5 Asian Galleries To Check Out At Art Basel 2018

It might feel like you just got over the excitement of Art Basel in Hong Kong, but Art Basel’s fair in its Swiss hometown, one of the largest art fairs in the world, is already close to ending. And this year’s Art Basel featured 290 galleries and expected to attract more than 90,000 visitors. Among all the big-name galleries from Europe and the USA, a handful of leading Asian galleries—including one from Hong Kong—participated in this year’s fair. If you're nearby and haven't seen any of the exhibitions yet, here are five you should quickly make a beeline for.

1. Hanart TZ, Hong Kong

Above Nilima Sheikh, A Pastoral | Reading Agha Shahid Ali 16 (2003) (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Hanart TZ)

The only homegrown Hong Kong gallery taking part in this year’s Art Basel, Hanart TZ is presenting an exhibition titled West Heavens: Nilima Sheikh and Qiu Zhijie that explores the cultural dialogue between China and India. The show’s title comes from Ancient Chinese Buddhist texts, which often referred to India as “West Heavens”.

2. Take Ninagawa, Tokyo

Above Izumi Kato, Untitled (2017) © Izumi Kato. (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Take Ninagawa)

A small sculpture of an alien-like figure by Izumi Kato is one of the highlights of Take Ninagawa’s Art Basel booth, which also features paintings by Shinro Ohtake, Danh Vo and more. Larger sculptures by Kato—many of them also depicting eerie characters—are currently dotted around Hong Kong’s new Tai Kwun development.

3. ShanghART Gallery, Beijing, Shanghai and Singapore

Above Ding Yi, Appearance of Crosses (detail) (2017) (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery)

If you’re looking for works by leading Chinese artists, head to ShanghART Gallery’s booth, where you’ll find pieces by Yang Fudong, Zhang Enli, Ding Yi and more. ShanghART, one of the leading galleries from Mainland China, is also showing works by a handful of non-Chinese artists, including pieces by leading Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

4. Long March Space, Beijing

Above Yu Hong, Old Man Yu Gong Is Still Moving Away Mountains (2017). (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Long March Space)

Long March Space has a booth in the Galleries sector but is also taking part in the Unlimited sector, which features large works that can't fit in a conventional booth space. In the Unlimited sector, Long March Space is presenting a huge, 5-metre by 9-metre painting by Chinese painter Yu Hong. Titled Old Man Yu Gong Is Still Moving Away Mountains, the painting depicts a surrealist mixture of modern-day characters (some of them clutching mobile phones) in a traditional Chinese mural painting.

5. STPI, Singapore

Above Jane Lee,Flashback III (detail) (2018) (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and STPI)

STPI is a non-profit printmaking workshop in Singapore that pairs world-famous artists with its expert team of printmakers to create new, boundary-breaking works on paper. At Art Basel, STPI is showing recent works by American artist Pae White, Vietnamese photographer Dinh Q. Lê , and Singaporean painter Jane Lee—all of which were made at STPI.

This article first appeared on hk.asiatatler.com.

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art Art Basel