Art Basel Hong Kong 2022 welcomes 130 leading galleries from 28 countries, that participate in three sections: Galleries, Insights, and Discoveries. This event is a hybrid fair, which makes it possible to display works either online or ‘in-person’. Online Viewing Rooms is also dedicated to those who cannot attend physically. Art Basel Hong Kong 2022 will be on view from May 27 through 29, 2022.
One of the major works in this fair is Ellen Pau’s new site-specific moving image work, entitled ‘The Shape of Light,’ which was co-commissioned by Art Basel and M+. This work is transforming light into digital objects, featuring a story in Mahayana Buddhism “The Heart Sutra”. The sutra is visualized in sign language, the ritualistic video on the concept of ‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form’, and awesome computer-generated animation of natural elements, such as fire, water, and light.
The Artist Tram Project will also enliven Art Basel Hong Kong 2022 by inviting Hong Kong artists, such as Cherie Cheuk Ka-wai, Stephen Wong Chun-hei, and Shum Kwan-yi to project their works on the Hong Kong trams’ bodies. Their works are like moving paintings of the city’s landscape and everyday scenes, that deal with the public and the artists’ memories of Hong Kong.
As a hybrid fair, Art Basel Hong Kong will also present in Online Viewing Rooms (OVRs), live-streamed videos, virtual tours, and multilingual VIP as well as public walkthroughs. The online platform allows local and international audiences to enjoy the exhibition.
The fair also displays six large-scale installations, among them are: free-formed work by Hsu Yunghsu presented by Liang Gallery; ‘Birth of Black Holes, Birth of Geology, Birth of Water’ by Beijing based artist Bingyi, presented by Ink Studio; and 40-channel speaker system installation sounding the heartbeat of artist GayBird, presented by Hanart TZ Gallery.
The film Programme screens 15 films by and about the artists, at Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre. Among these films, eight films explore the artists’ interpretations of physical and mental mobility from the late-70s to today.
The fair does not only highlight remarkable art projects and works from 1900 to the present, but also works from emerging artists. The audience can browse the emerging artists in the Discoveries section. Here are some of them:
In Art Basel Hong Kong 2022, Château Shatto Gallery presents Jonny Negron’s new paintings inspired by tarot decks, arcana, and archetypal myth. Negron’s paintings are mesmerizing, dominated by blue-violet and dark purple.
For Art Basel Hong Kong 2022, Southard Reid presents Celia Hempton’s paintings, which are part of the artist’s Surveillance series, which began in 2016. Each title of the painting refers to the precise location and date of the original stream from live video feeds of the freely accessible website Insecam. Hempton’s paintings suggest the intimate but lonely feeling of digital surveillance.
Cisco Jimenez combines geological-looking formations and retro artifacts, such as boomboxes, record players, magnetic tapes, and radio recorders. The result is natural, techno, and the landscape vibes in a painting. Jimenez’s paintings symbolize the tension between extinguished civilization and the future.