Cover Yayoi Kusama, Life Shines On (2019). (© Yayoi Kusama. Image: Ota Fine Arts)

The online viewing rooms will feature 231 galleries exhibiting more than 2,000 artworks that have a combined value of more than US$250 million. Here are 10 galleries worth checking out

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to disrupt events and exhibitions all around the world, cultural institutions are beginning to showcase digital exhibitions. Following the cancellation of its event this year, Art Basel has launched a new digital initiative to continue reaching out to collectors around the world.

Art Basel’s online viewing room opens to Art Basel VIPs at 6pm (Singapore time) on Wednesday, March 18. It opens to the public at 6pm on Friday, March 20 and closes at 6pm on Wednesday, March 25.

(Related: The Tatler Guide to Building Your Own Museum)

Tatler Asia
Above Chris Ofili, Vessel 11 (2019). (© Chris Ofili. Image: Chris Ofili and David Zwirner)

1. David Zwirner

Figurative painters are in the spotlight at David Zwirner, which is exhibiting works by contemporary artists who are investigating what painting means in the 21st century, including Lisa Yuskavage, Luc Tuymans and Chris Ofili.

Tatler Asia
Above Do Ho Suh, Main Entrance, 388 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA (2016). (© Do Ho Suh. Image: Lehmann Maupin)

2. Lehmann Maupin

One of Korean artist Do Ho Suh’s signature polyester sculptures is a highlight of Lehmann Maupin’s viewing room. These works of “fabric architecture” are painstaking recreations of Suh’s past homes—this one features the entrance to his old home in Providence, Rhode Island.  

Lehmann Maupin’s viewing room will also feature works by American artist McArthur Binion, Shirazeh Houshiary and Erwin Wurm, among others.

(Related: Art Collector Shanyan Koder’s Remarkable Private Collection)

Tatler Asia
Above Prem Sahib, 'DESCENT I. People Come & Go', November 13-30, 2019, Southard Reid. (Image: Prem Sahid/Southard Reid/Lewis Ronald)

3. Southard Reid

London-based gallery Southard Reid—which was due to take part in Art Basel in Hong Kong for the first time this year—is presenting recent work by conceptual British artist Prem Sahib. Titled Descent, Sahib’s latest series explores themes of desire, shame and identity through video, sculpture, performance, installations and archival material belonging to the Sahib’s family.

Tatler Asia
Above Lee Ufan, From Line (1982). (Image: Lee Ufan and Kukje Gallery)

4. Kukje Gallery

Seoul-based Kukje Gallery is offering a mixture of South Korean and western art in its viewing room, including paintings by dansaekhwa masters Lee Ufan, Chung Sang-hwa and Kim Yong-ik, as well as one of Anish Kapoor’s famous circular mirrors and a large bronze sculpture by Scandinavian stars Elmgreen & Dragset.

Tatler Asia
D2019.37 - JAPAN IS AMERICA, 10/11/19, 9:25 AM, 16C, 6178x8999 (488+0), 112%, Repro 2.2 v2,   1/8 s, R112.5, G107.6, B122.9
Above Ed Ruscha, Japan Is America (2019). (© Ed Ruscha. Image: Fergus McCaffrey)

5. Fergus McCaffrey

New York-based Fergus McCaffrey, which is most famous for representing many of the leading artists who emerged in post-WWII Japan, is showing Japan in America, a project featuring artists who were affected or inspired by the complex relationship that emerged between the two countries in the second half of the twentieth century.

The artists included are Miyako Ishiuchi, Jasper Johns, Nobuaki Kojima, Tomio Miki, Sadamasa Motonaga, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, and Toshio Yoshida.

Tatler Asia
Above Keiichi Tanaami, The Laughing Spider (2016). (Image: Keiichi Tanaami and Nanzuka)

6. Nanzuka

One of Tokyo’s leading galleries, Nanzuka, is exhibiting an animation by Keiichi Tanaami. Titled The Laughing Spider, the video depicts scenes from Tanaami’s memories and dreams.

Tatler Asia
Above Frog Awakening (2019) by Kwok Mang-ho (Image: 10 Chancery Lane Gallery and Kwok Mang-ho)

7. 10 Chancery Lane Gallery

Hong Kong’s 10 Chancery Lane Gallery is presenting Living Legends: Frog King Kwok, Xiao Lu, Huang Rui and Wang Keping.
 
These four artists have radically shaped contemporary art in China and Hong Kong over the past forty years: sculptor Wang Keping and performance artist Huang Rui were both members of the daring “Stars” group of artists that formed in 1979, while Xiao Lu is perhaps most famous for firing a gun at her own work when it was hung in the National Art Museum of China in 1989 and Frog King has been a pioneer of performance and conceptual art in Hong Kong since the 1960s.   

(Related: Sotheby’s Asia Chairman Nicolas Chow on the Impact That Chinese Collectors Have on the Art World)

Tatler Asia
Above Barbara Kruger, Is blind idealism reactionary? (2011). (Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers)

8. Sprüth Magers

Sprüth Magers, which has galleries in Berlin, London and Los Angeles, is offering a selection of works in a variety of media. One of the highlights is one of Barbara Kruger’s trademark text-based works about power, politics, desire and gender.

Tatler Asia
Above Wesley Tongson, Bamboo No. 1041 (2011). (Courtesy of Galerie du Monde)

9. Galerie du Monde

Paintings by the late Hong Kong ink artist Wesley Tongson are being shown by Galerie du Monde alongside a selection of works by other artists who similarly explore the relationship between Euro-American abstraction and East Asian philosophy. 

Tatler Asia
Above Yayoi Kusama, Life Shines On (2019). (© Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts)

10. Ota Fine Arts

Yayoi Kusama’s psychedelic mirrored installations have become a sensation in recent years as selfie seekers have flocked to them in museums and galleries. Ota Fine Arts, which has galleries in Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore, is showing Kusama’s Life Shines On, which is more of an infinity box than an infinity room—it’s only two metres tall by two metres deep. But it still provides the same experience of seemingly never-ending, cosmic space.

(Related: Yayoi Kusama's Life Is The Heart Of A Rainbow Exhibition in Singapore)

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