From Singapore to Seoul, Asia’s rising artwork capitals vie for Hong Kong’s crown

By Newsworldpress Last updated Mar 23, 2023

Written by Oscar Holland, CNNSingapore and Seoul, South Korea

Having confronted a few of the world’s strictest journey restrictions and the prospect of attendees being despatched to Covid-19 quarantine camps, Hong Kong’s Artwork Basel has returned to near-normalcy after a succession of scaled-down or digital-only applications.

With the territory’s entry necessities lastly loosened, 177 galleries from over 30 international locations are this week courting Asia’s rich collectors on the honest’s largest version since 2019. Members reported wholesome gross sales throughout a VIP preview Tuesday, with works by South Korean painter Lee Ufan and German artist Georg Baselitz amongst at the very least six transactions exceeding $1 million.

The five-day occasion anchors Hong Kong Artwork Week, a wider schedule of satellite tv for pc reveals and exhibitions openings, glitzy events and talks. The town is as soon as once more abuzz with cultural occasions only a month after the territory lifted its practically 1,000-day masks mandate.

Visitors attend the Art Basel Hong Kong VIP preview on Wednesday.

Guests attend the Artwork Basel Hong Kong VIP preview on Wednesday. Credit score: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Photographs

However a lot has modified prior to now 4 years. Whereas the worldwide artwork market begrudgingly tailored to the pandemic, collectors and galleries continued to do a lot of their enterprise in individual. (On-line purchases of artwork and antiquities greater than doubled in worth between 2019 and 2021, however they nonetheless solely accounted for 20% of world gross sales, in line with Artwork Basel and UBS’ authoritative annual report). And with Hong Kong — lengthy thought-about Asia’s strongest artwork market — successfully shut off from worldwide guests, and shaken by months of turbulent pro-democracy protests earlier than that, collectors started trying elsewhere.

Within the final yr alone, main new artwork festivals have launched in Seoul and Singapore. Taiwan’s capital continues to generate pleasure because it prepares to host the fourth version of its Taipei Dangdai honest, and the inaugural Tokyo Gendai launches in Japan this July. Western galleries and public sale homes have in the meantime expanded their presence in Asian cities past Hong Kong. So, can any of those burgeoning markets set up themselves because the area’s main collector hub?

New frontiers

Final August, Sotheby’s held its first public sale in Singapore for 15 years. The quantity of curiosity was so excessive that potential bidders spilled out into the aisles of a packed convention room. Flitting between English and Mandarin, the auctioneer introduced the hammer down on artworks by Asian heavyweights like Yayoi Kusama in a flurry of gross sales that collectively exceeded estimates by nearly 40%.

In fact, the $18 million fetched that day was relative pocket change for Sotheby’s. However it was an indication of intent. The public sale home later described the occasion as “proof that (Singapore) has turn out to be a middle not just for Southeast Asia, but additionally for contemporary and modern artwork around the globe.”

A packed auction room as Sotheby's held its first sale in Singapore for 15 years.

A packed public sale room as Sotheby’s held its first sale in Singapore for 15 years. Credit score: Courtesy Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s was not the one one testing the waters. Earlier in 2022, Artwork Basel’s proprietor MCH group acquired a stake in Singapore’s perennially delayed new artwork honest, ArtSG, having pulled out of the enterprise previous to the pandemic (the group insisted the transfer was “complementary” to its Hong Kong operation, not an alternative to it). The long-awaited occasion efficiently launched this January, taking on two flooring of the Marina Bay Sands exhibition middle and reporting over 42,000 guests throughout its four-day schedule.

The honest was held alongside the continuing Singapore Biennale and a smaller curated honest, S.E.A. Focus, devoted to rising Southeast Asian artwork. The town was “actually buzzing,” the honest’s mission director Emi Eu stated in January. “I noticed a whole lot of vital collectors and VIPs coming from the area… The massive Western galleries wouldn’t have come in the event that they did not really feel like this entire week was vital for his or her program.”

A stalwart of Singapore’s artwork scene, Eu additionally serves as government director of STPI, an area workshop and gallery targeted on printmaking and works on paper. Based as a government-led initiative over 20 years in the past, STPI has since been joined by main public artwork establishments, particularly the Singapore Artwork Museum and Nationwide Gallery Singapore. Important state funding has additionally been allotted to 2 giant artwork precincts, Gillman Barracks and Tanjong Pagar Distripark, which now home clusters of galleries and backed studio area.

Art SG launched in January, taking over two floors of the Marina Bay Sands exhibition center and reporting over 42,000 visitors across its four-day schedule.

Artwork SG launched in January, taking on two flooring of the Marina Bay Sands exhibition middle and reporting over 42,000 guests throughout its four-day schedule. Credit score: Courtesy ART SG

A rising variety of non-public galleries have additionally arrange store lately. Within the days forward of ArtSG alone, Tokyo’s Whitestone Gallery and Hong Kong-based Woaw Gallery opened new outposts within the metropolis.

“Hong Kong has undoubtedly misplaced its luster with all of the challenges they’ve had — even earlier than Covid,” Eu stated, alluding to the pro-democracy protests that rocked town and prompted a controversial Nationwide Safety Legislation that critics worry has already begun to curb creative expression. “Singapore and different cities like Seoul benefited quite a bit,” she added, whereas caveating that a lot of this boils right down to “optics.”

“Artwork Basel Hong Kong is admittedly vital for (town) to actually present what’s actuality on the bottom.”

Singapore has benefits for galleries and collectors alike. The nation’s low taxes is probably not as favorable as these in Hong Kong, which enjoys tariff-free imports on artwork, however it’s nonetheless comparatively economical for each consumers and sellers. A latest inflow of prosperous Chinese language residents through the pandemic has expanded the native buyer base, whereas the widespread use of Mandarin helps collectors from mainland China — now the world’s second-largest artwork market — really feel at house whereas purchasing for artwork.

Hong Kong-based Woaw Gallery opened a new outpost in Singapore last year.

Hong Kong-based Woaw Gallery opened a brand new outpost in Singapore final yr. Credit score: Courtesy WOAW Gallery

Finally, it could merely be too quickly for Singapore’s nascent artwork market to compete with Hong Kong’s. Eu described town as Asia’s “latest child” in comparison with extra established markets like Seoul and Tokyo.

“It takes time,” she stated, including: “But when we actually work along with the identical goal, I do assume that we will go someplace.”

Rising tides

If Singapore’s market remains to be comparatively small, then South Korea’s is extensively thought-about to be a sleeping large. It might be unfair to even describe the nation’s collectors as an rising drive (they already represent the world’s fifth-largest artwork market), although Hong Kong’s latest challenges have nonetheless catalyzed a brand new drive to capitalize on their wealth.

Simply three months earlier than ArtSG, most of the exact same worldwide galleries had been in Seoul, the place Frieze — organizer of artwork festivals in London, New York and Los Angeles — launched its inaugural Asian version. Main sellers like Thaddaeus Ropac and Gladstone all opened areas within the metropolis in 2021, whereas these already within the nation, together with Tempo and Perrotin, have sought to increase their presence.

Frieze Seoul attendees view an artwork by Javier Callerja at the fair's VIP preview last year.

Frieze Seoul attendees view an art work by Javier Callerja on the honest’s VIP preview final yr. Credit score: Justin Shin/GA/ARTNews/Getty Photographs

Amongst them was New York’s Lehmann Maupin, which opened its first Seoul gallery in 2017 earlier than relocating to a bigger area final yr. Co-founder David Maupin stated South Korea’s enchantment is not only about wealth or measurement (the inhabitants of Seoul alone is nearly double that of Singapore) however of its accumulating tradition.

“Collectors right here have an openness to have interaction with artists — and to purchase and discuss artwork that does not essentially have public sale data,” he stated forward of Frieze Seoul’s opening. “Their accumulating habits come out of connoisseurship, curiosity and fervour.”

The artwork world’s rising curiosity within the nation makes “good sense,” he added, pointing to its schooling infrastructure, well-established native galleries and globally-renowned artists like sculptor Lee Bul, who he has lengthy represented.

Last year, Lehmann Maupin gallery relocated to a new two-story space in Seoul's chic Hannam-dong neighborhood.

Final yr, Lehmann Maupin gallery relocated to a brand new two-story area in Seoul’s stylish Hannam-dong neighborhood. Credit score: Courtesy Lehmann Maupin/Sonongji

But Maupin, who additionally runs a gallery in Hong Kong and has not too long ago appointed a Singapore-based director, demurs at the concept that Asia’s ascendent artwork market is a zero-sum recreation. “There’s sufficient room for everybody, I believe,” he stated, suggesting that totally different cities can serve totally different regional audiences and collectors. “They’re all nice hubs.”

Lengthy-term bets

Hypothesis in regards to the Hong Kong artwork world’s decline could, in any case, have been tremendously exaggerated. Inside the final two years, public sale homes Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips have all introduced plans to open new bodily headquarters within the metropolis. Former Sotheby’s chair Patti Wong stated that whereas Covid put “an enormous dampener” in the marketplace, Hong Kong’s public sale gross sales “held up fairly properly” all through.

“We’ve seen like a revenge spending within the luxurious sector, and (this yr’s) Artwork Basel has been a lot anticipated,” stated Wong, who labored at Sotheby’s although a lot of the pandemic earlier than leaving to determine artwork advisory agency Patti Wong & Associates, on a video name. “They’ll have a powerful providing.”

Wong welcomed the emergence of recent “mini hubs” lately, saying “the extra gamers there are, the extra vibrant the market is.” However, she added, none of those cities can match Hong Kong’s tax setup or overcome different aggressive benefits amassed in latest many years.

A Covid-inspired artwork at 2021's scaled-back edition Art Basel Hong Kong.

A Covid-inspired art work at 2021’s scaled-back version Artwork Basel Hong Kong. Credit score: Anthony Kwan/Getty Photographs

No rising participant ticks each field. Like Hong Kong, Singapore has been accused of censoring delicate artwork, albeit typically motivated by supposed public decency slightly than politics; Seoul and Tokyo are tougher to navigate for all-important Chinese language collectors as a result of language limitations. All of them at the moment lack the logistical capability to deal with the quantity of artwork buying and selling seen in Hong Kong.

“Sure, in Singapore every little thing is in Mandarin or bilingual, which may be very handy for Chinese language consumers,” stated Wong. “However the infrastructure should be there: the artwork handlers, the warehouses, the restorers.”

Certainly, world festivals and public sale gross sales are usually not the one litmus take a look at of an artwork market. Delivery firm Crozier’s 2022 announcement that it was considerably increasing its presence in Hong Kong could have generated fewer headlines than ArtSG or Frieze Seoul, but it surely was arguably a extra vital long-term indicator.

“We nonetheless see Hong Kong’s function as being a major gateway — into China and out of China,” the agency’s basic supervisor Simon Hornby informed The Artwork Newspaper on the time. “The Hong Kong greenback remains to be linked to the US greenback; the system of legislation remains to be based mostly on English legislation. We’ve no motive to consider that is going to vary within the subsequent 20 to 30 years.”

High picture caption: An set up by American artist KAWS in Singapore, with town’s well-known Marina Bay Sands and ArtScience Museum seen behind.

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