LuxArtAsia

Aida Makoto - Ash Color Mountains

(detail)

The 15 finalist art works shortlisted for the 2011 APB Foundation Signature Art Prize have been announced, selected from the 130 artworks which were nominated from 24 countries and territories. The works were chosen because of their strength of concept and execution, and many are extremely moving pieces - such as the one above by Japanse artist Aida Makoto. Taken collectively, the artworks demonstrate the thriving vibrancy of art-making in Asia Pacific today.

Over the last 10 years, Dr. Georgia Lee, a 42-year-old specialist in skin care and aesthetic medicine here, has built a small collection of couture pieces, including styles from names like Christian Lacroix and Chanel.  But she readily admits she is less familiar with some of the designers who show during the biannual haute couture weeks in Paris, controlled by the Fédération Française de la Couture. Soon she will have the opportunity to learn more.

'Translation/Transliterations,’ a solo exhibition by Rashid Rana, Pakistan's leading contemporary artist will be held from October 21-November 18 at the Pao Galleries in Hong Kong. The show will present over 20 pieces, showing his creations across various media.

Everything and nothing

Now in its 7th edition, Fine Art Asia 2011 returns in Hong Kong Oct 3-7 . The fair is a mix pot of contemporary and ancient art , western and eastern, art and jewelries. But don't let this lack of focus deter you as there are true "gems" to be found. Over 5,000 works of art will be exhibited, with a total value of over HK$2 billion.



Cang Xin - Man and the Sky as One: Mani Stone (2005

"To Add a Meter to an Unknown Mountain: An Iconic Collection of Contemporary Chinese Photography" is a new, small exhibition running until Oct 30 at the Private Museum, which features strong works by four internationally renowned Chinese artists - Cang Xin, Liu Wei, Ma Liuming and Zhan Wang.

Phillips de Pury & Company together with the Guggenheim Museum have announce a special evening auction on Nov 7 to benefit the Museum. It will feature important works from leading contemporary artists who have donated their work to the Guggenheim to benefit the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Asian highlights from the sale include works by Lee Bul, Cai Guo-Qiang, Lee Ufan, Nate Lowman, Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher.



Eric Chan,’s Caught In A Moment, Encased in True Happiness, Mixed Media

Larasati Auctioneers will auction in the evening on Oct 22 in Singapore, the list of usual Indo-European and Modern Masters from South East Asia, such as Willem Gerard Hofker and Sudjojono. But it will also present several established Singaporean artists like Eric Chan and Justin Lee.

 

Justin Lee

The works will be on preview: 11 am – 8 pm, 19 – 21 October  at One East Artspace.

Every two years, some of the most renowned luxury watchmaking brands come together for a good cause: a charity auction of unique pieces sold to benefit medical research into Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  Held in Monaco during the Monaco Yacht Show, the Only Watch auction is an opportunity for brands to present a popular model with a one-of-a-kind dial or a different case, or to introduce the first in a new series, often making the watch highly collectable.

Sotheyby's London will offer for sale on Nov 15 more than 220 newly-discovered early photographs by Linnaeus Tripe depicting India and Burma in the mid-1850s, including 42 images of which no other prints are recorded, and five previously unknown photographs. 

A story about how a vintage yacht inspired the design of the latest Panerai watch.

From Corum’s Bubble Royal Flush watch, which has poker cards on its dial, to Daniel Roth’s “Il Giocatore Veneziano,” a minute repeater wristwatch with a 16th-century Venetian dice-playing automaton on its face, watchmakers have in recent years regularly found inspiration in the world of gambling for their designs.  This year, Roger Dubuis introduced its Chronograph La Monégasque Big Number, a limited edition of 128 pieces — part of its La Monégasque men’s collection — with a casino-inspired dial in the classic roulette colors of black, red and green.

Roger Dubuis

Phillips de Pury will auction a large collection of Swatch watches in Hong Kong on November 24. One of the most complete collections of its kind, this assembly of more than 4,350 items includes a large number of prototypes, hybrids and production variants never offered for sale. Many of the rare prototypes date from the exciting development period immediately prior to commercial release of the first Swatch watches in the early 1980s.

This top lot of the Doyle New York's asian works of art sold for a staggering $482,500, well above the $6,000-9,000 estimate!

Gagosian Gallery Hong Kong will open Saturday a major exhibition by one of my favorite Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi that traces his  wide-ranging depictions of the human figure in key paintings from the last twenty years. This is his first exhibition with the gallery.

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) has announced the appointment of Philip Tinari to Director of the Center effective December 1. Mr. Tinari, an accomplished critic and curator of Chinese contemporary art, replaces Mr. Jérôme Sans, who has served as the Director since March 2008.
Tinari comes to UCCA from his role as editor-in-chief of LEAP, a bilingual, bimonthly, international art magazine based in Beijing and published by Modern Media Group, which he founded in 2010.

Opera Gallery is currently showing its annual Master Masters exhibition and it's chuck-full with beautiful works that make this show a must see.

Temple of Heaven 1, Zhang Wei, No Name Group

Contemporary Chinese art has taken the art world by storm in the last decade through heralded museum exhibitions, well-read publications, and heavily attended art auctions. However, even with all this attention, few exhibitions have asked the question of how, against the background of thirty-five years of Socialist Realism, this internationally-oriented artwork suddenly appeared and why it captured the attention of the international art market.

Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974 –1985 at the China Institute Gallery in New York introduces the work of three unofficial Chinese art groups who worked in this vein: the No Names, the Stars, and the Grass Society, all of which arose following the end of the Cultural Revolution and helped launch the avant-garde movement in China.

Following the record-breaking £17 million auction of Chinese art, and the unprecedented auctions of Japanese art, held at New Bond Street in May, director of Asian Art Colin Sheaf has rapidly enhanced the Group’s specialist Chinese and Japanese specialist staff in Europe mainly but also in China and Australia.

Acker Merrall & Condit, the World’s leading wine auctioneer and America’s oldest fine wine merchant, concluded its two-day wine auction pn Sep 17 raising $11.78 Million and a 98% sold rate.

Christie’s concluded its Fall Asian Art Week with a combined total of $75.8 million achieved over four days of sales, September 13 to 16. But Chinese art, in particular jade carvings, outperformed Indian, Japanase and Korean Art categories, clearly pointing to the continuing support of Chinese buyers to their own art.

To celebrate its one-year anniversary, Shang Xia, the Chinese brand set up by Hermes, has unveiled a month long exhibition at Sinan Mansions in Shanghai. "Human and Nature" is dedicated to contemporary Chinese craftsmanship.

The Louis Vuitton Island Maison at the MBS in Singapore is much more than a new store to indulge in the brand's latest offering. This little design jewel also houses a stunning new sculpture by Turner Prize winner Richard Deacon made of twisted wood, along with a site-specific pop art wall by Cuban-born illustrator Ruben Toledo, who gives his colorful take on Singapore's better known icons, as well as a small, but well curated art exhibition on the theme of "islands."

There has been a strong buzz around the opening of Pangaea on Sep 22, a new ultra-lounge club founded by American nightclub impresario Michael Ault. Yesterday, journalists were given a sneak peek of what it's all about.

"The Little Groom at Marina Bay Island Maison - Singapore" - a whimsical little teaser cartoon for the grand opening of the Louis Vuitton Island in Singapore on Saturday -

After Hermes, it's the turn of Gucci to educate customers about the high level of craftmanship that goes into its leather goods, by bringing it Artisan Corner to the Paragon, Singapore from Sep 14-16.

A set of the very earliest photographs of Burma taken by the British Victorian photographer, Linnaeus Tripe, are for sale at the India and Beyond: Travel and Photography sale at Bonhams in London on Oct 4.

Yang Fudong, Ye Jiang (The night man cometh), 2011

Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art is dedicating a new major solo show to Chinese artist and film maker Yang Fudong this September . Yang Fudong is regarded as one of the most important artists to emerge in contemporary China. In this exhibition he presents three works: Fight Night, 2010: One half of August, 2001 and Yejing (the night man cometh), 2011

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has opened "Xu Bing: Tobacco Project" which will be running until Sep 10. The exhibition combines important pieces from the artist’s earlier projects at Duke University in North Carolina and the Shanghai Gallery of Art in China with new work inspired by visits to tobacco farms, warehouses, and cigarette factories in Virginia. Altogether the exhibition spans a dozen years of Xu Bing’s work and surveys one of his most ambitious undertakings

Sotheby’s New York will present Fine Classical Chinese Paintings, the first dedicated New York auction in this category for over a decade. The sale is made up of 80 diverse works from the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as a small selection of modern and contemporary works that were executed clearly in the classical manner.

Sotheby’s HK will hold the Anita Mui – Jewels and Watches From The Estate auction on Oc 5, offering exclusively 43 lots of jewels and watches as well as memorabilia items from the estate of Anita Mui (1963 – 2003) - the legendary canto-pop diva and award-winning actress from Hong Kong.

 

The Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will opened two major Japanese exhibitions of artists whose works reflect the vitality and interests of 19th-century Edo (now Tokyo) in March 2012.

Xiao Yuncong (1596-1673), Landscapes, Dated 1645

Drawn from one of the finest and most comprehensive private assemblages of the art of the Ming-Qing transition, The Art of Dissent in 17th-Century China: Masterpieces of Ming Loyalist Art from the Chih Lo Lou Collection is now showing at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Chen Fei - Stranger

Art lovers will be kept busy in Asia this autumn. In addition to Hong Kong’s two major art auctions — Sotheby’s in October and Christie’s in November — and numerous fairs, Asian museums are also putting on exhibitions that aim to educate the public about old masters, as well as to showcase contemporary Asian talent. Here is a selection of the most intriguing shows:

©2011 Douglas Copeland/CORBIS

Christie’s NY has announced the details of the first landmark sale devoted to the iconic collection of  Elizabeth Taylor, the celebrated film star. On December 13, it will present 80 of her most iconic jewels in a special Evening Sale, followed by 189 additional jewels in two Day Sale sessions on December 14. The sale is expected to achieve well in excess of $30 million.

Left: A Superb Large Famille-Rose Prunus and Rose Charger, Mark and Period of Yongzheng Right: A Fine and Rare Famille-Rose 'Peach' Vase, Tianqiuping, Seal Mark and Period of Qianlong

Sotheby’s Hong Kong will sell the second part of a prestigious European collection of Chinese Art – The Meiyintang Collection on Oct 5, along with various-owner sale, expected to bring in over $150 million.

There are a lot of laughs, but also a few yawns and some rolling of eyes watching this new ensemble romantic comedy that follows a mother and her three daughters as they juggle their love life.

Vann Nath, a Cambodian artist who survived the Khmer Rouge torture center Tuol Sleng, and documented the attrocities he witnessed there in his paintings for the rest of his life, died on Monday. He was 65.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong will hold its fall jewelry sale on Oct 5, which will include an array of extremely rare jewellery associated with the exotic Mogul Kingdom of old, including diamonds from the ancient mine of Golconda, among them the Golconda Pink, a 9.27-Carat Golconda Fancy Vivid Pink Diamond and Diamond Ring (Est. $13 – 19 million).