Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 marks the fair’s return to normality, but gallery representation still far smaller than pre-pandemic
- The 10th edition of Art Basel Hong Kong will take place from March 21-25, 2023 with 171 galleries from 32 countries and territories
- New director Angelle Siyang-Le says it will take time to return to full-fledged shows, but she is encouraged by the interest received from galleries
Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK) will return from March 21-25, 2023 with 171 galleries from 32 countries and territories, a significant increase from the 130 exhibitors in 2022, though still far lower than the 242 in 2019, the last show before the pandemic.
This will be the 10th edition of the Asia fair ever since it took over Art HK in 2013, which by then had already grown to be the region’s largest contemporary art fair by number of exhibitors.
However, Hong Kong’s lead over the rest of the region disappeared during the pandemic. In 2013, ABHK had 245 exhibitors compared with second-place KIAF in Seoul, which had 183. This year, ABHK had 130 compared with KIAF’s 164 and the new Frieze Seoul’s 110. ART021 in Shanghai had 134 exhibitors, though it was shut down after one day because a security guard reportedly tested positive for Covid-19.
The March 2019 edition of ABHK was the last “normal” fair in over three years, the kind of star-studded affair with non-stop partying that is a given for international art fairs selling valuable artworks to some of the world’s wealthiest collectors.
The 2020 fair was cancelled. That year saw the full-on outbreak of Covid-19, which at one point required visitors to spend 21 days in hotel quarantine.
