The bets are well and truly in. Hong Kong is now the world’s biggest
fine art auction market after New York and London – a fitting title for a
city that takes pride in its status as an international financial
centre. With no import tax on artworks, low corruption, reliable
logistics and a strategic position (well placed to capitalize upon
mainland China’s economic boom) it was, perhaps, only a matter of time
before the city would host a major art fair. ART HK was founded in 2008
and quickly became established as the leading event of its kind in Asia.
Held annually in the city’s Convention and Exhibition Centre (site of
the 1997 Handover Ceremony) the fair has mushroomed from 100 galleries
and 19,000 visitors at its inaugural edition to 266 galleries and 67,000
attendees. Only a few short months ago the MCH Group (owners of the
market-leading Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach fairs) announced
their purchase of a controlling stake in the event, but even before this
deal was being struck a rash of heavy-hitting international galleries
(including White Cube, Gagosian, Lehmann Maupin, and Galerie Perrotin)
were setting up their Hong Kong outposts. In a city that loves status
symbols their offerings of Hirst, Murakami and other “brand-name”
artists represent a play for the well-heeled consumer jugular. It seems
the market is undergoing a wholesale sea change.
Hong Kong’s gallery scene was small throughout the 1990s. The high price
of real estate and most residents’ pursuit of money, not culture,
conspiring to produce an unadventurous topography (only consistently
redeemed by the work of Hanart TZ). It would take the post-millennium
boom to fire the imaginations of would-be collectors and, predictably,
this was a partial spin-off of financial-world hype around BRIC
economies. Chinese art was like Chinese equities – “buy now”. When
wealthy mainlanders began to showcase their considerable spending power
at the city’s auction houses it heralded the birth of a certifiable
contemporary art-market phenomenon. It was then that the seeds were sown
for a whole new crop of dealers (many peddling poor imitations of Yue
Minjun’s smiling grotesques) and serious interest on the part of Western
players. The appearance of ART HK would eventually address the
imbalance between cash and quality in spectacular fashion – if only for a
few short days a year. With some of the world’s most prominent
galleries putting down roots, it now appears that the Hong Kong art
market has finally become as globalized as its financial sector.
Gagosian gallery is home to Richard Serra, Cy Twombly and many more of
the West’s most prominent artists. The Hong Kong outpost is its eleventh
worldwide. As its Director Nick Simunovic relates, it was perhaps the
first blue-chip outfit to stake a claim in the territory. “I moved here
in the summer of 2007 and we opened the space in January 2011 […] I’ve
been here for almost six years, so I appreciate that ART HK has given
tremendous development to Hong Kong as a cultural hub, but we were
already sold on Asia even without the art fair”. A former employee of
the Guggenheim, Simunovic recounts his impression, in 2006, that there
were “no galleries” addressing the needs of serious collectors in the
region – “We felt they had been underserved, because it’s quite daunting
to pick up the phone and call London and New York if you live in Taipei
or Jakarta. I saw that Asia was a wide open playing field, that there
was very little happening here as far as Western art was concerned”. It
was this judgment that led to a conversation with Larry Gagosian – a
discussion that would take Simunovic away from the museum world and into
the cut and thrust of this emerging market.
“When I arrived we didn’t know what to expect – which artists would be
most in demand, or which geographies we would have the most success in.
We knew there were pockets of sophisticated collectors in places like
Japan and Korea but the idea of coming to Hong Kong was [an attempt] to
work from a platform in the heart of Asia with good infrastructural
links to the rest of the region; to have a space from which we could
work with collectors across the wider geography”. Simunovic
re-emphasizes their multi-national strategy: “It’s not just about Hong
Kong. It’s not just about China. We’re happy to be on mainland China’s
doorstep, but really we wanted to bring the artists that we work with to
greater attention and prominence across the whole region”.
Gagosian Hong Kong’s collectors hail from as far afield as Japan and
Australia. But this widening of the gallery’s client base isn’t
necessarily being paralleled in their artist roster. As Simunovic
explains, “We are probably best known for showing Western modern and
contemporary artists; for being the gallery of Koons, Twombly, Ruscha
and Picasso – and we wanted to do all those kind of things here”. “Of
course we’re open exhibiting Asian artists”, he continues, “and we work
with Zeng Fanzhi, but our motivating strategy was not to come here and
sign up five or ten Chinese artists. […] We want to work with those who
we think will have a major retrospective at MoMA in five or ten years”.
The new owners of the art fair are also keen to stress that they are
bringing international quality to Asia, rather than chasing local
tastes. The rebranding of ART HK as Art Basel Hong Kong might seem
unnecessary given the event’s success at building an international
profile but, as their communications director Calum Sutton explains, the
change is meant to send a clear signal to art market players. “The idea
is that all three fairs will be of equal quality. So it’s not about the
‘original and best [fair being the Swiss edition]. The message we want
to get across is that this is an Art Basel quality event.”
One implication of this message is that the artworks in the fair need
not be subject to some of the more prosaic conditions affecting the
local marketplace. Conditions which Robin Peckham, owner of the Hong
Kong based Saamlung gallery, outlines: “Hong Kong commercial galleries
on the sub-blue-chip end of the scale are fighting an uphill battle due
to the mechanics of rent and artist sales. Collectors tend to live in
relatively small places here, which means sales of big pieces are few
and far between”. In this respect, the fair can be said to float above
the everyday – as comments by Magnus Renfrew (former Fair Director of
ART HK, now Director Asia for Art Basel) confirm: “Dealers consider the
fair a hub for the region. It’s not just about Hong Kong. It’s also
about Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia and of course Australia. There are
different circumstances in each of these countries with regard to the
cost of real estate. But at ART HK we had works from our public projects
section find homes in Asia, so scale is not necessarily an obstacle”.
For any gallery, being admitted to Art Basel and its Miami sibling is
notoriously difficult. Might applicants to the Hong Kong fair view it a
back door to these more established events? Renfrew is doubtful. “The
selection criteria for all three fairs is very stringent, so to get into
Art Basel in Hong Kong is not an easy thing to achieve. I can’t speak
for all of them”, he says, “but I think the majority of the galleries
that are coming here are doing so in order to introduce their program to
the Asian collector base. It would be a very expensive enterprise if
you weren’t anticipating engaging with them.” He continues – “The
younger generation of galleries are really seeing what the future looks
like. Asia is playing a more important role in all our lives and they
want to connect with that.”
Wary of any perceived trade imbalance, the fair is eager to stress their
commitment to giving regional galleries an international platform. The
numbers appear to back up their claims. Art Basel Hong Kong will feature
more Asian galleries than its previous incarnation. Of the 171
galleries in the main section, the percentage is 43%, up from 40% in
2012 and much more than other international fairs. This represents an
endorsement of the region’s galleries by the fair’s owners. But does it
presage more Asian visibility in their Swiss and American endeavours –
which are, by far, the worlds most significant in terms of sales? “I
think that it’s going to be a matter of evolution rather than
revolution” says Renfrew “The natural circumstance will be that the
selection committees for the other fairs will attend Art Basel Hong Kong
and become more familiar with interesting galleries from the region.
They’ll also hear things from colleagues who are participating. So, yes,
I’d anticipate that as time goes on more Asian galleries will be
represented.” Renfrew’s seven years in Asia – five of them spent in Hong
Kong – will be called upon as a resource during the selection process,
which might bode well for Asian participation. However, he does not
have voting rights, so the future is still an open question.
Global interest in the Hong Kong art market has increased dramatically
since the establishment of the fair. But with foreign galleries
prioritizing the regional collector base and championing “international”
rosters aren’t local artists and dealers in danger of being suffocated?
Peckham takes an optimistic position. “ART HK has demonstrated to a
long-isolated art scene that Hong Kongdoes have meaningful contributions
to make to global culture. I personally believe that it's been this
exposure to the international rhetoric of contemporary art that has
allowed a few younger artists here to break out onto the wider
exhibition circuit. I also think that the transformation into Art Basel
Hong Kong will allow the pulling power of its brand to bring a number of
younger, edgier galleries to the city, and that's what excites me
most”.