Arts: 10Artists to Look Out for at Art Basel
Look out for these bright talents in Hong Kong’s upcoming art fair
1. Nicolas Party Xavier Hufkens
When making his brightly-coloured portraits and still-life paintings, Swiss artist Nicolas Party mines art history for inspiration—and it shows. You can see the influence of Botero in his fleshy, round-faced subjects, the impact of Cézanne on his stripped-back still lifes and the mark of David Hockney in his continued use of vivid, fresh-from-the-bottle colours. Like the artists of yore who inspire him, Party seems destined for great things. He’s not yet 40 but has already had a major solo exhibition at the esteemed Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC.
2. Wang Yin Vitamin Creative Space, Beijing
While many contemporary Chinese artists have earned international acclaim by making boundary-breaking digital art, Wang Yin has remained faithful to the traditional medium of oil paint. Each of his paintings provides a snapshot of life in contemporary China, giving viewers a glimpse into both bucolic countryside and bustling cities. In one recent painting, Wang illustrates farmers tilling the soil beneath a picture-perfect sky; in another work from the same period, a faceless man sits cramped in a windowless, four-bed berth on a train. Look closely at his paintings in the Vitamin Creative Space booth and you might see the influence of Wang’s idol, Paul Cézanne, in the elegant, long-limbed figures.
3. Takeo Hanazawa Gallery Side 2, Tokyo
Japanese painter Takeo Hanazawa is obsessed with mixing East and West, old and new, high art and pop culture. His painting Nirvana (Street Dreams) on view at the Gallery Side 2 booth, is a perfect example of his varied interests. It features the Japanese cartoon character Totoro, aliens from the Disney film Toy Story and a Picasso-esque painting of a bull all on one canvas. His playful approach to art has won Hanazawa some powerful fans; in 2014, the fashion label Alexander Mcqueen commissioned him to make a site-specific installation for its boutique in Tokyo.
4. Josh Kline 47 Canal, New York
Josh Kline is worried about the state of humanity and uses his art to air his fears. One of his installations, Skittles (2014), was a fridge filled with brightly coloured, healthy looking juices of the sort you’d find in trendy health food shops around the world. But when you read through the ingredients, it became clear that all was not as it seemed. One juice contained “kombucha, agave, quinoa, credit card, American Apparel,” another “banana, Red Bull, infused vodka, self-tanner and Axe body wash.” While this installation was an acerbic comment on consumerism, Kline’s other works have tackled issues such as the surveillance state and how technology will take our jobs.