10 Artists to Look Out for at Art Basel

It can be hard to know where to start at Art Basel in Hong Kong, which features more than 240 galleries from around the world this year. Oliver Giles introduces 10 talents worth seeking out

Experience the arts’ finest as we break down the 10 talents worth seeking out at Art Basel

LIU XIAODONG ESLITE GALLERY, TAIPEI

One of the giants of Chinese contemporary art, Liu Xiaodong is renowned for his largescale, neo-realist oil paintings of modern life in China (one example pictured above). Liu began receiving international attention in the early 2000s, when he produced a series of paintings depicting families who had been displaced by the construction of the enormous Three Gorges Dam. Since then, Liu has painted everything from communities reeling from the effects of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to miners digging for jade in China’s northwest province of Xinjiang.

EGON SCHIELE RICHARD NAGY, LONDON

Austrian artist Egon Schiele might have died more than a century ago, but his work (pictured below) still feels strikingly modern. Schiele, best known for his sensuous, unapologetically erotic nude portraits, which often feature the sitter staring boldly out at the viewer, was vilified as indecent and condemned in his time; once he was even arrested on a charge of “offences against public morality” (the charge was dropped). At Art Basel, gallery Richard Nagy is showcasing a series of Schiele’s works on paper completed between 1910 and 1918, just before his untimely death from the Spanish flu.

LIU KUO-SUNG GALERIE DU MONDE, HONG KONG

The work of Taiwan’s boundarybreaking Fifth Moon Group, whose members revolutionised Chinese painting in the 1950s by combining traditional techniques with Western abstraction, will be on show at Galerie du Monde’s booth at Art Basel. Liu Kuo-sung was the founder and creative visionary behind the group, and his boundary-breaking ink paintings (pictured below) perhaps most successfully embody the movement’s desire to fuse the best of East and West.

VINCENT NAMATJIRA THIS IS NO FANTASY: DIANNE TANZER + NICOLA STEIN, MELBOURNE

Albert Namatjira is often hailed as the most famous Aboriginal Australian artist in history—he was the first Aboriginal person to be granted Australian citizenship and the first to win the Archibald Prize, one of the country’s most prestigious art awards. This rich legacy inspires his greatgrandson Vincent, who is making a name for himself as one of Australia’s most exciting young artists with bold paintings that reference the country’s colonial history, think pictures of Captain Cook and the Queen, and contemporary politics.

BAGUS PANDEGA ROH PROJECTS, JAKARTA

Living up to its reputation as the go-to gallery for collectors looking for upand-coming talent from Indonesia, ROH Projects is bringing work by several young Indonesian artists to Art Basel. Among them is Bagus Pandega, who makes complex kinetic installations that often include LED lights or other bulbs, record players and music instruments such as keyboards and electric guitars. These intriguing works have earned him an international fan base: he’s previously had an exhibition in Tokyo, contributed a work to the Amsterdam Light Festival and completed an artist residency in France.

JOHN BALDESSARI GALERIE GRETA MEERT, BRUSSELS

Humour unites all of John Baldessari’s art, whether it takes the form of collages, prints, paintings, films, books, performances or installations. The irreverent Californian is now in his late 80s but is still producing work at a prodigious pace in his studio in Venice, Los Angeles. In a sign that his fame has now spread far beyond the art world, earlier this year Baldessari played himself in an episode of The Simpsons.

CARMEN HERRERA LISSON GALLERY, NEW YORK AND LONDON

Sexism in the art world is a hot topic right now, with many galleries and museums trying to rectify past wrongs and shine a light on innovative female artists who were previously ignored. One of these artists is 103-year-old Carmen Herrera, who creates bright, colour-blocked paintings that were at the forefront of the geometric abstraction and minimalist movements but were swept aside while similar art made by men was lauded as visionary. Herrera didn’t sell a painting until 2004, when she was 89. A recent documentary about Herrera, The 100 Years Show, is sure to bring her some of the recognition that has been far, far too long coming.

RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA KURIMANZUTTO, MEXICO CITY AND NEW YORK

“ALL YOU NEED IS DYNAMITE” was emblazoned across one of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s canvases exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach last year, one of many recent works by the Thai artist that explores global inequality and contemporary politics. At Art Basel in Hong Kong, Kurimanzutto is exhibiting new works (pictured above) by Tiravanija that feature a Simplified Chinese phrase printed over pages from the South China Morning Post. In English, the sentence reads “Do we dream under the same sky?”, a phrase Tiravanija has used multiple times over the years in a variety of different projects to explore the ideas that draw communities together—or pull them apart.

RICHARD LIN BANK, SHANGHAI

Collectors around the world are clamouring for works by the late minimalist Taiwanese painter Richard Lin, whose prices at auction have skyrocketed in recent months. Lin’s meticulous, delicate works are hailed for combining his love of Western modernist architecture, the art of Piet Mondrian and the teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi. Outside of Art Basel, where Lin’s work is being shown by Bank gallery, Bonhams is hosting an exhibition of works by Lin at its gallery in One Pacific Place from March 18 to 30.

CAROL BOVE DAVID ZWIRNER, NEW YORK, LONDON AND HONG KONG

Featuring everything from bent, crushed and warped metal tubes to velvety peacock feathers, Carol Bove’s abstract sculptures encourage viewers to think deeply about the nature of materials. Bove was born in Switzerland and represented the country at the 2017 Venice Biennale but is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, where her neighbourhood’s industrial past has deeply inspired her art. Art Basel Hong Kong will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong from March 29 to 31. For more information, visit artbasel.com