1

SUE
IS
FREE
EVERY ○
DAY Download our FREE daily app

THE ART NEWSPAPER

Art Basel in Hong Kong: 27-28 March 2019

Self-censorship
on the rise as
Hong Kong grows
closer to China
Artists voice concern for Hong Kong’s
artistic landscape amid so-called
“mainlandification” of the SAR

F
ears are growing
over Hong Kong’s
artistic freedom
as China rolls out
its Greater Bay
Area integration
scheme. The con-
troversial plan aims to merge Hong
Kong and Macau—its fellow Special
Administrative Region (SAR)—with
nine nearby cities on the mainland
into a mega-hub, encompassing
around 68 million people with a
combined GDP of US$1.39 trillion.
China’s government considers
regional mega-cities as the next
step in urban development, with
the northern cities of Beijing and
Tianjin on their way to becom-
ing similarly lumped together.
Concurrently, Hongkongers nerv-
ously note how local newspapers
‘mainlandification’. There is an
influx of ‘red capital’, mainland
tourists and immigrants to Hong
Kong,” says Ko Siu Lan, a main-
land-born, Hong Kong-raised
artist now living in Hong Kong
and Canada. Her new interactive
performance at Art Central (until
31 March) uses prayer wheels to
question whether Hong Kong is or is
not China.
“Through Hong Kong authorities,
the Chinese government is also
extending its influence in the educa-
tion, legal and cultural system,” such
as Mandarin-language and patriotic
education, Ko says. In January, a
draft law was introduced by Hong
Kong’s Legislative Council that
criminalises “insulting” the Chinese
national anthem, for example.
Hong Kong still operates beyond

GHENIE’S TRUMP HEADS TO THE VENICE BIENNALE

increasingly refer to Hong Kong as a
city rather than a SAR.
Hong Kong’s chief executive
Carrie Lam has said that the inte-
gration scheme “will not, like some
people appear to fear, interfere with
the implementation of ‘one country,
two systems’ [the arrangement that
allows Hong Kong to have its own
laws and expires in 2047].”
Others are not convinced.
“It is an undeniable fact that
Hong Kong is undergoing rapid
the constraints of China’s “Great
Firewall”, which blocks many
Western (and Taiwanese) social
media platforms, news outlets and AS THE US and China prepare for another round of trade talks on 28 March, US president
search engines. Internet users’ Donald Trump is making an appearance at Art Basel in Hong Kong. Painted by the contempo-
evasion tactics via VPN are the
rary art star Adrian Ghenie, the portrait of the controversial statesman, Untitled (2019), is showing
subject of a work called Hardcore
Digital Detox (2018) by the New with Cluj- and Berlin-based Galeria Plan B, priced at €200,000. It will have its next public outing in
York- and Shanghai-based Chinese the artist’s solo exhibition at Palazzo Cini in Venice, which opens on 19 April, and will run during the
artist Miao Ying, which was Venice Biennale. An agreement to lend the work to the Italian museum is one of the conditions of its
recently commissioned by the hotly
sale, according to the gallery’s co-director, Mihaela Lutea. J.Mi.
 CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

INSIDE
Museum visits drop in Taipei as relations sour with China
GHENIE: © NORM YIP. HUANG: © HUANG HAI-HSIN; COURTESY OF CAPSULE SHANGHAI

The National Palace Museum in Taipei
has seen a significant decline in the
number of visitors since 2015, according
to The Art Newspaper’s latest attend-
ance figures survey. In 2007, when
we first began collating total museum
figures, the National Palace Museum
reported 2.2 million visitors a year. This
increased year-on-year to more than 5
The Chinese are steering clear of
Taipei’s National Palace museum
ARTWORK PULL-OUT
The atmosphere of an art fair is
million visitors in 2014 and 2015—more The former leader Ma Ying-jeou,
captured by
than doubling its attendance in just who was president from 2008 to 2016,
seven years. However, since then, the promoted much closer economic and Huang Hai-Hsin
museum has seen a steady decline to cultural ties to Beijing. The resulting in her new series
3.9 million people in 2018. A spokes- policies meant that attendance from Art Basel, on
man for the National Palace Museum China was higher as visitors travelled view on Capsule
attributes this drop to a cooling in to see the National Palace Museum’s Shanghai’s stand
relations between Taiwan and Beijing— collection of Chinese imperial artefacts, and reproduced
which claims the island off the coast of the spokesman says. But since Tsai
mainland China as part of its territory— came to power, “Chinese attendance
on our centre
after the election of Taiwan’s current declined”, he says. pages (pp16-17).
president Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. José da Silva

T HEART NEW SPAPER.COM / DOWNLOA D THE F R EE DA ILY A PP / @ THEA RTNEWSPAP ER / @ TH EARTN EWSPAP ER. OFFI CI AL
 2 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
BUYER’S GUIDE TO...
Egon Schiele
W
hile the name of Egon Schiele
(1890-1918) is well known in
the West, the work of this
major figure of Austrian Expressionism
is less recognised in Asia.
The London dealer Richard Nagy is
making a bold statement at Art Basel
Hong Kong with a booth of around 40
works solely devoted to Schiele. The
whole show, which includes many
works that are not for sale, is insured for
an eye-popping $100m.
Schiele’s work is intense and chal-
lenging, with a raw sexuality. The artist
was briefly imprisoned in his lifetime for
exhibiting his erotic drawings.
“Schiele explores the human
condition at the most elemental level,”
Nagy says. “There is generally no back-
ground… just a focus on the figure.”
This is a narrow market: firstly
because of the prices, which start at
$100,000+ and rise to $12m in Nagy’s
show; this hardly gives an opening to
young collectors. And secondly, because
of the need for connoisseurship to appre-
ciate many of his works—the delicacy
and tenderness of some drawings, but
also the angst and the physical tension.
Prices
The price index Art Market Research
has tracked auction results for Schiele
works, showing the explosion in prices
since 2000. In the period between 2000
and 2017, they grew by 1,122.9%.
“In the 1940s a Schiele could be
bought for just $20, and by the 1950s,
for $100,” says the leading authority
Jane Kallir, the author of the Schiele
catalogue raisonné, and the director of
New York’s Galerie Saint Etienne, which
was established by her grandfather Otto
in 1939.
The highest prices go to Schiele’s oils,
which are much rarer than works on
paper: the auction record is a stunning
Pitfalls
There are two issues of which collectors
must be aware. One is provenance:
some of Schiele’s work was looted in
the Second World War by the Nazis. It
is important to do due diligence in all
cases, consult the catalogue raisonné
and look carefully at who owned the
piece in the 1930s and 1940s.
In some cases, when a work is found
to have been looted, an arrangement
“Most fakes get weeded
out before they can
travel very far up
the food chain”
Egon Schiele: auction results in £ between 1976 and 2018
12 100
Bottom 25%—mostly works on paper (average auction sales in thousands)
10
80
Top 2% —mostly oil paintings (average auction sales in millions)
8
60
6
40
4
20
2
76
82
88
94
00
06
12
18
20
20
19
19
19
19
20
20
£24.7m ($39.82m), given at Sotheby’s “Schiele explores Above: Schiele’s
SOTHEBY’S PHOTO: STEPHEN CHUNG/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO. GRAPH: COURTESY OF ART MARKET RESEARCH 2018. ADELE: PRIVATE COLLECTION; COURTESY RICHARD NAGY LTD. GRAPH: COURTESY OF ART MARKET RESEARCH 2018
London in June 2011 for Häuser mit Adele (Seated
bunter Wäsche (Vorstadt II) (Houses the human condition Woman with
with laundry (Suburb II), 1914). It was
estimated at £22m-£30m, so sold within
at the most Crossed Legs)
(1917) on view at
its target (pre-sale estimates do not elemental level” Richard Nagy’s
include fees; results do). stand and,
But in 2017 there were two failures As for works on paper, the record right, Triestiner
of other large oils. Danaë (1909) was is for Liebespaar (Selbstdarstellung mit Fischerboot
withdrawn from sale at Sotheby’s New Wally) (Lovers, Self-portrait with Wally, (Trieste Fishing
York—its estimate of $30m-$40m was 1914 or 1915), which made £7.9m ($12.3m) Boat, 1912) selling
considered punchy for a work heavily at Sotheby’s London in 2013. for £10.7m at
influenced by Schiele’s teacher Gustav Nagy and Kallir agree that the main Sotheby’s London
Klimt. Another high-profile oil that failed problem in this market is supply, which in February
to sell was Einzelne Häuser (Häuser mit
Bergen) (Single houses (Houses with
is thinner than in the past. “There is no
way anyone today could put together a
Collectors
mountains, 1915), probably because the group such as that owned by the Leopold According to Jane Kallir: “There are
£20m-£30m estimate was too high. Museum in Vienna,” Kallir says. trophy collectors who only want A++
works, and this pushes some prices into
the stratosphere; as a result, the market
with the current owners can be made.
For example, in New York in November
generally have far less value than a work
entirely by Schiele.
is becoming bifurcated. At the lower end
of the Schiele market, there are some
2018, Sotheby’s offered a work that had The content of some of Schiele’s great bargains to be had by connoisseurs,
been stolen and, ultimately, restituted work, with brutal frontal nudity, might who have a deeper understanding of the
to the family of the original owners: seem challenging to public Asian artist.”
Dämmernde Stadt (Die kleine Stadt II) values. But Nagy says: “The Japanese As for Asian buying, Richard Nagy
(City in Twilight (The Small City II), 1913). have a vibrant tradition of shunga says he already has some Chinese
It made $24.6m. [erotic images] while at the same time collectors, “but barely a handful”.
The other pitfall could be behaving with decorum in public, so I However, at Sotheby’s London on
authenticity. There are cases of fakes on don’t see why other individual buyers 26 February, Triestiner Fischerboot
the market and Kallir says she sees about should be different… erotica has a (Trieste fishing boat, 1912) made an
one a week. “Fortunately, most fakes get universal appeal.” over-estimate £10.7m ($14m) and was
weeded out before they can travel very According to Nagy, the more underbid by Asians, according to the
far up the food chain, and the catalogue naturalistic and instantly recognisable auction house.
raisonné serves as a reliable safeguard,” works dating from 1917 and 1918 have Nagy is showing Schiele in Hong
she says. recently attracted high prices and some Kong because he is hoping to find new
There are also works that were
coloured after Schiele’s death by his
“trophy hunters”, although true Schiele
aficionados favour the more challenging
collectors for the work, and “because we
want to fly the flag for the artist”, he says.
brother-in-law Anton Peschka; these Expressionist works from 1910-12. Georgina Adam
09348_1902_CODE_1159_THE_ART_NEWSPAPER_279x432_ENG.indd 1 19/02/2019 10:28
 4 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
NEWS
China
Delayed Tank
Shanghai opens
The reborn oil tanks host shows by teamLab,
T
Adrián Villar Rojas and assorted Chinese artists
he five rotundas
of Tank Shanghai,
the much antic-
ipated private
museum of the
entrepreneur and
art collector Qiao
Zhibing, opened on 23 March with
a trio of exhibitions. The cluster
of converted oil tanks on the West
Bund waterfront of Shanghai’s
Huangpu river hosts a giant interac-
tive digital waterfall installation by
the Japanese multimedia collective
teamLab, a solo show for Argentina’s
Adrián Villar Rojas and a group exhi-
bition of mostly male Chinese artists
(until 24 August). A massive Theaster
Gates exhibition is in the works for
March 2020. “The space’s possibil-
ities are the museum’s specialty,”
Qiao says. “Artists like the space and
want to work with it.”
Qiao, who owns an upscale
karaoke club and a collection
including works by Martin Creed,
Olafur Eliasson and Zeng Fanzhi,
has been planning Tank (Youguan
Yishuzhongxin in Mandarin) for
more than four years. “When [the
state-backed development
group] West Bund started
seeking to install museums
here, they invited me, and I
chose the oil tank space,” he
recalls. “Construction started
in 2017, after a lot of prepa-
ration”, based on designs by
the Beijing-based firm Open
Architecture, which also
designed the dramatic new
seaside museum UCCA Dune.
Tank was expected to open last
November, but was delayed by a
government AI conference held in
West Bund spaces in September,
which shut down construction
for a month.
The museum’s buildings span
around 10,000 sq. m, of which Qiao
estimates that 60% can be used as
exhibition space. The rest of the
60,000 sq. m riverfront plot will be
"The space's
possibilities are the
museum's specialty.
Artists like the space"
public space administered by the
government, which could display
public art and sculpture. “I have no
other partners besides the govern-
ment, but they are just [managing]
the surrounding park area and have
nothing to do with the financing,”
Qiao says. “That all comes from me.
I don’t want to say how much, but it
was a lot of money.”
The three tanks closer to the
river are connected by a new
building, while two free-standing
tanks by the road will be used as
a clubhouse and space for special
events, Qiao says. He intends to
continue using the smaller Qiao
Space, housed in the West Bund
Art and Design Centre since 2015,
Tank Shanghai’s converted oil tanks on the West Bund cultural corridor will
house Qiao’s collection of Western and Chinese contemporary art
for projects such as the current
show of the Beijing-based artist
Liu Chuang (until 12 May).
Tank’s opening programme
reflects a long-term vision that is
“both Chinese and international,
and contemporary”, Qiao says.
Tickets for the teamLab installation
are priced at RMB120 ($18) due to
the production costs and likely pop-
ularity, but “otherwise I want tickets
to be more accessible”, he adds.
In the group show Under
Construction, Hu Xiaoyuan is the
only woman among 13 artists,
including Jia Aili, Zhang Xiaogang
and Xu Zhen. Qiao seems less
concerned with ensuring gender
parity in the artists he shows. “I
didn’t deliberately seek out female
artists. Actually, there are a lot of
good male artists in China; I could
do a show of 30 male artists I know
with no problem.”
The exhibition was initially
organised by the Beijing-based
curator and critic Li Bowen, who
left the project after being accused
of sexual misconduct last year. Qiao
anticipates that Tank’s curation
“will continue to not be just one
person, but rather bring in a lot of
people and ideas”.
Qiao has plans to acquire works
from Tank’s exhibitions, but for
TANK SHANGHAI: PHOTOS COURTESY OF TANK SHANGHAI
now the museum does not have its
own collection. He observes that a
lot of Chinese museums must learn
by doing amidst an evolving legal
landscape. “For Chinese museums,
nothing is tax free, nothing has
special status. That should change
in the future, it is all developing.”
Lisa Movius
01172019012_HWHK_241x381_TheArtNewspaper_Bourgeois.indd 1 25.03.19 11:43
 C

CM

MY

CY

CMY

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K
 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
FEATURE
Contemporary art
KAWS
As multiple institutional shows
across Asia and the US position
KAWS, aka Brian Donnelly,
firmly in the mainstream art
world, Hong Kong is getting in
on the act with the artist’s first
KAWS: COURTESY OF HONG KONG CONTEMPORARY ART FOUNDATION
comprehensive survey—and a
huge inflatable. By Anny Shaw
célèbre
“I
t’s all eyes on
KAWS in Hong
Kong this month,”
says Claire Crozel,
the director of
the Hong Kong
Contemporary
Art (HOCA) Foundation, which is staging
the Special Administrative Region’s first
comprehensive survey of the US artist’s
work at PMQ (until 14 April).
Hongkongers will be hard-pressed to
miss the other major KAWS event: the
arrival of one of his humongous inflatable
Companion figures, the 37m-long
Holiday, which was installed in Victoria
Harbour on 22 March for ten days.
Produced in collaboration with
the Hong Kong-based creative studio
AllRightsReserved, the project has
previously popped up in Seoul and Taipei,
where queues of people snaked outside
the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in
January to bag limited edition vinyl
figures and other merchandise for as little
as $50. Fans have already been snapping
up the Hong Kong line of products.
KAWS, aka Brian Donnelly, started
out as a graffiti artist in New York in the
1990s. He would crank open bus shelter
advertising casings at night and remove
the posters inside, painting cartoonish
faces over the models with crosses for
eyes before returning the posters before
dawn. These so-called “ad disruptions”
led KAWS to design a line of collectible
toys with the Japanese clothing company
Bounty Hunter. The figurines and
subsequent iterations have a gained cult
following in Asia among those who grew
up in the 1980s watching Sesame Street
and anime, as well as a younger crop of
millennials and Generation Z.
Now, a wave of institutional shows
across Asia and the US (the Museum
of Contemporary Art Detroit has an
exhibition opening in May) aims to write
KAWS into art history, much to the
chagrin of critics who say he is merely
a businessman and that speculation is
fuelling his mushrooming popularity.
But for Germano Celant, the Italian
art historian and curator who has
organised the HOCA survey, KAWS’s
“modified concept of creativity… frees
itself from the moralistic distinction
between high and low”.
7
Having spent the first year of his
career animating for Disney, KAWS
took inspiration from Mickey Mouse
when creating his Companions series
Celant views KAWS as the natural
successor to Andy Warhol’s Pop aesthetic
and part of a generation of younger
artists, from Tom Sachs to Takashi
Murakami, who have “developed an
attitude of thinking about art as a circular
and open system, where there is no
hierarchy between languages”. The way
KAWS uses social media to speak directly
to fans and drop limited editions is
further evidence of this position.
Spanning 37 works from the past
decade, the Hong Kong survey debuts
one outdoor piece as well as reuniting
six of KAWS’s bulbous Chum paintings
for the first time. Three of the figures
were last shown together in 2017 at
the Indonesian collector Budi Tek’s Yuz
Museum in Shanghai as part of KAWS’s
first survey in Asia.
KAWS’s growing institutional
stature appears to be piggy-backing on
recent market success, particularly at
auction. However, his primary dealer
Emmanuel Perrotin has been carefully
building KAWS’s profile in Asia since
launching his Hong Kong gallery with
a show dedicated to the artist in 2012.
Last year, Perrotin opened simultaneous
KAWS exhibitions in Tokyo and Hong
Kong to coincide with Art Basel in Hong
Kong. Meanwhile, Skarstedt Gallery
began to represent the artist in February
 CONTINUED ON PAGE 8
 8 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019

FEATURE
Contemporary art
 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

2018, a further endorsement of in Hong Kong and Taiwan in

his fine art credentials.
The rise in value of KAWS’s
work at auction is still
remarkable; he broke his own
record three times in one night last
November and his top 20 prices were
all achieved in 2018. Last year, his work
racked up $33.8m at auction—a 260%
increase on 2017, according to the latest
Artnet Intelligence Report. Sources say
Asian buyers are behind the majority of
recent purchases.
Auction houses have made
conspicuous efforts to expand their
remit to include more street art, with
KAWS now a regular fixture in evening
sales in London, New York, Hong Kong,
Tokyo and Paris.
“The recent diversification of art
historical narratives, which addresses
the under-representation of a wide
variety of artists, has opened up a space
for practices like street art, which were
previously considered as ‘outsider
culture’,” says Yuki Terase, Sotheby’s
head of contemporary art in Asia.
On 1 April, Sotheby’s Hong Kong
is auctioning the collection of the
streetwear entrepreneur Nigo, who
particular”. She notes that
accessibility has certainly
helped to spread his fame: “At
Sotheby’s the price point of KAWS’s
works varies, but there is demand at
KAWS’s Untitled every level. Since 2016, every single
(MBFV3) (2015), KAWS work offered by us in Hong Kong
above, is one of has sold.”
37 works from the Phillips is also developing its street
past decade in the art offerings, having sold six of the
HOCA Foundation top ten most expensive KAWS pieces.
show. His inflatable, Following overwhelming success in
Holiday (right), Hong Kong at the end of last year, the
was launched auction house opened the British
in Hong Kong artist Banksy’s first show in Taiwan
harbour last week this month (until 24 March).
Jonathan Crockett, Phillips’s
deputy chairman in Asia, says that
up until around two years ago,
Taiwanese collectors were only looking
at 20th-century Chinese artists. They are
now giving way to a new generation.
“These people are not necessarily
collectors in the traditional sense; they
are just interested in KAWS and street
art. It's not only happening in Taipei, but
also across the whole of Asia,” he says. But is it just a flash in the pan? After democratisation, industrial and
“A lot of them have been educated all, accessibility and ubiquity are not commercial, of a contemporary
or have worked in the West, so instead qualities often lauded in the snobby art aesthetic, which is supported by the

UNTITLED (MBFV3): PHOTO: FARZAD OWRANG. HOLIDAY: @TIMOTHYMA___

has collaborated with artists including
Futura, Stash and KAWS, whom Nigo
met in Japan in 1996. Collaborations and
crossovers with music producers have
also proved fruitful, with Swizz Beatz
and Pharrell Williams among KAWS’s
most high-profile collectors.
Terase says bidding at auction for
KAWS comes from across the globe—
the US collector Alberto Mugrabi has
been buying for around eight years. But
she detects a “rising interest within Asia,
of aspiring to a local Asian lifestyle, they
have been exposed to Western culture
and they aspire to the lifestyle they have
become accustomed to.”
Crockett observes a “trickle-up
effect”, whereby serious collectors have
become aware of KAWS through his
affordable collaborations with brands
such as Uniqlo. “What KAWS is doing in
particular, which is really quite clever, is
he’s not just making art for art collectors,
he’s making art for the masses,” he says.
world. Take, for example, the Instagram
account Whatanartshole, which signs off
every post with “#kaws”, presumably a
disparaging nod to his pervasiveness. At
the London contemporary sales earlier
this month, one critic was also heard
jokingly warning a dealer he could ruin
his career by adding one line to his
article: “Underbid on KAWS”.
For Celant, however, the joke is
on the art establishment. KAWS’s
work, he believes, represents “the
digital network with KAWS as its
protagonist with his thousands and
thousands of followers”.
This new system of knowledge and
information “allows the artistic product
to not stay relegated to the Western
world, between Europe and America, but
to circulate in all territories”. It is, Celant
declares, “an epochal change”.
• KAWS: Along the Way, PMQ, until 14 April;
KAWS: Holiday, Victoria Harbour, until
31 March
TAN_BaselHK_031819_outlines.indd 1 3/18/19 5:22 PM
10 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019

INTERVIEW
Architects

David Chipperfield:
Beyond weird
architecture
The UK architect on working in China and the decline
of its “funny-shaped” buildings. By Catherine Hickley

T
London- he West Bund Art Museum Museum Island. He has also designed the
born David in Shanghai, located on a James Simon Galerie, which serves as a
Chipperfield triangle of land between the new entrance to the island’s museums and
is building a Huangpu river and Longteng is scheduled to open this summer. In an
museum in Avenue, is the latest in a interview in his Berlin offices with The Art
Shanghai’s long line of museum pro- Newspaper, Chipperfield spoke about the
West Bund jects for David Chipperfield frustratingly free brief for the West Bund Art
Architects. A wing of the 22,000 sq. m Museum, China’s unstoppable urban develop-
iridescent glass building will house an outpost ment and the ethical questions that arise for

CHIPPERFIELD; PHOTO © INGRID VON KRUSE

of Paris’s Centre Pompidou for a renewable
five-year period. Part of a growing “cultural
corridor” in the former industrial area, the
museum is due to open later this year.
London-born Chipperfield is perhaps best
known for his careful reconstruction of the
Neues Museum of antiquities on Berlin’s
architects working in countries with authori-
tarian regimes.
THE ART NEWSPAPER: You have said that the
West Bund Art Museum will have a “strong
relationship to its surroundings”. What
does that mean in concrete terms?

1943599_ECTM Basel daily supplement 2019_v4.indd 2 7/3/2019 6:31 PM

 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
DAVID CHIPPERFIELD: The museum is on a
piece of territory that has been defined by
the city as a recreational strip running along
the river. This strip is bound by the river on
one side and the road on the other. So does
the museum face the road or the river? In
this case, the pedestrian route along the river
is a surprisingly important infrastructural
element, busy with joggers and walkers. That
is something to respond to. So the building
doesn’t have a back and a front.
How was the experience of working with
the Shanghai authorities?
When we designed the building it wasn’t for
the Centre Pompidou. It was for “a museum”.
When we asked, “what will be in the
museum?”, the answer was: “We don’t know
yet. But we need three big multi-functional
halls that can be used for anything—exhibi-
tions, performances, parties.”
It was incredibly generic, which was a bit
frustrating. We were playing tennis with our-
selves—there was no one hitting the ball back.
Architects always argue that they would like
more freedom, but be careful, because some-
times freedom doesn’t help you.
It would have been wonderful if the Centre
Pompidou had been the client from the begin-
ning, because we could have understood what
they wanted. Instead the Pompidou came on
after construction began. The building has a
more generic feeling, because we didn’t have
an idea of what the content might be. You
could argue that in the long term that might
be useful, because it is a looser-fit idea of
what a museum might be—three huge spaces
RENDERING © DAVID CHIPPERFIELD ARCHITECTS; WEST BUND MUSEUM: PHOTO © SIMON MENGES
which you can just play with.
Are the Centre Pompidou curators happy
with the result?
There have been some fairly substantial
modifications to the building for them to
occupy it. We had to fit in an atrium. I think
we did the best under the circumstances to
make a virtue of the generic qualities, and
the Centre Pompidou seems comfortable
with the conversion of the building to their
functionalities.
Has this experience put you off working
in China?
No. We have an office [in Shanghai] and we
1943600_GALLERY Alex Katz Panorama_Basel daily supplement 2019_v4.indd 1
Top: a rendering of the West Bund Art Museum
from the river, and the public terrace in 2018
have been working there for 15 years. We are
quite convinced about being there. There are
opportunities that are different from those in
Europe and restrictions that are different. The
whole process of permissions and approvals is
also very complicated, very opaque. When you
ask, “why was this not approved?”, you get
five different versions. You don’t know if this
is a political problem, professional problem,
one of regulation or temperament.
China has for many years been viewed as a
land of opportunity for architects. Do you
see this at risk, given slowing economic
growth and increasing authoritarianism?
I would say the narrative about the dimin-
ishing expansion of the economy is offset
by the slightly more sophisticated environ-
ment that is evolving. The Chinese are getting
better at building. Clients there are under-
standing better how to put projects together,
being a bit more careful about what they
build and increasingly sceptical about doing
“funny-shaped architecture”.
11
That is reminiscent of the criticism Rem
Koolhaas received for the CCTV tower
in Beijing, when president Xi Jinping
called for an end to “weird architecture”.
Meanwhile Westerners have questioned
his work in China, given its human rights
record. What are your thoughts on this?
I don’t believe that by building projects in
China you are by definition propping up the
regime. It depends on the project and how
close it is to the regime. It’s a bit like sanc-
tions—if you put sanctions on Iran, are you
hurting the regime or the people who can’t
get food? I am fairly sure the political leaders
in Iran don’t have a problem with access
to food. All of us would find it very diffi-
cult to build for bad people. What about bad
regimes? Where do you draw the line? And
that is the difficult one. If you are building
the private house of a tyrant, then it is a dif-
ferent thing from building in a community.
If you are building a hospital for Syria, are
you propping up a regime or are you helping
the people?
Setting aside big prestige projects like the
West Bund, it seems that urban planning
is not a top priority in China, where vast
cities have sprouted up very fast.
It is disappointing that at the very point when
we are not building cities very well ourselves
in Europe, China is expanding and copying
formulas that we are using—big master-
plans that have no great urban qualities. We
don’t seem able to use resources in an intel-
ligent and sustainable way. The challenge for
the future is not just architecture, but the
built environment in general: schools, streets,
squares, shopping centres, the places where
we live as opposed to the cultural landmarks.
Has Europe done this better in the past?
There was a certain utopian idea of build-
ing a new world after the Second World
War, and the practical challenge of building
housing and cities was infused with an ideo-
logical component as well. Planning was not
just expedient; it aspired to societal ambi-
tions about what type of communities we
were building. We made a lot of mistakes, but
there were intentions. Whereas I feel that at
the moment it is just pragmatism. There is no
intellectual restraint.
7/3/2019 6:14 PM
 12
NEWS
Hong Kong
 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
anticipated Hong Kong museum M+.
However, if Hong Kong
becomes part of the new integra-
tion scheme, M+ may face a dire
future, according to the imagina-
tions of Young-Hae Chang Heavy
Industries. The Seoul-based digital
duo unveiled a new video at M+
in August 2018 that pictured the
museum transformed into the
Pearl River People’s Museum, with
political works being destroyed,
several attendees said.
Ko Siu Lan’s New Territories Old
Territories examines Hong Kong’s
relationship with mainland China
Fiac2019_241x184-the art newspaper-UK.indd 1
THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
Artistic censorship in Hong Kong
is still light and episodic by main-
land standards, but it is becoming
more frequent. Since Hong Kong’s
pro-democracy Umbrella Movement
was dispersed in 2014, and five
members of the publishers Mighty
Current Media disappeared in 2015,
the attacks on freedom of expression
in the SAR have intensified. In 2016,
the ICC tower, which is used as a
giant screen for video art, removed
the work Countdown Machine by
the local artists Sampson Wong
and Jason Lam, which ticked down
the seconds until the scheduled
expiration of the “one country, two
systems” arrangement.
An exhibition by the Chinese-
Australian political cartoonist
Badiucao, planned as part of Hong
Kong’s Free Expression week, was
cancelled in November. A week
later, in a more chilling episode, Tai
Kwun made an abrupt U-turn on
hosting two talks by the France-
based Chinese novelist Ma Jian,
whose books depict some of the
mainland’s uglier histories. The
cultural centre’s parent entity, the
Hong Kong Jockey Club, responded
to the public condemnation by
quickly reinstating the talks,
without further incident.
“It is usually the art organi-
sation and spaces exhibiting the
works that engage in censorship or
self-censorship,” Ko says, describing
the Ma Jian incident as “very dis-
turbing”. Ko says: “A prominent art
space demonstrated in a self-censor-
ing process that it will not associate
itself with artists or content of a
sensitive political nature.”
Cosmin Costinas, the executive
director of the non-profit gallery
Para Site, says that “almost all”
of the recent cases of censorship
in Hong Kong relate to private
entities that want to maintain their
business ties with China. “It almost
never comes from the Hong Kong
government.” Around a quarter of
Para Site’s funding comes from the
government, with no restrictions
imposed on content, Costinas says.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong artists
are hitting back through their work.
Spaces such as Tai Kwun, Para Site
and the Hong Kong Arts Centre
frequently delve into the shifting
definition of “Hong Kong-ness”,
with artists including Kwan Sheung
Chi tackling the fears head on.
“It is quite a grim picture,” Ko
says, “but I do believe that the core
of Hong Kong still remains and will
remain in the future.”
Lisa Movius
• For more, see comment, p18
Never miss an issue: for more
KO: © NORM YIP
news and analysis, subscribe
now and save up to 40%
Official partner
25/02/2019 15:35
THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019 Huang Hai-Hsin’s The Holy Collector (2019). Image: © the artist; courtesy of Capsule Shanghai
18 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
COMMENT
Vivienne
Chow
‘Hong Kong is
free—on paper’
It is said to be Asia’s world
centre, and its cultural
scene continues to make
international headlines—but for the
wrong reasons. Last year, in the month
that Hong Kong lost two of its greatest
cultural icons—the martial arts novelist
Louis Cha and the film producer
Raymond Chow—Tai Kwun made a
last-minute decision to stop the
renowned, exiled Chinese author Ma
Jian from speaking at the newly
opened arts centre. The incident
happened around the same time as
the abrupt cancellation of an
exhibition of the political cartoonist
Badiucao. These events together
projected a troubling impression:
gone was the golden era of artistic and
creative freedom that once made
Hong Kong proud.  the withdrawal of Sampson Wong’s
TCW_ART_NP_ART_BASEL.indd 3
When Britain handed over
Hong Kong to the People’s Republic
of China on 1 July 1997, the new
Special Administrative Region was
promised “one country, two systems”
for the next 50 years. Freedom
of expression is also guaranteed
in the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s
“mini-constitution”. There is not a
single law prohibiting what can be
said, created, published or exhibited
(except for public indecency).
Hong Kong is free—on paper.  was that Hong Kong’s freedom would
Artistic freedom
Talk about the threats to Hong
Kong’s freedoms, however, has never
ceased. And this has intensified
over the past five years, with
eyebrow-raising incidents such as
digital work from the façade of the
ICC tower in 2016 and, the same
year, Asia Society Hong Kong’s
cancellation of a talk touching upon
the Umbrella Movement. It seems
that a red line has been drawn, and
certain subjects have become taboo.
But no one knows exactly what can
or cannot be discussed.  society elites, it also appears that
This situation was predicted by
Hong Kong’s last governor, Chris
Patten. He said, just before the
handover, that his greatest worry
“It seems that a red
line has been drawn,
and certain subjects
have become taboo”
be taken away, not by Beijing but by
some Hongkongers who betrayed its
best interests.  art happen.
So who are these people? They are
unlikely to be artists, as over the years
they have been exploring creative
ways to tell their stories through the
language of art. Many artists try to
test the bottom line and see how
far they can go. The government?
There is no law giving the authorities
the power to censor works that are
deemed politically sensitive.
As Hong Kong’s art scene
grows, attracting more sponsorship
from the commercial sector and
self-censorship has become more
prevalent. And as many of these
entities have close business and
political ties with mainland China,
could they, or their employees, be
the reason for the self-censorship
of works that might upset someone
north of Hong Kong’s border? 
The much-discussed threats
to Hong Kong’s freedoms are not
imposed by the authorities, but
result from those who willingly
surrender themselves. Safeguarding
artistic freedom here is not just
the responsibility of artists, but
everyone who is involved in making
• Vivienne Chow is a Hong Kong-based
journalist and cultural critic. She is
the founder of Cultural Journalism
Campus and a lecturer at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong
22/3/19 4:17 pm
 20 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
COLLECTOR’S EYE
Art lovers tell us what they’ve bought and why
William Zhao
W
illiam
Zhao, the
independent
critic and
collector,
describes
himself as a “leading contributor
to Hong Kong’s art scene”. He
completed a Master of Business
Administration in Paris and then
worked in the finance sector in
France for 11 years, relocating to
Hong Kong permanently in 2003.
During his time in France, he
advised the French government
cultural body in charge of the
Joint France-China Years 2001-02
initiative. He has also organised
several shows—including Framed:
Ai Weiwei and Hong Kong Artists at
Duddell’s, Hong Kong, in 2013-14—
and has written for the South China
Morning Post and Hong Kong Tatler.
Works in his eclectic collection
range from 1,500-year-old Pakistani
Gandhara Buddhist figurines to a
drawing by Picasso. He also owns
pieces by leading contemporary
artists such as Georg Baselitz, Liang
Yuanwei, Sergej Jensen, Joseph
Beuys, Zhang Enli, Zeng Fanzhi
and Carol Rama.
THE ART NEWSPAPER: What was
the first work you bought?
WILLIAM ZHAO: A small Picasso
drawing from 1933, which I bought
in Paris.
What is your most recent
purchase?
Liu Ye, a painting from the Bamboo
series. It is interesting how he
combines traditional Chinese
imagery and subject matter with
Western painting techniques.
What is your preferred way of
buying art?
From galleries or at auctions.
What is the most valuable piece
in your collection?
All of them are valuable to me.
If money were no object, what
would be your dream purchase?
Picasso paintings, in his later period,
or Matisse paintings (not works
on paper).
Which work do you regret not
buying when you had the chance?
A Picasso painting.
If your house were on fire, which
work would you save?
I would save all of them—if only
I could...
Of all the works in your
collection, which requires the
most maintenance?
Paper works are usually more
“I reframed a
Danh Vō work
and turned it into
a coffee table”
A Picasso drawing is among the
keen collector’s most prized works
sensitive to the environment, like
Lee Kit’s cardboard works. And
some paintings with heavy impasto
too; for example, the paintings by
Michael Williams or older masters
like Kazuo Shiraga.
What is the most surprising
place you have displayed a work?
I reframed a Danh Vō work and
turned it into a coffee table. People
are usually very surprised when
they realise it is an artwork, as there
are too many books on the table.
Which artists, dead or alive,
would you invite to your dream
dinner party?
Picasso.
What is the best collecting advice
you have been given?
Study art history and trust your gut.
Interview by Gareth Harris
THE ART NEWSPAPER
Art Basel in Hong Kong
fair editions
THE ART NEWSPAPER
Editor The Art Newspaper Alison Cole
Deputy Editor Julia Michalska
Fairs and special projects editor Emily Sharpe
ART BASEL IN HONG KONG EDITIONS
EDITORIAL
Editor, Art Basel in Hong Kong Editions
Julia Michalska
Deputy editor, Art Basel in Hong Kong Editions
Hannah McGivern
Contributors Georgina Adam, Vivienne Chow,
Aimee Dawson, Melanie Gerlis, Gareth Harris,
Catherine Hickley, Kabir Jhala, Julia Michalska,
Lisa Movius, Tom Seymour, Anny Shaw
Designer James Ladbury
Copy editors Dean Gurden, Andrew McIlwraith,
Donatella Montrone
Picture editor Katherine Hardy
Digital Aimee Dawson
Photographer Norm Yip
PUBLISHING AND COMMERCIAL
Publisher Inna Bazhenova
Honorary chairman Anna Somers Cocks
Chief executive Russell Toone
Associate publisher, fairs and events media
Stephanie Ollivier
Head of subscriptions and membership
James Greenwood
Head of sales (UK) Kath Boon
Head of sales (the Americas) Kathleen Cullen
Advertising sales director Henrietta Bentall
Design/production (commercial)
Daniela Hathaway
TO ADVERTISE, PLEASE CONTACT:
UK, Europe and rest of world Kath Boon
T: +44 (0)203 586 8041
E: k.boon@theartnewspaper.com
Americas Kathleen Cullen
T: +1 212 343 0727
E: k.cullen@theartnewspaper.com
CONTACT US:
In the UK: The Art Newspaper,
17 Hanover Square, London W1S 1BN
T: +44 0203 586 8054
E: info@theartnewspaper.com
In the US: 130 West 25th Street, Suite 9C,
New York, NY 10001
T: +1 212 343 0727 Fax: +1 212 965 5367
E: nyoffice@theartnewspaper.com
Website: theartnewspaper.com
Published by U. Allemandi & Co. Publishing Ltd,
17 Hanover Square, London W1S 1BN, and by
Umberto Allemandi & Co. Publishing USA Inc,
The Art Newspaper, 130 West 25th Street, Suite 9C,
New York, NY 10001. Registration no: 5166640.
Printed by Regal Printing
© The Art Newspaper, 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this newspaper may be
reproduced without written consent of the copyright
proprietor. The Art Newspaper is not responsible
for statements expressed in the signed articles
and interviews. While every care is taken by the
publishers, the contents of advertisements are the
responsibility of the individual advertisers
PHOTO: COURTESY OF WILLIAM ZHAO
Subscribe online at
theartnewspaper.com
@theartnewspaper
@theartnewspaper
@theartnewspaper.official
WECH AT
 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
CALENDAR
Art Basel in Hong Kong
Society’s veiled
gender violence
This graphic show in the former police station
Tai Kwun comes with age restrictions
Performing Society:
the Violence of Gender
JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun
Centre for Heritage and Arts, 3/F,
10 Hollywood Road, Central
UNTIL 28 APRIL
It feels apt that an exhibition
on violence is on show at the
former Central Police Station and
prison compound that is now the
Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and
VOGEL: COURTESY OF BQ, BERLIN AND THE ARTIST
Arts. But the theme is not that
literal: the display looks at how
societal structures are a form of
violence, and how gender norms
are defined and imposed.
“Upbringing, cultural attribution,
existing power structures, social
codes, religious traditions and
biological manifestations unite to
form a violent normative
framework that governs body,
sexuality, identity and behaviour,”
according to an exhibition
statement.
This structural gender violence
is a “symbolic castration”, says
Susanne Pfeffer, the director of
Frankfurt’s Museum für Moderne
Kunst and the show’s curator.
Violence “is part of our societies,
it is activated in the ways in which
our societies realise themselves
and are realised by ourselves”, she
says. “In that sense we all are part
of that performance.”
Tai Kwun, the long-awaited,
state-backed cultural venue that
opened last May, invited Pfeffer
to organise Performing Society
after her trilogy of exhibitions at
the Fridericianum in Kassel,
Germany, where she explored the
philosophy of New Materialism
and notions of humanity and
nature in a post-internet world.
Pfeffer says that she travelled and
did extensive research for the Tai
Kwun show.
There are 11 artists in
Performing Society, including
Beiijng-based Dong Jinling, Liu
Yefu and Ma Qiusha, Hong Kong’s
Wong Ping, as well as interna-
tional names such as Pamela
Rosenkranz from Switzerland and
Anne Imhof, the winner of the
Golden Lion at the 2017 Venice
Biennale, who have both produced
new works for the exhibition.
Much of the show tackles the
subject of gender violence through
graphic, corporeal means. For this
reason, parts of the exhibition
are age-restricted. “Sensitive
items were submitted to the
relevant authorities for review,”
Pfeffer says. The animated film
Who’s the Daddy (2017) by Wong
Ping—which makes references to
Raphaela Vogel’s
2017 installation,
Uterusland (Partial),
on show at Tai Kwun
penises, fisting and abortion—and
the video York News (2014) by
Liu Yefu can only be viewed by
over-18s. Another video, in which
Dong Jinling squirts milk from
her breast, has been designated as
requiring parental guidance.
Gender issues—and gen-
der-based discrimination—are
increasingly being tackled by
public Asian art institutions,
although they have often focused
more heavily on non-binary
gender identities. In 2017, the
Museum of Contemporary Art
in Taipei staged the first-ever
museum show on queer Aisan art,
Spectrosynthesis: Asian LGBTQ
Issues and Art Now. The expanded
second leg of the show is due to
open in November at the Bangkok
Art and Culture Centre, where it
is billed as the largest show of its
kind. Last spring, the M+ Pavilion
held a show specifically on the
role of gender in Hong Kong’s
popular culture.
“I think these questions are
relevant all over the world,”
Pfeffer says. “There is an urgency
to take stock and to give a voice to
that urgency.”
Aimee Dawson
25
○ Events
beyond the fair
Art Central
27-31 March
Central Harborfront,
9 Lung Wo Road, Central
Annual Artist’s Lecture:
Zhang Peili
11am-12.30pm, 28 March
Asia Art Archive, A Space,
233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
Performance by Heidi Voet:
In Pieces and Parts
11am-1pm, 28 March
Centre for Heritage Arts and Textile,
The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par Street,
Tsuen Wan, NT
South Island Cultural
District Art Day
10am-2pm, 29 March
Various venues
Harbour Art Fair
29 March-1 April
7/F, Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel,
3 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Asia Contemporary Art Show
29 March-1 April
Conrad Hong Kong, Pacific Place,
88 Queensway, Central
Asia Arts Game Changer
Awards Hong Kong
6pm-10pm, 29 March
Four Seasons Hotel,
8 Finance Street, Central
China Guardian Asian 20th
Century and Contemporary
Art Sale
3pm, 30 March
5/F Tower One, Lippo Centre
89 Queensway, Central
Takahashi Mizuki artist talk
3pm-5pm, 30 March
Centre for Heritage, Arts & Textile,
The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par Street,
Tsuen Wan, NT
Beuys film screening
4pm, 30 March
Black Box Studio, Goethe-Institut
Hong Kong, 2 Harbour Rd, Wan Chai
Poly Auction Modern and
Contemporary Art Sale
11.30am, 31 March
Grand Hyatt Hong Kong,
1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai
Sotheby’s Modern Art
Evening Sale
6.30pm, 31 March
5/F One Pacific Place,
88 Queensway, Central
Sotheby’s Modern and
Contemporary Southeast
Asian Art Evening Sale
7pm, 31 March
5/F One Pacific Place,
88 Queensway, Central
HK Walls street art festival
Until 31 March
Various venues, Central
Exit Strategies public art
Until April
H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road, Central
 26
CALENDAR
Art Basel in Hong Kong
In alphabetical
order, by category
○ Non-
commercial
1a Space
Unit 14, Cattle Depot Artist
Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road,
To Kwa Wan, Kowloon
• Hactivate Yourself
UNTIL 19 MAY
ArtisTree
1/F, Cambridge House, Taikoo
Place, 979 King’s Rd, Quarry Bay
• Urban Playgrounds
27 MARCH-12 APRIL
Asia Art Archive
11/F Hollywood Centre, 233
Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
• Lee Wen: Form Colour Action
UNTIL 29 JUNE
Asia Society
The Hong Kong Jockey Club
Former Explosives Magazine,
9 Justice Drive, Admiralty
• Yukaloo by James Turrell
UNTIL 9 JUNE
• A Story of Light: Hon Chi-fun
UNTIL 9 JUNE
Centre for Heritage
Arts & Textile
The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par Street,
Tsuen Wan
• Unfolding: Fabric of Our Life
UNTIL 30 JUNE
• Michael Lin: Hau Tei Square
UNTIL 28 JULY
• Assemble and HATO: Welcome
to the Spinning Factory!
UNTIL 31 DECEMBER
Duddell’s
3/F, Shanghai Tang Mansion,
1 Duddell Street, Central
• Enlightening Times
UNTIL 23 JUNE
F11 Photo Museum
11 Yuk Sau Street, Happy Valley
• Black Paint Leica Camera
Exhibition
UNTIL 30 MARCH
• Bob Willoughby:
Gouache on paper (2009)—one of a suite of 12 by Louise Bourgeois
The personal, the revelatory Bourgeois
Louise Bourgeois: My Own Voice Wakes Me Up
Hauser & Wirth, 15-16/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road, Central
UNTIL 11 MAY
Taking its title from one of Louise Bourgeois’s writings, this show presents a series of
red gouaches, topiary-inspired sculptures and rarely exhibited holograms, all made
in the last two decades of the artist’s life. The deeply personal and confessional nature of
Bourgeois’s work is a focus of this show, which is organised by Jerry Gorovoy, who worked
as her assistant from the early 1980s until her death in 2010. The exhibition coincides with
Bourgeois’s first solo show in China, The Eternal Thread, which opened at the Long Museum,
Shanghai, and travels this month to the Song Art Museum, Beijing. It is supported by
Hauser & Wirth, which represents the artist’s estate. K.J.
THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019
Audrey Hepburn
UNTIL 27 JULY
Hong Kong Arts Centre
2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai
• 5th Collectors’ Contemporary
Collaboration on Chinese
Private Collection
27 MARCH-22 APRIL
K11 Atelier,
Victoria Dockside
18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
• Glow Like That
UNTIL 13 MAY
K11: Chi Art Space,
Clear Water Bay
663 Clear Water Bay Road,
Clear Water Bay
• Kollectors Series:
Media in Motion
UNTIL 7 APRIL
Liang Yi Museum
181-199 Hollywood Road,
Sheung Wan
• Chrysanthemum and Dragon:
The Art of Ornamentation
in Japan and China
UNTIL 15 JUNE
M+ Pavilion
West Kowloon Cultural District,
Tsim Sha Tsui
• Noguchi for Danh Vo:
Counterpoint
UNTIL 22 APRIL
Maritime Museum
Central Pier No. 8
• The Dragon and the Eagle:
American Traders in China,
A Century of Trade from
1784 to 1900
UNTIL 14 APRIL
Oi!
12 Oil Street, North Point
• Contagious Reading—The
Library’s Seven Seals
UNTIL 23 JUNE
• Once Lost But Now Found
UNTIL 28 JULY
Para Site
22/F, Wing Wah Industrial Bldg,
677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay
• An Opera for Animals
UNTIL 9 JUNE
Tai Kwun
10 Hollywood Road, Central
• Contagious Cities:
Far Away, Too Close
UNTIL 21 APRIL
• Performing Society:
The Violence of Gender
UNTIL 28 APRIL
The Qube
PMQ, No. 35 Aberdeen St, Central
• KAWS: Along the Way
UNTIL 14 APRIL
Videotage
Unit 13, Cattle Depot Artist
Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road,
To Kwa Wan
• FUSE Artist Residency—Jason
Hendrik Hansma: Opaline
UNTIL 26 JUNE
Mary Corse
finally gets her
solo moment
in the light
Mary Corse
Pace Gallery, 12/F, H Queen’s,
80 Queen’s Road, Central
UNTIL 11 MAY
“For years, I was not accepted at
all,” the California-based artist
Mary Corse told The Art Newspaper
ahead of her first solo museum survey
exhibition last year. One of the few
women affiliated with the Light and
Space movement, Corse is finally
getting her art-world due.
Before the second leg of the survey
opens in Los Angeles this summer,
Pace Gallery is presenting Corse’s first
show in Asia; another will follow in
Seoul in November.
In Hong Kong, eight new minimal
paintings continue the artist’s decades-
long White Light series. Embedded
with refractive glass microspheres
that Corse describes as “high-tech
sand”, these deceptively simple striped
canvases appear to radiate light as the
viewer moves around them. H.M.
Mary Corse’s Untitled (White, Black
Band (Narrow), Beveled) (2019)
Gagosian UNTIL 26 MAY
7/F Pedder Building, Pace Gallery
○ Commercial 12 Pedder Street
• Cézanne, Morandi and Sanyu
15C Entertainment Building,
30 Queens Road, Central
10 Chancery Lane Gallery UNTIL 11 MAY • Xiao Yu: BB
10 Chancery Lane, SoHo, Central Galerie du Monde UNTIL 11 MAY
• Wang Keping: Stars Forever Stars 108 Ruttonjee Centre, 11 Duddell Pace Gallery | H Queen’s
UNTIL 11 MAY Street, Central 12/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s
Alisan Fine Arts • Juan Ford: Blank Road, Central
21/F Lyndhurst Tower, UNTIL 20 APRIL • Mary Corse
1 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central Emmanuel Perrotin UNTIL 11 MAY
• Lui Shou-kwan Centenary 17/F, 50 Connaught Road, Pearl Lam Galleries
BOURGEOIS: © THE EASTON FOUNDATION/VAGA AT ARS; COURTESY OF THE EASTON FOUNDATION AND HAUSER & WIRTH; PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER BURKE. CORSE: © MARY CORSE; COURTESY OF KAYNE GRIFFIN CORCORAN, PACE GALLERY AND LISSON; PHOTO: FLYING STUDIO
UNTIL16 MAY Central 601-605 Pedder Building,
• Women + Ink: China + Hong Kong • Xu Zhen: The Glorious 12 Pedder Street, Central
29 MARCH-1 JUNE UNTIL 11 MAY • Leonardo Drew
Axel Vervoordt • Julio Le Parc: Light—Mirror UNTIL 27 APRIL
21/F, Coda Designer Centre 62, UNTIL 11 MAY Pearl Lam Galleries |
Wong Chuk Hang Road Gallery Exit H Queen’s
• Group Exhibition, 3/F, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, 9/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s
Infinitive Mutability Aberdeen Road, Central
UNTIL 1 JUNE • Chris Huen Sin Kan • Zhou Yangming: The Continuum
Ben Brown Fine Arts 29 MARCH-27 APRIL UNTIL 21 APRIL
301 Pedder Building, Grotto Fine Art Rossi & Rossi
12 Pedder Street, Central 2/F, 31C-D Wyndham St, Central Unit 3C, Yally Industrial
• Yoan Capote: Territorial Waters • Images of the Mind: Ink Art in Building, 6 Yip Fat Street,
UNTIL 17 MAY the 21st Century Wong Chuk Hang
Blindspot Gallery 3 APRIL • Oltre la Pittura
15/F, Po Chai Industrial Building, Hanart TZ Gallery UNTIL 11 MAY
28 Wong Chuk Hang Road, 401 Pedder Building, 12 Pedder St Simon Lee
Wong Chuk Hang • Yeh Shih-Chiang: Edge 304, 3/F Pedder Building,
• Lam Tung Pang: Saan Dung Gei of Sea and Sky 12 Pedder Street
UNTIL 11 MAY UNTIL 4 MAY • Heimo Zobernig
Bonhams Hong Kong Hauser & Wirth UNTIL 10 MAY
Suite 2001, One Pacific Place, 15-16/F, H Queen’s, Sotheby’s S|2
88 Queensway, Admiralty 80 Queen’s Road, Central 5/F, One Pacific Place,
• Richard Lin • Louise Bourgeois: Admiralty
UNTIL 30 MARCH My Own Voice Wakes Me Up • Alex Katz
De Sarthe Gallery UNTIL 11 MAY UNTIL 1 APRIL
20/F, Global Trade Square, Lehmann Maupin Tang Contemporary
No. 21 Wong Chuk Hang Road 407 Pedder Building, 10/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s
• Bernar Venet 12 Pedder Street Road, Central
29 MARCH 2019-18 MAY • Erwin Wurm • Adel Abdessemed: Unlock
Edouard Malingue
Gallery
UNTIL 11 MAY
Lévy Gorvy
UNTIL 22 APRIL
White Cube
6/F, 33 Des Voeux Road, Central Ground Floor, 2 Ice House Street 50 Connaught Road, Central
• Ho Tzu Nyen: The Critical • Return to Nature • David Altmejd
Dictionary of Southeast UNTIL 18 MAY UNTIL 18 MAY
Asia Volume 8: R for Massimo De Carlo Whitestone Gallery
Rhombicuboctahedron 3/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder St 7-8/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s
UNTIL 2 MAY • Elmgreen & Dragset: Road, Central
Empty Gallery Overheated • Miwa Komatsu: Divine Spirit
19/F, Grand Marine Center, UNTIL 4 MAY UNTIL 28 APRIL
3 Yue Fung Street, Tin Wan Osage Gallery David Zwirner
• Tishan Hsu: Delete 4/F, 20 Hing Yip Street, Kwun 5-6/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s
UNTIL 25 MAY Tong, Kowloon Road, Central
CiCi Wu: Unfinished Return • Present Passing: • Neo Rauch: Propaganda
UNTIL 25 MAY South by Southeast UNTIL 4 MAY
 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019 27

Making Communities 3.30pm-5pm, Auditorium,

Qudsia Rahim, Lu Peng, Sangeeta Room N101B, Level 1
○ Art Basel Thapa, Anne Barlow, Natalie King On Isamu Noguchi—Danh

talks and events CONVERSATION Vō and Doryun Chong

THURSDAY 28 MARCH
CONVERSATION
11am-12.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Early Days: The Chinese
Art Market in the 1990s
Chang Tsong Zung, Claire
Roberts, Uli Sigg, Karen
Smith, Antony Dapiran
CONVERSATION
12.30pm-2pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
A Contemporary Assessment—
The Art Market Now
Clare McAndrew, Adrian
Zuercher, Bhavna Kakar, Leng
Lin, Zhang Wei, Elaine W. Ng
CONVERSATION
2pm-3.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
21st Century Collectors—Next
Generation Approaches
Dee Poon, Lu Xun,
Alia Al-Senussi, Tarini Jindal
Handa, Aaron Cezar
CONVERSATION
3.30pm-5pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Cultural Capital—The
Political Economies of Art
Basel Abbas, Pedro Barbosa,
Corrado Gugliotta, Tayeba Begum
Lipi, Kacey Wong, Rose Lejeune
SHORT FILMS
4pm-5pm, Room N101A, Level 1
With or Without People
CONVERSATION
5pm-6.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Institutional Practice as
Creative Work—A Roundtable
Yana Peel, Claire Hsu, Antonia
Carver, Pawit Mahasarinand,
Doreen Sibanda, Hans Ulrich Obrist
PREMIERE ARTIST TALK
6.30pm-8pm
Ellen Pau in Conversation
with Isaac Leung
FILM
6.30pm-7.45pm, Theatre 2
Premiere: Liu Xiaodong’s On
the Riverbanks of Berlin
FRIDAY 29 MARCH
CONVERSATION
11am-12.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Alternatives to What? A History
of Emergent Art Spaces
Mella Jaarsma, Judy Freya Sibayan,
Jin Suk Suh, Kith Tsang, Elaine W. Ng
CONVERSATION
12.30pm-2pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Spaces of Interaction—
Developing Platforms and
2pm-3.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
A Common Place?
Artists in Art Fairs
Hai Hsin Huang, Elmgreen
& Dragset, Paco Barragán,
Iván Navarro, Özge Ersoy
CONVERSATION
3.30pm-5pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Body Work—Performance
and Practice
Victoria Sin, Juliana Huxtable,
Melati Suryodarmo, Sonia
Khurana, Wu Tsang
SHORT FILMS
4pm-4.55pm, Room
N101A, Level 1
Le Deuxième Sexe
CONVERSATION
5pm-6.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Encounters in Encounters—
Still We Rise
Latifa Echakhch, Joël
Andrianomearisoa, Gerasimos
Floratos, Zhao Zhao, Tony Albert,
Simon Starling, Alexie Glass-Kantor
CONVERSATION
6.30pm-8pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Geographies of the
Imagination—Exhibition
Making and Research Methods
Raphael Chikukwa, Antonia
Alampi, Natasha Ginwala,
Christina Li, Mi You
FILM
6.30pm-8.10pm, Theatre 2
Premiere: M+ Live Art—
Miraculous Trajectories
SATURDAY 30 MARCH
CONVERSATION
11am-12.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Micro to Macro:
Curating in the 1990s
Li Xianting, Mit Jai Inn, Suhanya
Raffel, H.G. Masters
CONVERSATION
12.30pm-2pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
A Region in Plural—
Curating Asia Now
Joowon Park, Hsieh Feng Rong,
Pauline J. Yao, Shirley Surya,
Natasha Ginwala, Qinyi Lim
CONVERSATION
2pm-3.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Ink and Paint—Uncovering
Asian Modernisms
Tina Keng, Lee Hyun Sook,
Chang Tsong Zung, David Teh,
Amna Naqvi, Lesley Ma
FILM
2pm-3.15pm, Theatre 2
Liu Xiaodong: Hometown Boy
in Conversation
FILM
4pm-5.10pm, Theatre 2
Liu Xiaodong’s Dong
SHORT FILMS
4pm-5.20pm, Room
N101A, Level 1
Missing Police
CONVERSATION
5pm-6.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Telling Stories—Narrative
Forms and Strategies
Basim Magdy, Zac Langdon-
Pole, Phi Phi Oanh, Wong
Kit Yi, Freya Chou
FILM
6pm-8pm, Theatre 2
Lou Ye: Spring Fever
CONVERSATION
6.30pm-8pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Art of Conversation: On Forums,
Summits and Symposia
Shumon Basar, Leeza Ahmady,
Mari Spirito, Prateek Raja,
Diana Campbell Betancourt
SUNDAY 31 MARCH
CONVERSATION
11am-12.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Video Art: A Gateway to
Film and New Media
Barbara London, Nalini Malani, Ellen
Pau, Zhang Peili, Ysabelle Cheung
CONVERSATION
12.30pm-1.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Digital Emotion—The
Hybridisation of Art
and Technology
Jin Suk Suh, Isaac Leung,
Tao Hui, Li Zhenhua
CONVERSATION
1.30pm-3pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Conduits, Circuits, and
Screens—Tishan Hsu and
the Institutional Body
Tishan Hsu and Sohrab Mohebbi
FILM
2pm-3.05pm, Theatre 2
Videotage Media Art
Collective—Centripetal
SHORT FILMS
2pm-5.15pm, Room N101A, Level 1
Rerun: With or Without
People, Le Deuxième
Sexe, Missing Police
CONVERSATION
3pm-4.30pm, Auditorium,
Room N101B, Level 1
Comparative Futurisms—
Afro-Asian Perspectives
on the Future
Cyrus Kabiru, Yang Beichen,
Malak Helmy, Himali Singh
Soin, Lee Garakara

The artist has

resurfaced, and
so have his 80s
and 90s pieces
Tishan Hsu: Delete
Empty Gallery, 19/F, Grand Marine
Center, 3 Yue Fung Street, Tin Wan
UNTIL 25 MAY
The Empty Gallery in Hong Kong
is shining a spotlight on the
Chinese-American artist Tishan Hsu, who
came to prominence in the 1980s but
retreated from view in the 1990s. The
gallery is staging an exhibition of Hsu’s
most recent works at its venue in the
Grand Marine Center, and also showing
HSU: IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND EMPTY GALLERY.

pieces dating from the 1980s and 1990s Works such as Head (1984), made of Styrofoam, oil
on its stand at Art Basel in Hong Kong. and enamel on wood, were inspired by technology
“We found Tishan, archived his work,
and got his studio up and running again,” says Alexander Lau, the gallery director.
In the past few years, Hsu has worked on a project focused on historical photographs
discovered in albums of his extended family, examples of which are on show at the Empty
Gallery. “The work evolved out of a confluence of events, including the death of my mother
in Boston, which precipitated my setting up a studio in Shanghai, where family members
who I never knew for most of my life have lived for many years,” Hsu says. G.H.
 28 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019

FIVE MINUTES WITH…

Brett Gorvy
The London and New York-based gallery Lévy Gorvy is launching its Hong
Kong space this week with a group show exploring how nature and tradition
have provided comfort in turbulent times. Though the gallery is the dealers’ first
permanent location in Asia, Brett Gorvy and Dominique Lévy have long been
active in the region. The new Hong Kong gallery occupies a 2,500 sq. ft space on
the ground floor of the high-rise St George’s Building in Central. We caught up with
Brett Gorvy to find out more about his plans in Asia.

Why did you feel 2019 was
the right time to open a
gallery in Hong Kong?
It has been our intention to open
a space in Hong Kong ever since
Dominique and I formed our part-
nership [in 2016]. We wanted to find
the ideal location and were able to
secure an exceptional space at the
end of last year. This meant a very
quick turnaround time in terms of
an opening because we wanted to
make sure that we took advantage
of the exciting opportunities in Asia
that we foresee for 2019.
How important is the Asian
market to your business?
My experience from my time at
Christie’s and continuing now
at Lévy Gorvy is that the Asian
market consistently provides
between 20% to 30% of business
Asian market has only increased.
It is such an important region and
there is so much potential. With
our growing Asia team, overseen by
Danqing Li, we want to strengthen
our existing connections, as well
as develop new relationships
throughout Asia.
Why did you choose
Return to Nature as
your inaugural show?
In dialogue with the team, and spe-
cifically with our Asian colleagues,
we wanted our Hong Kong exhi-
bition programme to not just be
about responding to strong market
interest and showcasing great,
high-quality works of art in Asia,
but also to make a meaningful
statement that resonates and has
a long-term purpose. This is some-
thing Dominique and I believe in.
Return to Nature is not just about
natural forces, but about the mate-
riality of nature and the mystery of
spirituality that artists throughout
the history of Eastern and Western
art come back to in times of moral,
cultural and political crisis. These
artists are going back to the fun-
damentals, but are searching for
something more spiritual and
poetic at the same time.
What are the biggest our Hong Kong location as a third
Which Asian artists will challenges of opening a and equal arm of our business.
you be representing? gallery in Hong Kong?
Lévy Gorvy already works with Challenges is really the wrong Which local galleries
Seung-taek Lee, Tsuyoshi Maekawa, word. It is more about looking at do you rate?
Chung Sang-Hwa, Kazuo Shiraga, how we can seize the opportuni- We are very excited to become part
and Zao Wou-Ki, but Return to ties provided by Hong Kong. For us of the growing gallery community
Nature will include a selection Hong Kong is not just about China, in Hong Kong. Our ethos is one of
of works by Hao Liang, Satoru it is the gateway to the whole of collaboration and we feel that we
Hoshino, Song Dong, Nannan Tang, Asia. It is an incredibly dynamic, provide a programme that is so dif-
Tu Hongtao, Wu Dayu, Wu Yinxian, international trading place and ferent to all the other galleries that
Yan Wenliang and Liu Ye. we want to be flexible within that we do not see ourselves as compet-

BRETT GORVY © ZENITH RICHARDS

for auction houses. With the deep
relationships that I have formed
with regular visits to Asia over the
“Our ethos is one of collaboration…
past 20 years and Dominique’s own
very strong presence there through
art fairs, our commitment to the
arena—to be nimble and take
advantage of every opportunity.
While there are short-term hurdles,
We do not see ourselves as our long-term vision and overall
position is for Lévy Gorvy to be in
competitive, but as complementary” Asia for many years and to grow
itive, but as complementary. We
look forward to working closely
with local galleries and also the
international galleries who are as
committed as we are to the region.
Interview by Lisa Movius
 30 THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM ART BASEL IN HONG KONG FAIR EDITION 27-28 MARCH 2019

MY HONG KONG John Dodelande

Insiders’ guide
The collector and entrepreneur
splits his time between London,
Tbilisi and Hong Kong. Works from
his collection are currently on show

Art world figures reveal their survival tips in Enlightening Times, an exhibition
curated by Jérôme Sans at Duddell’s

for Hong Kong during a hectic week.

Hong Kong (until 23 June).
Hong Kong matters
Interviews by Gareth Harris because… the future is here.
Living/working here
makes me feel… like I can
understand today’s world.
My favourite place to
switch off in Hong Kong
is… after a long flight, my bed.
My top tip for surviving
Art Basel in Hong Kong is…
try not to meet too many people.
The best-kept art secret in the city is… M+ museum.
Art fairs are important because… I don’t know if they’re
so important; to me it’s sometimes more essential to visit
artists’ studios, where true creativity is.
The last exhibition I saw was… Wang Guangle
and Jia Aili solo shows.
I use Instagram for… private matters.
I last cooked for… survival in the mountains.
I last watched… Vice, with Christian Bale.

Wong Ping
The artist, who is represented by Edouard

Artoon By Pablo Helguera

Malingue Gallery, currently has a solo show at
Kunsthalle Basel (until 5 May). His work is also
on view in Performing Society: The Violence
of Gender at Tai Kwun (until 28 April).
Hong Kong matters because… it is the

PING: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND EDOUARD MALINGUE GALLERY. DODELANDE: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND GEORGIA NATIONAL GALLERY
only city in China where you can access the
internet freely.
Living here makes me feel… shy.
My favourite place to switch off in
Hong Kong is… the mysterious dungeon
in a collector’s penthouse.
My top tip for surviving Art Basel in
Hong Kong is… eat before you go; food is expensive there.
The best-kept art secret in the city is… **SPOILER ALERT** Turn to
page 101 if you want to find out.
Art fairs are important because… I can spend money on art rather
than food, so I won’t become obese.
The last exhibition I saw was… Golden Shower by Wong Ping at the
Kunsthalle Basel.
I use Instagram for… stalking my biological parents.
I last cooked for… a homeless bird, but it rejected my gluten-free
cornbread. “When they go low, we go high.””
2019leap
I last watched… Everybody Loves Raymond, Seasons 1-9.
π„241x90mm.pdf 1 19/3/19 18:06

CM

MY

CY

CMY