STATE OF THE ART

Following its staging last year in the digital space, Asia’s biggest marketplace of modern and contemporary art makes its welcome return to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre this month with a format that combines the physical and the virtual.

The BMW Art Journey at Art Basel Hong Kong continues the marque’s decades of commitment to supporting talented

artists, one of whom was Andy Warhol, who designed the BMW M1

Art Car in 1979

The highlight of what’s come to be known as art month, Art Basel Hong Kong is one of the biggest contemporary art fairs in the world and certainly the most important in Asia. Taking place from May 21 to 23 and preceded by two days of VIP previews that begin on May 19, it was originally scheduled to kick off some two months ago. The postponement, however, has had exactly the desired outcome, as it has enabled the organisers to attract a far larger number of physical participants than would otherwise have been possible. Indeed, had they gone ahead with the event in March, this year’s fair would have been much like that of 2020, which took place entirely in the digital dimension.

Inevitably, however, compared with more normal years when the fair was able to attract some 250 participating galleries, this is a slimmed-down version of Art Basel, with a total of 104 exhibitors at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Of those, 56 international exhibitors are taking satellite booths, which will be staffed by locally appointed representatives, while eight leading Italian galleries – Alfonso Artiaco, Cardi Gallery, Galleria Continua, Galleria Franco Noero, Galleria d’arte Maggiore GAM, Mazzoleni, Massimo De Carlo and Rossi & Rossi – have joined together in a single booth.

However, the fact that a physical show – and one that’s likely to receive a healthy flow of visitors, even if they’re socially distanced – can take place at all is surely cause for some celebration.