Highlights of Hong Kong International Art Fair - I

ART HK is the leading showcase for international Modern & Contemporary Art in Asia. Joining ART HK for the first time, Absolut Vodka’s BLANK campaign will be launched at the Fair. The campaign turns Absolut’s iconic bottle into a blank canvas, inspiring artists, collaborators and audiences alike to create and interpret Absolut in their own way.

Stanley Wong, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent artists, will spearhead the Hong Kong campaign and will unveil his own interpretation of Absolut BLANK.

ART HK 12 sees the return of ART HK Projects, a feature section which debuted at last year’s event. This exciting and pioneering element to the Fair will incorporate ten installation works, positioned in 100 metre squared spaces throughout the exhibition halls at the HKCEC. Dedicated to presenting large scale sculpture and installation works by leading artists from around the world, ART HK Projects provides visitors the rare opportunity to see works of an institutional scale.

Key solo presentations include STARKWHITE from Auckland, presenting a solo show by Chinese artist Jin Jiangbo, AANDO FINE ART from Berlin with works by Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa, Nadi Gallery from Indonesia, Rhona Hoffman from Chicago presenting work by Fred Sandback and New York’s McCaffrey Fine Art with both installations and works on paper by Japanese artist Noriyuki Haraguchi. Shanghai-born painters Yu Youhan and Zhou Gang will be shown in solos by ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai, and Galerie Christian Nagel Köln, Cologne, respectively.

The Fair will see the development of ART FUTURES, showcasing works by emerging artists represented by 35 of the world’s most exciting new galleries. Galleries of up to eight years old and artists under 35 at the time of application were invited to participate. New galleries participating in the section this year include Green Art Gallery from Dubai, bringing Kamrooz Aram to the Fair, London’s Herald Street Gallery presenting Hong Kong artist Cary Kwok and Melbourne’s Anna Pappas Gallery with work by Australian artist Michaela Gleave are also there.

There are numerous opportunities to engage with contemporary art through talks and events at ART HK 12. Asia Art Archive is the Official Education Partner of ART HK and has, from the Fair’s launch, assembled leading collectors, curators, critics and artists to debate the key issues affecting the international art world and Hong Kong.

Highlights of Hong Kong International Art Fair - II

The international art community including curators, artists, collectors, and hundreds of gallerists from across 38 countries is assembling for the fifth edition of Hong Kong International Art Fair. The ART HK 12 takes place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) until 20 May 2012.

• This year, ART HK’s Galleries Section welcomes 182 galleries from 30 different territories, offering outstanding solo and group presentations from around the world. Solo presentations include a series of work by Alghiero Boetti, which will be exhibited by Tornabuoni Art, Paris. Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei, will present internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Liu Wei. Nature Morte, New Delhi, will show new works by Indian artist Jitish Kallat. GALERIE MIRCHANDANI + STEINRUECKE and Chemould Prescott Road are other galleries from India that are taking part at the fair.
  
• ART HK 12 will also see the return of ASIA ONE, a section which was introduced to the Fair in 2011. Dedicated to showcasing the latest developments in Contemporary Art from across Asia, this year the section will show 49 galleries from the region, each exhibiting a solo presentation by an artist of Asian origin. ASIA ONE offers an international platform to Asian artists and their galleries and provides a unique opportunity for visitors to experience a diverse view of the Asian art scene.
  
• Etemad Gallery from Tehran will present Iranian artist Mahmoud Bakhshi, with Rest in Peace, 2012, a sculptural installation a work developed specifically for the Fair formed as 16 coffins draped in the Iranian flag. YAVUZ FINE ART, from Singapore, will bring to the Fair internationally acclaimed Thai artist Navin Rawanchaikul.
  
• Gajah Gallery presents leading Indonesian artist Masriadi, and JIA ART GALLERY from Taiwan brings abstract works by Taiwan-based Richard Lin. Hong Kong’s Blindspot Gallery will present works by Chinese contemporary photographer Pengyi Jiang, while Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore, and MORI YU, Kyoto, will both present works from young and dynamic collectives local to their spaces, Vertical Submarine and Paramodel respectively. There are several daily events, film screenings and panel discussions open to the general public.

Artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize 2012

The names of four artists shortlisted for the Turner Prize this year have just been announced. They are Spartacus Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Paul Noble and Elizabeth Price.

Each year the Turner Prize is awarded to a British artist under fifty. Artists are nominated for an exhibition (or other presentation of their work) that took place in the preceding year. While the four shortlisted artists display their work at a Turner Prize exhibition, the jury award the prize for the originally nominated presentation. Here is a quick look at the artists who have been nominated for this year’s prize:

Spartacus Chetwynd

Chetwynd draws upon historical and cultural histories to create carnivalesque performances and sculptural installations, involving handmade costumes and sets. Chetwynd’s work blurs the boundary between performer and spectator, creating an atmosphere of joyful improvisation.

Luke Fowler

Fowler interweaves found footage with his own material, creating immersive films that evoke the atmosphere of a particular era. His work reveals how the relationship between individuals and society changes through time

Paul Noble

Noble undercuts his painstakingly detailed and engrossing drawings of fictional metropolis Nobson Newtown with a dark satirical narrative which unfolds in the micro-cosmos of the monumental works.

Elizabeth Price

Price reanimates existing archives, using imagery, texts and music to explore our complex relationship to consumer culture. Her carefully sequenced films guide us through immersive virtual spaces, derived from the debris of the material world.

Work by the shortlisted artists will be shown in an exhibition at Tate Britain opening on 2 October 2012. The winner will be announced at Tate Britain in December during a live broadcast by Channel 4.

The members of the Turner Prize 2012 jury are Andrew Hunt, Director, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea; Heike Munder, Director, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich; Michael Stanley, Director, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford; Mark Sladen, Director, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; and Penelope Curtis, Director, Tate Britain.

A peep into Liu Yiqian and Steven-Chiara Rosenblum collections

We take a look at aspirations and motivations of some of the world’s most renowned art collectors at present, trying to grasp what prompts them to collect art – they way only they can do. All of them already have or want to establish their own museums, to publicly display art instead of keeping it close to their chests! 

From among the younger generation of super-rich Chinese, Liu Yiqian is probably the biggest art collector. The media often dubs him ‘the eccentric Mr Liu’ – he shaves only occasionally, and mostly wears T-shirts to work. However, his savvy investment style indicates he is a smart and thoughtful collector. Liu's art investments are done in conjunction with Wang Wei. His wife takes up curatorial tasks and focuses on Chinese art. The couple plans to build a museum in Shanghai to display their ambitious collection.

The founder of Pixmaniam, a known European digital goods e-tailer, Steve along with his wife Chiara runs a contemporary art showroom based in Paris. About a decade and a half ago, the two began collecting African art (masks, shields, musical instruments and fabrics). About 8 years ago, the two developed a keen interest for contemporary art. Their collection truly consolidated over the past four years or so, as they increasingly made major acquisitions. Drawing from what’s buzzing in the online realm, their dream project (‘Rosenblum Collection & Friends’) looks to facilitate a vast social network in which the artists and their works act as a binding force.

The couple not only displays the collection but also seeks inputs and additions from others to further enhance it. According to Chiara, establishing personal contact with each artist is crucial, hence they collect the artworks of living artists only. The two meet different artists, talk to them, and follow their various projects.

Steve reveals that the artists would offer books, films, and musical works, which have played a part in the construction of their imaginary. This public library will grow over time and will be made available to the visitors. It’s a different way of accessing the inner world of artists, to help understand their work.

‘Roti, Kapda aur Makan’ (‘Food, Cloth and Shelter)

Many of India’s leading artists like Arunkumar HG, Balaji Ponna, Chandran Ahuja, and Deepak John Mathew envision the three basic desires of human beings, to portray them in their artworks. Veteran Rameshwar Broota's photographic work 'Roti' captures scenes from Tihar Jail, whereas Vicky Roy has portrayed a struggle for fulfilling very basic necessities in life.

Indeed, ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makan’ (Food, Cloth and Shelter) are the three factors that fundamentally decide the ‘desire quotient’ of an average person. Though this has probably been a pre-globalized phenomenon, these basic desires exist even today at different levels as migration has become a part of the global urbanization process.

A curatorial note explains, “This phrase encapsulates the average desire quotient in three words that gained a special status after the success of a movie by the same name in 1974. Yet another Bollywood phrase! In this project I would like to see how the artists envision this very basic desire and portray it. Each constituting entity of this phrase has become a new subject of discourse in our times. With the changing values of life and physical contexts of existence, these play an inclusive role than definitively exclusive roles as witnessed during the pre-global times.  Today, they have become contesting factors and also pointers of socio-cultural and politic-economic existence.”

The exhibit is the inaugural group exhibition for Ojas Art’s permanent gallery. Anubhav Nath, the director of Ojas Art, is also the co-founder of the Ramchander Nath Foundation. He completed his graduation from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and later studied Marketing of the Visual Arts at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. Incidentally, the foundation is dedicated to restoring/ promoting the arts and providing unique platforms to artists. An acute observer, he covers contemporary Indian art for several Indian and international publications.

He has also curated Ojas Art’s Expressions of Tihar, a first-of-its-kind show based on experiential curation. Various artists visited Tihar Jail, one of the largest prison systems in south Asia and created artworks based on this unique experience. Previously, he had curated ‘Choas in Order’, a joint show organized by the governments of India and Vietnam hosted in Hanoi (2008) and ‘Maybach: Celebrating a Legend’ in conjunction with the US and Germany’s Maybach Foundation (2006).

A recap of Sotheby’s and Christie’s Impressionist & Modern art sales

The top prices at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s Impressionist & Modern art sales were for a pastel and a watercolor. Such was the frenzy about the $120 million sale of ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch that the rest of the artworks, including some genuine nuggets, sold in New York a week ago, drew relatively little attention.

The whole series at Sotheby’s and Christie’s garnered $526 million, among the top six or seven sales that have ever been held in that category. For Sotheby’s that sold the Munch, it reached the second highest total. On the other hand, Christie’s had a smaller opening sale. If we take out ‘The Scream’ sales from the final figures, average prices the Christie’s sale fetched, were higher than that at Sotheby’s. The sale was led by a Cézanne watercolor sketch of one intriguing figure in ‘The Card Players’, one of his most celebrated paintings series.

A colorful, if rather jumbled, Matisse’s still life of peonies – for which $4 million had been paid at the peak of the 1989/90 boom – went for $19 million. A better return was there for a smaller, succulent Picasso painting of the head of Marie-Thérèse Walter, his young lover. Bought a decade ago for $3 million, it went for $9.9 million. It was one of over 30 Picassos available at the sales that brought a cumulative $88 million, maintaining his pole position in this shaky market.

The top Picasso of the sales ended up playing second fiddle to ‘The Scream’ at Sotheby’s. The portrait of Dora Maar seated in a cozy armchair belonged to Theodore “Teddy” Forstmann, the late billionaire businessman. Despite a small tear that had been restored, it went within estimate - for $29 million. Forstmann, a fierce competitor at auction according to Sotheby’s, occasionally seems to have overpaid.

Following a record-breaking period for Surrealism, it was a major feature of the sales once again. ‘Printemps Nécrophilique’ by Salvador Dalí, once owned by eminent early-20th-century couturière Elsa Schiaperelli, is currently the theme of an exhibition at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. It sold above original estimate for $16.3 million, incidentally the second highest price ever for a work by Dalí.

This is a market where patient art collectors can expect to earn reasonable returns.

‘Inspired by India’ courtesy Sotheby’s

Sotheby's London is set to host an ambitious selling exhibition of contemporary design, ‘Inspired by India’. The event features jewelry, textiles, ceramics, furniture and photography by established creators like Alice Cicolini, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Rahul Kumar apart from up-and-coming artists like Els Woldhek and Pia Wustenberg, all inspired by the culture, colors and crafts of India.

• The selling exhibition features a unique collection of shawls by Christina Kim, of the iconic fashion brand Dosa. For more than two decades she has researched artisan-made materials and traditions.
• Pioneering textile designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s stunning wedding saris, and a range of specially commissioned shawls and headbands will also be showcased.
• Alice Cicolini’s distinctive jewelry enameled in Jaipur by one of the last remaining master enamellers, and set with precious and semi-precious stones is being offered for sale.
• Wrap, India's first contemporary luxury design company, which takes its name from the ancient 'wrapping technique' used to make royal thrones in 17th Century Jaipur, is showing stunning wood furniture wrapped in gold and silver.
• Delhi-based potter Rahul Kumar has made a unique series of pots for "Inspired by India", all in red clay. The show also features Milan-based Luisa Cevese's exclusive bags and table accessories incorporating sari fabrics sourced from rural villages.
• Photographer Gita Pandit’s often humorous observations of contemporary Indian life are being offered alongside a wonderful collection of vintage Bollywood film posters from Indian Hippy Mumbai.
• Their works together demonstrate how traditional Indian skills can be incorporated into lively, contemporary work full of excitement and surprise. 

Curated by Janice Blackburn, ‘Inspired by India’ takes place between 8 May and 15 May 2012. Commenting on the event, the curator states, "Crafts that we associate with India like weaving, embroidery, metal work, enameling etc are all sadly disappearing. The only way to preserve these techniques is to move them forward with well-designed products that combine traditional skills in a contemporary way without sacrificing their historical context.”