Every March, art lovers in Asia make an
annual pilgrimage to Hong Kong to attend one of the most important international
art fairs. Offering access to some of the most renowned Asian and international
galleries in one place, Art Basel Hong Kong has become the largest art fair in
the region, prompting stiff competition amongst international art galleries to
make the cut.
“It’s actually harder for a Western
gallery now to get into the Hong Kong show for the first
time than it is to get into our show in Basel. We decided in
2013 to devote 50% of the booths to galleries who have exhibition spaces
in Asia, so there is a much smaller number of slots available
to Western galleries and galleries vying for those slots are at the
levels of Paula Cooper or Matthew Marks. Basically, if you are not one of
the best Western galleries in the world at this point you’re not getting into
the Hong Kong show,” remarks Marc Spiegler, the Global Director
of Art Basel.
And while just a few years ago Asian
collectors would bemoan the fact that western galleries tended to bring mainly
second-rate works, albeit by well-known artists, things have certainly changed
as the rise of the Asian collectors, and their spending power, combined with their
deepening appreciation for Western art, has been felt throughout the international
art market.
Spiegler says Western galleries are now
bringing “amazing works that would be considered masterpieces at any fair or
auctions,” noting that rather than just sending staff, gallery owners are also
coming to be at their booth, ensuring they interact with collectors.
Competition
ahead
But while Art Basel Hong Kong is still the
region’s premier fair, others are starting to slowly muscle in on the action, competing
for art collectors’ attention.
This January, the inaugural Taipei
Dangdai attracted 90 exhibitors, including a number of international heavyweights
lured by the opportunity to present to a largely untapped market. Despite the
difficult economic environment, many galleries reported strong sales with Galerie
Thaddaeus Ropac selling a work by Georg Baselitz to a Taiwanese institution for
more than $2.25 million, while Hauser & Wirth sold six acrylics by German
abstract painter Günther Förg, with prices ranging from $27,200 to $540,000.
Adding to the positive buzz surrounding
the new fair, three satellite fairs were taking place around town at the same
time, including Ink Now, a new nomadic fair devoted to contemporary ink
painting and launched by Hong Kong-based dealer Calvin Hiu, who plans to take
it next to Shanghai, Hong Kong and London.
Meanwhile in November, Shanghai hosted
to two concurrent fairs —ART021 and West Bund Art & Design — drawing veteran
international galleries to China. Each fair had a distinct flavour, prompting
some galleries such as Kamel Mennour, Galerie Chantal Crousel, and Thaddaeus Ropac
to exhibit at both. “West Bund focuses on presentation and on introducing
non-Chinese galleries to the region, whereas ART021 is a broader platform,
encompassing both established and emerging artists and collectors,”
explains David Tung, Asia Representative of Lisson Gallery, which chose to participate
only at the West Bund fair.
The interest in Shanghai reflects how
the art scene there has vastly improved from 12 years ago when the city saw its
first international art fair, SH Contemporary - Shanghai Contemporary Art
Fair.
Galerie Templon had participated in the
inaugural SH Contemporary and its Executive Director Anne-Claudie Coric remembers
how disappointing that experience had been, both in terms of sales and
attendance, but notes that now “Shanghai feels more active than Hong Kong:
there are many more museums, galleries, more artists’ studios.” Though she also
points out, the art scene “remains very national. It doesn’t have the
international flavour of Hong Kong, where we can find many expats. Also, Art
Basel Hong Kong attracts many collectors from Australia, Taiwan, Europe; they
do not travel to Shanghai, yet.”
In the last five years, private and
public museums have blossomed throughout Shanghai building on the success from earlier
pioneers such as the Long Museum Pudong and the Long Museum West Bund opened by
Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and the Yuz
Museum, opened by Indonesia-Chinese collector Budi Tek in 2014. A government
report published last December stated the number of art museums in Shanghai now
stood at 78, up 130% on the number just five years ago.
Meanwhile commercially, a few
international galleries have chosen to open an outpost in Shanghai. Hong
Kong-based dealer Edouard Malingue opened a space in the West Bund art district
in 2016 and has since been followed by Perrotin, which opened a new offshoot of
its global imprint at the heart of the Bund quarter in 2018. This March it was
the turn of Lisson Gallery to join the fray. Having chosen Shanghai over Hong
Kong in 2016 to open its first Asian office, the gallery decided to follow with
its first gallery space in the region, with Tung of Lisson noting that while
Hong Kong “may be the first choice for many, Shanghai has a very rich cosmopolitan
history and a vibrant museum and collector base. It provides opportunities to service
our clients and allows us to tap into the productive possibilities within China.”
Morgan Long, Senior Director for The
Fine Art Group, a London-based art advisory, points out that while Hong Kong
has established itself as an international art market hub, thanks in part to
Art Basel Hong Kong and a forgiving tax regime, its notoriously high rents have
fostered a “top heavy” market for blue-chip contemporary art and limited
accessibility for emerging galleries and public museums.
“Hong Kong’s commercial galleries are
somewhat restricted in their programming, with high overheads often dictating
conservative and sellable presentations. They are also limited by the
similarities of the gallery units available in the Pedder and H Queen’s Building
(where many of the top-tier galleries are based), whereas gallerists (and
collectors) in Shanghai have a much greater range of locations and property
types to choose from,” Long says.
Hong
Kong is still the place to be
But Hong Kong boasts a number of factors
that will allow it to remain as an important international art hub.
“Hong Kong is an open market, with a
sophisticated legal system, free trade and free port policies, a low tax rate,
as well as excellent infrastructure, a strategic location to most Asian
countries, and an efficient transportation and logistics system,” remarks Kevin
Ching, CEO of Sotheby’s Asia, adding “This combination of strengths continues to
allow Hong Kong to stay ahead of its rivals and facilitate its art market to
grow. As a matter of fact, we have seen more and more international galleries
setting up in Hong Kong in recent years.”
Last year, the opening of H Queen’s prompted
New York-based gallery David Zwirner to open a gallery in Hong Kong, joining
the likes of Pace Gallery and Hauser & Wirth in the new space. This March,
Lévy Gorvy was the latest international heavyweight to establish an outlet in
Hong Kong, opening a 2,500-square foot gallery inside the historic St. George’s
building in central Hong Kong.
“In recent years, we are seeing many
international galleries entering Hong Kong, because it has the upper hand in
many aspects; for instance tax and the relative convenience of opening up a
business,” notes Kelvin Yang, director of Galerie du Monde, which has operated there since 1974.
But Sundaram Tagore, founder of Sundaram
Tagore Gallery, expresses concern about the number of art galleries setting up in
Hong Kong, and warns: “It’s hard to imagine that the Hong Kong art market can
support so many galleries — especially because all of the most important
activities in terms of sales tend to take place during Art Basel week, when collectors
fly in from across the globe. While Hong Kong is rightly placed for this market-driven
influx, we may be reaching a saturation point.”
One major point in favour of Hong Kong is its favourable tax regime. “Mainland China has a
very high tax system on art so most people who buy art from Shanghai will tend
to focus principally on art produced within China. At this stage it remains
very hard for us to bring important non-Chinese art to Mainland China,” Tagore
says.
Henrietta Tsui-Leung of Galerie Ora-Ora
agrees and notes that while Shanghai is really only competing with other
Mainland cities such as Beijing, Hong Kong is trading on its “150 years of Commonwealth-city
experience” which she notes “will not be easily replaced. The mentality and
education here are very different from Mainland China, and art professionals
and collectors in Hong Kong enjoy freedom of speech to a large extent, with
little censorship.”
In contrast, several international
galleries report having exhibitions in China censored. “We had three works
censored at the (West Bund) fair, and we still don’t understand the reasons for
the decision,” says Coric.
Complementary
Roles
Lorenz Helbling, founder of ShanghART
Gallery, one of the oldest and most respected art galleries in Shanghai, sees Hong
Kong and Shanghai as complementary, “each side with its pros and cons,” adding,
“Hong Kong may be easier for business and more streamlined with the
international world, but Shanghai is a city of 30 million people with a
surrounding population of 300 million in a country of a billion.”
Francis Belin, President, Christie’s
Asia, notes the many similarities between the two art hubs and says, “I don’t
think it’s a mutually-exclusive game. Asia is a region with a population of
over 4.5 billion which is four times that of Europe and North America combined.
With fast-growing High Net Worth and Ultra High Net Worth segments in many
Asian economies, it can certainly accommodate more than one major art hub,” adding
“Both are amongst the fastest-growing art markets in the world. Both are
undergoing huge transformations with their art ecology, and both are growing in
parallel.”
Tagore believes cities on the Mainland could
develop a collaborative partnership with Hong Kong and the art galleries based
there to mutual benefit, and notes that many galleries are starting to partner
with each other to help broaden access to clients. “Last year, we partnered
with a Beijing gallery, Ink Studio at our Madison Avenue location, showing work
by one of their artists, which provided them with a whole new audience. In
return, we hope to exhibit work by some of our artists at their Beijing space
in the future,” he says.
Para Site, one of the oldest and most active
independent art institutions in Hong Kong, recently announced a collaboration
with Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai to co-present programmes, which Tung of
Lisson gallery describes as “an exciting development that speaks to the two
communities evolving together.”
Tung also notes that in today’s world,
“change is the only constant and Hong Kong is well aware of this and really
creating new possibilities that will ensure the continued success of its art
market: The recent opening of Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts and the
forthcoming M+ Museum opening come to mind.”
A version of this article appeared in the Hong Kong Business Review April edition