Getting back to business was a top priority for countries across the world in 2023. Festivals and mega-exhibitions staged long-delayed editions, art fairs welcomed international galleries and visitors, and people packed auction rooms and waved paddles once again. While Covid-19 now appears in the rearview mirror, the world is still grappling with changes that have only accelerated in recent years, from economic slowdowns to technological advancements, geopolitical conflicts, and the impacts of climate change. While facing numerous challenges in a world that keeps turning, cultural events remain vital meeting points for minds and spirits.

In this 19th edition of the annual ArtAsiaPacific Almanac, we survey the events of an art world back in action in 2023 and gearing up for more major events in 2024. In our 15 City Reports, we hear from artists, writers, and curators who have been deeply involved in cultural activities in the places where they live and work. We speak with artist Jonathan Jones, whose mid-December exhibition took place in Artspace’s newly renovated building in Sydney, about how his works bring awareness of Aboriginal history to contemporary Australia. From Seoul, AAP’s desk editor Andy St. Louis tracks the dynamic development of Korea’s art scene. Shanghai reemerged from lockdowns with its annual November art week, as writer Ling Gu chronicles. Following their exhibition at Hong Kong nonprofit Para Site, artist duo Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien reflect on their latest project, in which they worked with children on the island of Negros in the Philippines to portray the legacy of a violent massacre of workers nearly four decades ago. From Ho Chi Minh City, curator Hung Duong portrays the city’s resiliency and can-do attitude, which extends to the Saigon art community that has squarely put the past behind it.

Alongside the world’s metropolises, this year’s City Reports take on less prominent localities. From the Fukushima Exclusion Zone, writer and curator Jason Waite reports on a region of Japan that few can access today, the site of a long-duration disaster. Shubigi Rao reflects on her curatorial and artistic projects spanning the 2022–23 Kochi-Muziris Biennale and major exhibitions in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Speaking from Bangkok after holding three exhibitions in November 2023, Jakkai Siributr recounts working with minority and stateless communities in Thailand and describes recent projects about his family history. We also document increasing censorship facing artists, curators, and other cultural workers in Europe, with an account penned by photographers Shahidul Alam, Munem Wasif, and Tanzim Wahab, after German authorities canceled the photo biennial they curated for March 2024 due to social-media posts by Alam. From Beirut, we adapted a text by filmmaker and artist Ahmad Ghossein for his latest exhibition that poignantly and with dark humor explores the multiple tragedies of recent years in Lebanon. We further cover the fraught cultural conditions in Turkey and challenges facing cultural organizations in London under the UK’s austerity regime.

Lastly, we hear from Sim Chi Yin, a Singaporean artist currently based in New York, whose practice is rooted in photography and archival research, as well as installations, virtual-reality and live performance, in events across multiple continents.

In the News section, we survey major triumphs and challenges, from awards to career transitions and controversies. The art fair and auction reports, comprising our Cultural Currency section, look at emerging trends in the commercial sector amid a year of modest recovery. In Exhibitions of the Year, we highlight major solo shows that marked institutions’ full return to programming, from midcareer surveys of important contemporary artists, to break-out shows of emerging figures, and historical reviews that spotlight important cultural figures. In similar fashion, the Festivals section marks the return of events in Dhaka, Guangzhou, Sharjah, Gwangju, Shanghai, Taipei, and Chiang Rai. Meanwhile, our Artists of 2023, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Simone Fattal, Hajra Waheed, Tromarama, Tishan Hsu, and Farah Al Qasimi, exhibited in prominent venues and stimulated conversations throughout the year.

While returning to normal has been a challenge, the ArtAsiaPacific Almanac 2024 would not be possible without the generous support of Burger Collection, Jean-Marc Bottazzi, CL3 Architects, Kukje Gallery, Mapletree, Soluna Fine Art, and Simon Suen Foundation. We are very grateful to the many people who support ArtAsiaPacific throughout the year, including the contributors and organizations that share their time, thoughts, images, and information with us. As always, we look forward to a new year of engaging with artists and cultural communities around the world.