Show Of Force

This year’s Art Basel Hong Kong promises to be bigger and better than ever. Tama Lung previews all the action and gets the inside scoop from its Asia director Adeline Ooi

Art Basel mounts its seventh Hong Kong exposition this month, with 242 galleries filling the halls of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with modern and contemporary art from around the world. The Hong Kong show is one of three annual Art Basel extravaganzas, the other two being the original, founded in 1970, in Basel, Switzerland, and the one held at Miami Beach, which premiered in 2002 after the September 11 attacks forced the organisers to postpone the North American launch by one year. The Hong Kong iteration is focused in particular on showcasing exceptional art from Asia and the Asia-Pacific region.

Of the 242 galleries chosen by the seven-person selection committee – members include art-world heavyweights such as Massimo De Carlo, David Maupin of Lehmann Maupin, Bo Young Song of Kukje Gallery and Zhang Wei of Vitamin Creative Space – more than half have exhibition spaces in the region. That includes seven galleries dedicated to emerging or Asian artists moving into the main Galleries sector for the first time, with Hong Kong represented by Galerie du Monde and Tang Contemporary Art.