Cover Yoshitomo Nara, whose work will be featured at the 2024 Para Site Benefit Auction (Photo: Getty Images)
Yoshitomo Nara, whose work will be featured at the 2024 Para Site Benefit Auction (Photo: Getty Images)
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Hong Kong-based art space Para Site’s fundraising auction features works by award-winning Asian artists such as Yoshitomo Nara, Yu Ji and Pio Abad. Which one are you eyeing?
Hong Kong’s independent, non-profit art space Para Site has revealed its line-up of items which will be sold at the 2024 Para Site Benefit Auction on November 20, 2024, at St Regis, Wan Chai.
More than 60 artworks and experiences are donated by artists, galleries and Para Site’s friends for the auction. All proceeds will go towards the art space’s work in running exhibitions and programmes for free to the public.
The auction preview exhibition will be available from November 14 to 17 at H Queen’s. Bidding on live lots through Para Site’s online platform will close on November 19 at noon. The auction will continue live during the gala on November 20 at 8pm.
Here are seven highlighted auction lots chosen by Para Site which shouldn’t be missed.
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‘Flesh in Stone—Ghost: Number 7’ (2020) by Yu Ji
Above “Flesh in Stone—Ghost: Number 7” (2020) by Yu Ji (Photo: courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London)
“Flesh in Stone—Ghost: Number 7” (2020) by Yu Ji (Photo: courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London)
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Flesh in Stone—Ghost is an ongoing series of sculptures since 2012 created in the shapes of body parts in different scales and movements, which are then added with components such as iron and plaster moulds to show the body parts’ tension. In the process, the artist Yu Ji, who is based between Shanghai and New York, tests her models’ physical and mental capacities by asking them to pose to the point of exhaustion. Yu then sculpts the pieces based on her memory of their bodies.
Number 7 is a wall-mounted piece with materials typically used to construct post-brutalist architecture, a late 1970s movement known for using raw concrete. This art piece is made with cement and wood and is paired with iron wires and nails—robust and brittle at the same time, these materials allude to the rapid urbanisation China experienced over the last decades.
Generously donated by the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London
‘Currents’ (2024) by Firenze Lai
Above “Currents” (2024) by Firenze Lai (Photo: courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space)
“Currents” (2024) by Firenze Lai (Photo: courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space)
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Hong Kong-born, London-based artist Firenze Lai explores how people adapt and react to different circumstances in their daily lives. In her practice, one can find traces of her upbringing in the outlying islands of Hong Kong, which is signified by her experimentation with space.
Lai’s work has been featured in well-established institutions and festivals, including Centre Pompidou in Paris (2020-2021), the Venice Biennale (2017) and the New Museum Triennial in New York (2015).
Generously donated by the artist and Vitamin Creative Space
‘Winking Face’ (2024) by Yoshitomo Nara
Above “Winking Face” (2024) by Yoshitomo Nara (Image: courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation)
“Winking Face” (2024) by Yoshitomo Nara (Image: courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation)
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Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara has developed a significant body of ceramic works since 2007, after his artist residency in Shigaraki. This ceramic sculpture, painted with the winking face of a girl, embodies the signature subjects of his work: stylised images of solitary, child-like characters who are often caught in complex mental states of rebellion, resistance or detachment. The figures in Nara’s works frequently embody a deeply reflective process, influenced by memories, music, paintings and literature.
Generously donated by the artist, courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation
‘Autorretrato Oponible Actual, 20’ (2023) by Abraham Cruzvillegas
Above “Autorretrato Oponible Actual, 20” (2023) by Abraham Cruzvillegas (Image: courtesy of the artist and Kurimanzutto)
“Autorretrato Oponible Actual, 20” (2023) by Abraham Cruzvillegas (Image: courtesy of the artist and Kurimanzutto)
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Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas is known for using primates in his art as a symbol and means of Latin American political satire, in which apes and monkeys act as a playful critique of seriousness. His latest series, Autorretrato Oponible Actual, combines abstract gestures with bold, quick brushstrokes in complementary secondary colours—orange, purple, and green—outlined by contemplative black ink and acrylic lines that depict primate faces and hands. The artist sees these drawings as self-portraits which explore his identity and humour through the lens of primate imagery.
Cruzvillegas has previously exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2003), the Ming Contemporary Art Museum in Shanghai (2017) and Tate Modern in London (2011).
Generously donated by the artist and Kurimanzutto
‘Untitled’ (2022) by Nicole Coson
Above “Untitled” (2022) by Nicole Coson (Image: courtesy of the artist)
“Untitled” (2022) by Nicole Coson (Image: courtesy of the artist)
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London-based Filipino artist Nicole Coson created her untitled art piece by coating Venetian blinds with oil-based ink and running it through the crushing force of a printing press a few times to leave the pattern on raw linen. The result doesn’t show traces of how the object is under duress; rather, it evokes a feeling of serenity. While the blinds imply access to another place, such access is thwarted by the canvas. These contracting concepts point to Coson’s play with visual obfuscation and her method of telling stories of family, society and coloniality in indirect, implied ways.
Generously donated by the artist
‘Day 1’ (2021) by AA Murakami
Above “Day 1” (2021) by AA Murakami (Image: courtesy of the artists and Pearl Lam Galleries)
“Day 1” (2021) by AA Murakami (Image: courtesy of the artists and Pearl Lam Galleries)
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Art duo AA Murakami, who includes Alexander Groves and Azusa Murakami, creates immersive installations by using ephemeral materials like fog, bubbles and plasma, and explores the future of natural resources in their art. Day 1 is a rare example of one of their collectable works. The piece, which captures colours in soft gradients, refers to the sky, which they describe as “the breathable atmosphere created some 3.8 billion years ago by microorganisms in our oceans”.
Generously donated by the artists and Pearl Lam Galleries
‘Counternarratives IX’ (2017) by Pio Abad
Above “Counternarratives IX” (2017) by Pio Abad (Image: courtesy of the artist and Silverlens, Manila / New York)
“Counternarratives IX” (2017) by Pio Abad (Image: courtesy of the artist and Silverlens, Manila / New York)
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Manila-born, London-based artist Pio Abad focuses on the postcolonial history of the Philippines. This acid dye print on silk twill is emblazoned with “history has its eyes on you” in red, a line sung by George Washington in the musical Hamilton, which Abad refashions as an anti-revisionist sign during the protests against the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the National Heroes Cemetery in November 2016. Other silk banners in his series Counternarratives also look at the politics in the Philippines today.
Generously donated by the artist and Silverlens (Manila / New York)
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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.
