New Hong Kong-Wide Art Fair Reveals Galleries and Programs
By Camilla Alvarez-Chow
Exterior view of Phillips Asia headquarters in the West Kowloon Cultural District, one of the venues for Art021 Hong Kong. Courtesy Phillips.
On July 30, Art021 Hong Kong Contemporary Art Fair announced the lineup for its inaugural edition. Slated for August 28–September 8, this new addition to the city’s bustling art itinerary aims to highlight artists from across East, West, and South Asia.
Art021 Hong Kong will feature 73 galleries and projects from 13 countries and regions, spanning five sections. The Galleries sector will showcase established and emerging artists from 40 galleries at Phillips Asia’s headquarters in the West Kowloon Cultural District, including prominent Chinese galleries Tang Contemporary Art, Antenna Space, and ShanghArt, as well as local stalwarts like Kwai Fung Hin, and the Belgian-Hong Kong gallery Axel Vervoordt. While more participating galleries will be announced, highlights from beyond East Asia include Dastan Gallery from Tehran, Dubai’s Lawrie Shabibi and The Third Line, and New Delhi-based Vadehra Gallery aligning the fair’s special focus.
Art021 Hong Kong will host a solo exhibition by Iranian-born American artist Amir H. Fallah, presented by Los Angeles- and Shanghai-based Gallery All. Additionally, the noncommercial curatorial project “One Thousand and One Nights,” inspired by Middle Eastern folktales, will feature works by artists from Western Asia, including Tala Madani, Shilpa Gupta, Mandy El Sayegh, Alia Ahmad, and others.
The Videos sector, held at the nonprofit Asia Society Hong Kong Center in Admiralty, will screen video works from a variety of international galleries. The new art fair also plans to bring contemporary art to the public at the central lawn of Victoria Park in Causeway Bay and on the rooftop of The Fringe Club in Central. The Expansion sector, co-organized with The Fringe Club, will have further details announced in early August.
Beyond the city, Art021 Hong Kong will also launch Greater Bay Area Art Week, with a schedule of exhibitions from more than 30 participating galleries throughout the wider Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Program will take place at Hong Kong-based nonprofits Asia Art Archive, CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), and Hong Kong Arts Centre, as well as Shenzhen’s Sea World Culture and Arts Center, and the He Art Museum in Guangdong province.
Funded by the Hong Kong government’s Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund, along with the Canadian life insurance company Sun Life, the fair’s title sponsor, Art021 Hong Kong will join established competitors in the city’s art fair scene such as Art Basel Hong Kong, Art Central, and the Affordable Art Fair. The entrance to this market signifies Art021’s ambitions to reach international art markets as China’s domestic economy battles stiff headwinds.
Camilla Alvarez-Chow is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.
