Start Canvassing Art HK

Ever wish that Hong Kong had a world-class museum like the Met or the Tate, or that auction previews weren’t often limited to prospective buyers? Us too. Once a year, though, there’s a much-anticipated chance to view top-shelf art right here in the city.

Now in its fifth year, this month’s ART HK (also known as the Hong Kong International Art Fair) will fill up the Convention and Exhibition Centre with contemporary art from 266 participating galleries hailing from 38 different countries.

More than a simple showcase, ART HK has become a force to be reckoned with in the art world: last year 63,511 people showed up, marking a 38 percent increase compared with 2010, and around triple the number of its inaugural year. Magnus Renfrew, the fair’s director since its inception, says he only expects the event to get bigger. “We’re experiencing a great level of interest from the international art community,” he says, “and anticipate receiving a lot of visitors from overseas compared to previous [years].”

With more than 700 applications this year for just a couple hundred spots, galleries are competing like never before to secure a booth at the fair. Watch out for works by prolific artists such as Takashi Murakami, who combines painting and sculpture with fashion and other commercial products; Yayoi Kusama, who works with outlandish, psychedelic colors and repetitive patterns; and Huang Rui, one of the founders of the 798 art district in Beijing whose boundary-breaking work often contains sociopolitical commentary.

ART HK was founded back when Hong Kong was being pooh-poohed as a “cultural desert.” But over the last few years, Hong Kong has exploded onto the international arts scene: it has gained recognition as the third-biggest art auction market in the world after New York and London; key big-name galleries such as the Gagosian and White Cube have established branches here; and large-scale infrastructure projects, such as the conversion of the former Central Police Station into an artistic and cultural center as well as the long-delayed West Kowloon Cultural District, are in the works. “Any great art center is a cultural ecology—it involves all aspects of the art world: artist communities, artist-run spaces, commercial galleries, non-profits, government-funded museums and auction houses,” explains Renfrew. “What’s exciting about Hong Kong at the moment is that all these things are beginning to come together.”

What’s more, while most of the world has grappled with the after-effects of the financial crisis, collectors in this region, especially from mainland China, have had increasing resources and clout. According to feedback Renfrew received from a number of major commercial galleries, ART HK played a key role in encouraging them to establish more permanent bases in Asia—and in Hong Kong, specifically. “The fair opened their eyes to the possibilities of Asia. It’s become an event around which the arts scene in Hong Kong can galvanize,” he says.