Discover the Highlights from Art Basel Hong Kong

“2023 was about the reopening,” said Art Basel Hong Kong director Angelle Siyang-Le at the press conference ahead of the fair. “2024 naturally it was about reconnecting between East and West, and 2025 after two years of involving [SIC] with the art industry, with our art community, I feel that naturally, the theme this year and our goal is to repurpose, and how we repurpose is [to] transcend ourselves beyond buying and selling platforms to date, what we called an intersection for creative opportunities, and our goal is always to support the galleries and the artists.” 

Many galleries reported sales, most notably a 2013 Yayoi Kusama Infinity Nets painting for $3.5 million by David Zwirner. Additionally, the global blue-chip gallery sold a painting of a figure dressed in a padded uniform—perhaps a symbol of protection—by Belgian artist Michaël Borremans that was acquired for $1.6 million by the Shenzhen-based Corridor Foundation. Francisco-based Jessica Silverman reported several sales, including a $110,000 Clare Rojas, a $75,000 painting by Hayal Pozanti, who also has an installation in the Encounter sector, and a $22,000 painting by Chelsea Ryoko Wong. New York-based Tina Kim listed two works by Pacita Abad sold, one for $250,000 to $500,000, and the other for between $100,000 and $250,000, as well as a painting by Ha Chong-Hyun that sold for $100,000 to $250,000. On the second VIP day, Kim placed one of the large-scale Abad works from the Encounters installation with a Southeast Asian museum, selling it for $500,000; a record for the artist. Beijing’s Ink Studio said a 2021-2023 ink-on-paper by Binyi sold for $75,000 to a private collector in North America. Lehmann Maupin sold a charcoal-based work called Sweet Talk by Anna Park, who just announced her representation by the gallery, for $40,000. Global gallery MASSIMODECARLO sold a Jamian Juliano-Villani for $100,000 to $120,000, as well as a Dominique Fung, who is showing at their Hong Kong space, for $80,000 to $100,000. 

The works at the fair spanned from modern to contemporary, from around the globe. At Manila- and New York-based Silverlens for the Kabinett sector, Filipino-American artist James Clar presented two works juxtaposed against each other to ponder how technology affects our perception of light and water. An illuminated deconstructed Parol, a Filipino symbol of the star that guided the Three Wisemen to Jesus, was juxtaposed against a screen depicting an interactive screen where viewers could see themselves through algorithm-fueled filters showing blur, rain, and fog. 

Thickly-layered impasto oil paint paintings by Zhu Jinshi and Antony Micallef as well as  exuberant bookshelves filled with coffee table books by Paris-based artist Michael Korman filled the walls at Pearl Lam. Luc Tuymans’s 2003 painting of the Shanghai skyline that recently showed at his UCCA Beijing retrospective hung on the wall at David Zwirner. 

Over at Hong Kong-based SC Gallery, crowds filled the booth to gawk at a series of politically-provocative paintings by Chow Chun Fai showed a depiction of former president Jiang Zemin criticizing the Hong Kong media for being “too simple, sometimes naive” when asked if he supported former chief executive CH Tung in 2000. 

A brilliant 1970 Matta tilted Tail-cock Party at Pace, Hauser & Wirth celebrated two renowned female sculptors a red silk and bronze sculpture by Barbara Chase-Riboud titled Matisse’s Back in Twins, Red and a caged pink marble home by Louise Bourgeois called Cell (Choisy Two)—it sold for $2 million — were among the global blue-chip gallery presented.

Over at Timothy Taylor, a season-appropriate cherry blossom tree painting by Paul Anthony Smith from his “Dream Deferred” series was among the works at the stand. A colorful menagerie of colorful, ethereal doorknobs by Do Ho Suh were on display at Lehmann Maupin. 

Annely Juda Fine Art displayed collages, paintings, and photo-based works by the late Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy, while Acquavella showed a Francis Bacon priced at over $20 million.

“FREEDOM CANNOT BE SIMULATED” read a Rirkrit Tiravanija piece at Kurimanzutto. A robotic kinetic sculpture by Anicka Yi, who recently opened a show at UCCA Beijing, sold for $225,000 at Gladstone. Meanwhile, London- and Accra-based 3C37 showed surfers on the beach by Gideon Appah and a portrait of a woman in flora-and-fauna print dress by Amoako Boafo. 

Encounters curator Alexie Glass-Kantor, who just stepped down from Art Basel Hong Kong and as executive director of Sydney’s Artspace to be curatorial executive director of Art Dubai Group presented her final Art Basel Hong Kong Encounters exhibition. “It’s been a really remarkable privilege and a great journey to be the curator for Art Basel Hong Kong for a decade,” Glass-Kantor said. “This is my eighth edition of encounters, and it’s really been a profound gift to be able to collaborate with the team here to support, develop and present the most ambitious installations of art for the region.

Glass-Kantor assembled 18 large-scale installations for the 2025 edition of Encounters. Turner-prize finalist Pio Abad paid homage to his aunt, the late Pacita Abad, by designing an installation highlighting three of her large scale trapunto paintings for a moving intergenerational and posthumous collaboration. Hong Kong artist Movana Chen turned books, magazines, and passports into material to weave together tapestries that question the transformation of knowledge and identity. Turkish-American Pozanti turned her joyful gestural paintings into immersive reflective sculptures for her Encounters installation. Glass-Kantor also installed digital art in the sector for the first time, including Lu Yang’s animated AI collaboration film with her AI collaborator, Doku the Creator, features a film and video game called where visitors can purchase NFT grab-bags. Pedro Wonaeamirri, from the Tiwi Islands, presented an installation featuring striking Tutini poles used in mourning rituals. The installation was originally slated for the 2020 Biennale of Sydney. 

The luxury brands continued to support the arts, including Audemars Piguet Contemporary, which commissioned a performance that explores the relationship between macaque monkeys and the indigenous people of South Minahasa at the fair by Indonesian artist Natasha Tontey. Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton had a stand featuring trunks filled with Multicolore bags from its latest partnership with Takashi Murakami. BMW displayed its Julie Mehretu BMW M Hybrid V8 that recently competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The opening day of Art Basel proved that Hong Kong continues to be Asia’s top destination for art. “We believe that Hong Kong is the cultural hub of Asia,” said Siyang-Le. “We can see that this week, you will witness the reason why Hong Kong stays as a cultural hub.”