” at K11 (its first screening in Asia – spoiler alert: 9 hours) and “Letter 249″ as part of the Film section. Also in Film, Shanghai gallery Aike Dellarco (soon to open a West Bund space) will show identity-focused video by Tao Hui.
Ink Studio, who showed contemporary master Zheng Chongbin at The Armory Show this year in New York, is taking recent works by Li Huansheng to Hong Kong (3D31). Some of the grid paintings coming to Basel were also part of “Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2013. Also at Basel with a solo show, Galerie du Monde (booth 3D26) will have Stella Zhang’s hybrid sculptural paintings and an installation from the 0-Viewpoint series, pulling no punches with regard to sexuality and its connotations.
Mainland mainstay ShanghART (1C17) is having a group exhibition for the fair, to include well-rooted names such as Ding Yi, Geng Jianyi, Zhang Enli and Yang Fudong alongside newer ones like the photographer-pair Birdhead. Pearl Lam, too, is bringing multiple artists to booth 1D15, of course not without Zhu Jinshi and Su Xiaobai. Always strong for painters, Platform China (1B21) will show 17 artists, among them the unrestrained storyteller Ma Ke, master of melancholy Jia Aili and Zhao Zhao, who recently seems to have turned towards painting and away from sculpture and installation. For those of a different sensibility, see Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery (1C07), which will feature uber-kitsch figurative sculptures by Michael Parekowhai.
At Arario in 1D26, don’t miss works by Shanghai-based conceptual artist Gao Lei, who will also feature in White Space’s display at 1B11–the gallery invariably curates a good combination of works at Basel.
Also one for striking booth arrangements, Edouard Malingue will this year combine the works of Wang Wei, Ko Sin Tung, Yuan Yuan, Jeremy Everett and Wong Ping under the banner of “intimacy”—fitting indeed for an art fair (booth 3C09).
Chen Qiulin, who featured in A Thousand Plateaus‘ booth las year, will be back again in 2016 with photographer Li Lang and ink painter Wang Chuan (3D28); Chen is also part of the Film section.
Long-standing Hong Kong gallery Osage, which can be relied upon for a strong show during Basel week, has a foot in both the Encounters and Insights sections this year with Au Hoi Lam (3D21), Roberto Chabet (1E03) and Tintin Wulia (3E14). Also in Encounters will be Kukje gallery artist Kyungah Ham with the tapestry series Chandeliers for Five Cities (2014-2015), in which opulent imagery should cause suspicion. Singapore’s articulate, project-driven print institute STPI will feature Shirazeh Houshiary, Jane Lee, Do Ho Suh & Haegue Yang (1B30).
