DRAWING FROM DISCOURSE: HIGHLIGHTS FROM ART BASEL HONG KONG 2023

Drawing from Discourse: Highlights from Art Basel Hong Kong 2023

Held from 22nd March up till 25th March at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong, the Art basel art fair continues the tradition of art fairs. It has brought together different streams of visual vocabularies under the same roof, looking at the well-established works that have shaped the history of art and design , while simultaneously shedding light on new media and sensibilities. Divided into five sectors Galleries, Insights, Discoveries, Kabinett, Encounters. The encounters section was curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor, films that were screened at the fair were curated by Li Zhenhua, and renowned editor Stephanie Bailey curated the Conversations program. We will map out a few of the major highlights from the fair, focusing on different forms of creative discourses.

Pace Gallery

Pace’s presentation included artworks by key 20th century figures Agnes Martin, Louise Nevelson, Hermann Nitsch, and Robert Rauschenberg exhibited in conversation with works by David Hockney, Loie Hollowell, Kylie Manning, Robert Nava, Joel Shapiro, Arlene Shechet, Kiki Smith, and Rosha Yaghmai. The booth has also showcased Asian artists including Song Dong, , Yin Xiuzhen, and Zhang Xiaogang from China, Yoshitomo Nara from Japan, and Lee Kun-Yong and Lee Ufan from South Korea. The booth became a solemn exploration of works from different regions of the world, showcasing Rauschenberg’s experimental art vocabulary pushing the boundaries of Pop Art while looking at the slivers of impact felt in the works by Qiu Xiaofei whose works revolve around the themes of memory, personhood, and dreamscapes that are born out of collective memories.

2. Lehmann Maupin

Presenting works by Kader Attia, Heidi Bucher, Billy Childish, Mandy El-Sayegh, Tom Friedman, Gilbert & George, Nicholas Hlobo, Chantal Joffe, Lee Bul, Liu Wei, Marilyn Minter, Tammy Nguyen, OSGEMEOS, Lari Pittman, Robin Rhode, Do Ho Suh, Sung Neung Kyung, and Nari Ward. In The Gape (2023), Nguyen reimagines the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, where the 2022 World Cup took place. Through her composition, Nguyen has blurred the boundaries between fantasy and architecture. Carefully weaving the multifaceted nature of architecture in her creative narrative. On the other hand, Malaysian born, London resident artist Mandy El-Sayegh’s observational practice is rooted in questioning the different structures of power; she uses fragments of magazines and newspapers to assess the power of media. The cultural and societal role that media and art plays in creating systems of power and how they themselves are in constant state of flux.

3. Tarq

Mumbai-based gallery showcased Anatomize by Nibha Sikander In Anatomize, Sikander has played upon the themes of abstraction and deconstruction that was also present in her last series, Wandering Violin Mantis. Through her careful deconstructed forms, Sikander has pointed out the multispecies relationship between humans and other species, and the violence that plagues this association. She has not kept the forms realistic and has enlarged various parts of the insects. The arrangement is also reminiscent of specimen-like representation of taxidermy in museums. As curator Roobina Karode has pointed out that the artist’s entomological interests are thoughtfully expressed through the malleable medium of paper.

4. Ben Brown Fine Arts

Miquel Barceló, Tony Bevan, Yoan Capote, Rob and Nick Carter, Awol Erizku, Candida Höfer, Vik Muniz, Nabil Nahas, José Parlá, Enoc Perez, Ena Swansea, Hank Willis Thomas and Gavin Turk. Another section of the booth will be designated for an historical exhibition of eminent post-war artists including Frank Auerbach, Alighiero Boetti, Lucio Fontana, Antony Gormley, Robert Indiana, Yves Klein, Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne, and Gerhard Richter. The booth saw paintings and multimedia works that became ruminations on the principles of Islamic designs, patterns, theoretical frameworks by Jung as seen in the works by Capote and Nahas.

5. White Cube

An array of works that touched upon the modern art from the 80s Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Darren Almond, David Altmejd, Frank Auerbach, Christine Ay Tjoe, Georg Baselitz, Bram Bogart, Tracey Emin, Theaster Gates, Antony Gormley, Andreas Gursky, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Imi Knoebel, Liu Wei, Christian Marclay, Julie Mehretu, Isamu Noguchi, Minoru Nomata, Gabriel Orozco, Park Seo-Bo, Christina Quarles, Robert Ryman, Jeff Wall, Andy Warhol.

Although the focus has been on the contemporary visual vocabularies, there has been an equal attention on the modern masterpieces of art that have shaped the aesthetics of creative expression. Most visible in Hirst’s Colour Space paintings, where he has employed dots as independent entities, symbolising the artist’s personal vision of the world.

6. Victoria Miro

Displayed new and historical worlds by Milton Avery, Hernan Bas, María Berrío, Inka Essenhigh, Secundino Hernández, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Chantal Joffe, Yayoi Kusama, Doron Langberg, Alice Neel, Chris Ofili, Celia Paul, and Flora Yukhnovich. The gallery brought together some of the most iconic works by Alice Neel, Yayoi Kusama, and Milton Avery.

Kusama’s black and green pumpkin, sculpted in bronze in 2018, is a recurring motif in Kusama’s oeuvre. According to the artist, the form of pumpkins signifies a child-like quality of humans full of warmth and wonder. Adorned with polka dots which signify cosmos and every object’s interconnectedness with it.

8. Jhaveri Contemporary

The gallery exhibited a solo show presenting works by Joydeb Roaja, titled Submerged Dreams, five monumental drawings in ink on paper dabble with historical events from Bangladesh’s yore, when the country was under the rule of Pakistan in1962. The construction of Kaptai Dam led to the flooding of the Chakma land, even the Chakma palace was submerged as the people were displaced and lost their homes, lands and were forced to migrate to the neighbouring states in India. To the local Chakma people site came to be known as Bor Porong, or the “great exodus”, the histories where dams have been weaponized to drive out the indigenous population has not been unheard of. Roaja interviewed various people from different generations to understand the effect of the event.

His drawings observe the intricate symbiotic relationship between the people of different communities in Chittagong hill and their land, recognising their rights to land. He has delineated the themes of displacement, and generational trauma that plagues the marginalised communities.

9. mor charpentier

Retelling the narratives of self and its connection to the dynamic history of the world, the gallery presented evocative artistic narratives by the likes of Kader Attia, Oscar Munoz, Chen Ching Yuan, Nohemi Perez, Hajra Waheed, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Daniel Otero Torres, Rayan Yasmineh, and Daniel Correa Mejia. The series of paintings that have dealt with the theme of memories and history, looking at the interpersonal and worldly relationships, where an individual facet of memory is affected by the global phenomenon.

As witnessed in portraiture works by Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Rayan Yasmineh where the visual vocabulary deals with the notions of identity and belonging. While Attia’s works are a visual poetry on the concepts of repair and reparation, Chen Ching Yuan’s works exist between the realms of abstract expressionism and figuration. His painting Card Stunt is an introspective play on Asian society and a person’s struggle with self and his place in the society.

Zilberman

The gallery brought together an eclectic mix of works by artists Carlos Aires, Omar Barquet, Guido Casaretto, Sim Chi Yin, Isaac Chong Wai, Sandra del Pilar, Azade Köker, Jaffa Lam Laam, and Yaşam Şaşmazer. The gallery brought numerous photography projects together, bringing the researched-based works by Sim Chi Yin, conceptual politically and socially sensitive works by Isaac Chong Wai to the forefront. Another standout from the booth is Sandra del Pilar, who has employed the transparent synthetic fibres to manifest dream-like sequences that speak of collective and personal memory.

10.David Zwirner

This year the booth had a focused representation of works by Jordan Wolfson alongside other renowned artists like Katherine Bernhardt, Marlene Dumas, Yayoi Kusama, Oscar Murillo, Sigmar Polke, Bridget Riley, Thomas Ruff, Dana Schutz, Josh Smith, Luc Tuymans, and Elizabeth Peyton. Wolfson’s monumental works are a balanced mix of American Pop Art and contemporary visual commentaries on omnipresent societal issues. It is perfectly balanced by Oscar Murillo’s meditative stance on abstract expression.