Cover ‘Asia Art Archive on Hollywood Road’ (2025) by Chow Chun Fai (Image: courtesy of the artist)
‘Asia Art Archive on Hollywood Road’ (2025) by Chow Chun Fai (Image: courtesy of the artist)
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Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Asia Art Archive presents its annual fundraiser with more than 65 works, which will be available for bidding online this month. Check out the recommendations by art experts and insiders now.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Asia Art Archive (AAA) returns this October and November with its annual fundraiser, featuring an auction of over 65 works donated by artists, galleries, and collectors. Presented with Christie’s Hong Kong, the event reflects AAA’s cross-generational network across Asia, supporting its mission to preserve and share contemporary art histories through open access, research, and education.
This milestone year also marks the launch of AAA’s new archiving facility, a hub for digitisation, conservation and professional development, further strengthening its role as a living resource for artists and scholars. Alongside, AAA’s anniversary programme, Archive for All: Growing with Communities, engages the public through exhibitions, talks, and residencies that animate the archive’s stories.
Online bidding runs from October 27 to November 14, with a preview from November 7 to 11 at Christie’s Hong Kong. Proceeds will sustain AAA’s work in documenting Asia’s ever-evolving art landscape.
Not sure which painting or sculpture to go for? Here are 10 recommendations by art experts, advisors and collectors, who are the ambassadors of AAA’s 25th Anniversary Fundraiser this year.
Don’t miss: Exclusive: As Asia Art Archive marks 25 years, we catch up with Claire Hsu and Christopher K Ho
1. ‘Mobile Wisdom’ (2025) by Jaffa Lam
Above ‘Mobile Wisdom’ (2025) by Jaffa Lam (Image: courtesy of the artist)
‘Mobile Wisdom’ (2025) by Jaffa Lam (Image: courtesy of the artist)
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“For 25 years, AAA has grown with Hong Kong’s art scene—driving research, sparking dialogue and building a community that now resonates globally. More than preserving art histories, it keeps them alive and urgent in the present. This year’s fundraiser is a chance to support that mission. Two works by Hong Kong artists move me in particular.
Jaffa Lam’s Mobile Wisdom (2025) transforms recycled umbrella fabric, collectively stitched, into a form that hovers between a hammock, a fishing net and a boat. Portable, resilient and communal—more than sculpture, it’s a poetics of care made tangible. Lam has a gift for turning discarded materials into vessels that cradle, carry and connect. Here, it becomes a metaphor for migration, labour and belonging—embodying the fragile yet enduring bonds that sustain communities across boundaries and transitions.” — Yvonne Wang, art writer and editor
2. ‘Muted Situation #2: Muted Lion Dance’ (2014) by Samson Young
Above ‘Muted Situation #2: Muted Lion Dance’ (2014) by Samson Young (Image: courtesy of the artist)
‘Muted Situation #2: Muted Lion Dance’ (2014) by Samson Young (Image: courtesy of the artist)
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“Samson Young’s Muted Situation #2: Muted Lion Dance (2014) strips away the expected thunder of drums and cymbals, revealing what was always there: breath, whispered cues, rustling fabric and feet finding rhythm. The true performance emerges—the dancers’ effort and quiet coordination. Young makes absence into presence, silence into attention. By muting the familiar, he attunes us to overlooked sounds—the textures and politics we usually miss. It changes how you hear. And it stays long after the last step lands.” — Yvonne Wang, art writer and editor
3. ‘F for Fold (The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia)’ (2021) by Ho Tzu Nyen
Above ‘F for Fold (The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia)’ (2021) by Ho Tzu Nyen (Image: courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue )
‘F for Fold (The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia)’ (2021) by Ho Tzu Nyen (Image: courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue )
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“It is really exciting to see an artist’s book included in this year’s auction. F for Fold (The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia) is a rare artwork and creative resource for learning about Ho Tzu Nyen’s years-long project on the complexities and contradictions of Southeast Asia as a unified region.” — Ruby Weatherall, former curatorial assistant at Asia Art Archive
4. ‘The Pot’ (2024) by Pinaree Sanpitak
Above ‘The Pot’ (2024) by Pinaree Sanpitak (Image: courtesy of the artist)
‘The Pot’ (2024) by Pinaree Sanpitak (Image: courtesy of the artist)
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“This captivating work by Pinaree Sanpitak is emblematic of her lifelong Breast Stupa series, which marries symbolic forms of womanhood with sacred architecture. The subtle interplay between the copper and the paper, the literal and the abstract, and the divine and the profane is magnetic.” — Ruby Weatherall, curatorial assistant at Asia Art Archive
5. ‘Flower and Corpse Glitch’ (2012) by teamLab
Above ‘Flower and Corpse Glitch’ (2012) by teamLab (Image: courtesy of Ikkan and Miho Sanada)
‘Flower and Corpse Glitch’ (2012) by teamLab (Image: courtesy of Ikkan and Miho Sanada)
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“Choosing just two was a challenge, given the exceptional quality of the works in the catalogue. I could have easily included pieces by Mella Jaarsma, Amy Lien & Enzo Camacho, Tishan Hsu, Samson Young and many others. However, these are the two pieces that truly resonated with me.
teamLab’s Flowers and Corpse Glitch is a captivating fusion of technology and art, where dynamic flowers unfold against a backdrop of digital decay, challenging our perceptions of life and death.
This piece stands out due to its rare domestic scale, a single panel and its provenance—coming from the esteemed collection of my dear friends, Ikkan and Miho Sanada, who have championed the collective’s work.
All editions of this artwork are sold out, and this lot also comes with a few freebies like a mini-Mac Computer and a Software Warranty that is usually additionally charged.” — Henny Scott, freelance art advisor
6. ‘Black Sun: Surface With Many Holes Studio Prototype #4’ (2023) by Mire Lee
Above ‘Black Sun: Surface With Many Holes Studio Prototype #4’ (2023) by Mire Lee (Image: courtesy of the artist and Tina Kim Gallery)
‘Black Sun: Surface With Many Holes Studio Prototype #4’ (2023) by Mire Lee (Image: courtesy of the artist and Tina Kim Gallery)
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“Mire Lee’s Black Sun is a striking exploration of form and space, with an intricate surface punctuated by holes that create a sense of depth and mystery.
Witnessing her monumental installation at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall last year was a revelatory experience, and subsequent research has only amplified my fascination with her artistic trajectory. This work would be a compelling addition to any collection. An opportunity to own an early work by this young artist on the rise is simply irresistible.
The two works I've selected are not only considered by the images themselves but also by my knowledge of the artists’ practices and my firsthand experience of their exhibitions.” — Henny Scott, freelance art advisor
7. ‘Master’s Bouquet Cindy’ (2025) by Ji Hye Kim
Above ‘Master’s Bouquet Cindy’ (2025) by Ji Hye Kim (Image: courtesy of he artist and François Ghebaly)
‘Master’s Bouquet Cindy’ (2025) by Ji Hye Kim (Image: courtesy of he artist and François Ghebaly)
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“I have long admired the art of Cindy Ji Hye Kim, whose works unfailingly captivate with their intensity and quiet power. Smaller-scale paintings, in particular, hold a rare intimacy, demanding one to lean in and linger over every detail. This latest piece—perhaps the most diminutive I have encountered in Kim’s oeuvre—shimmers with a haunting narrative, layered with psychological depth and imbued with a dreamlike visual poetry.” — Jina Lee, collector
8. ‘Lavender Star Cluster’ (2024) Heidi Lau
Above ‘Lavender Star Cluster’ (2024) Heidi Lau (Image: courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins)
‘Lavender Star Cluster’ (2024) Heidi Lau (Image: courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins)
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“I have followed the work of New York–based, Macau-born artist Heidi Lau for many years, but it was only upon encountering one of her ceramics in person—at a group exhibition in Hong Kong—that I truly fell under their spell. Steeped in ritual and myth, Lau’s creations possess an almost devotional presence. Her smaller-scale works, such as this piece at the AAA auction, evoke the aura of relics—fragments of a larger narrative that simultaneously exist as self-contained universes. Layered with hand-built textures and glazes of striking resonance, they beckon the viewer into an intimate act of contemplation.” — Jina Lee, collector
9. ‘Asia Art Archive on Hollywood Road’ (2025) by Chow Chun Fai
Above ‘Asia Art Archive on Hollywood Road’ (2025) by Chow Chun Fai (Image: courtesy of the artist)
‘Asia Art Archive on Hollywood Road’ (2025) by Chow Chun Fai (Image: courtesy of the artist)
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“When choosing artworks, I base a lot of things on my personal feelings and reliability to the work.
I’m a sucker for Hong Kong nostalgia. Chow Chun Fai created Asia Art Archive on Hollywood Road that chronicles the opening of AAA’s Hollywood Road library and features enduring Hong Kong icons like our red taxis and lion dances in Sheung Wan, one of our most historically rich and layered neighbourhoods.” — Fed Tan, art collector
10. ‘Fireworks at Lake Toya’ (2024) by Hao Liang
Above ‘Fireworks at Lake Toya’ (2024) by Hao Liang (Image: courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space)
‘Fireworks at Lake Toya’ (2024) by Hao Liang (Image: courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space)
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“I’ve long admired Hao Liang’s moody ink paintings on silk. For this work, it depicts a moment the artist experienced in Hokkaido, Japan, a place that I also have an attachment to—it was one of the best summer holidays I took with my family.” — Fed Tan, art collector
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
