Hong Kong Art Week 2025 Recap
Art Basel Hong Kong 2025. Courtesy of Art Basel.
The 25th edition of Art Basel Hong Kong has come to a close, and so has Hong Kong Art Week. For the week of Asia’s leading fair, galleries—both big and small—alongside institutions and auction houses came together to host previews and bring the best of their roster to life.
Held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Art Basel Hong Kong welcomed 240 galleries from 42 countries and territories. Nearly half of these galleries hailed from the Asia Pacific region, drawing 91,000 visitors across VIP and public days. This year also marked the inaugural MGM Discoveries Art Prize, awarded to Shin Min of P21 in Seoul for her booth titled EW! There Is Hair in the Food!
Shin Min, P21. Courtesy of Art Basel.
Spanning two floors, galleries saw steady sales on opening day. Noteworthy booths included Bangkok CityCity Gallery’s solo presentation of Tanat Teeradakorn’s work and Anant Art Gallery’s debut featuring Aisha Khalid. Mumbai-based TARQ showcased pieces by Saju Kunhan, a runner-up for the MGM Discoveries Art Prize.
Between the booths, Encounters—conceptualized by Alexie Glass-Kantor—offered thoughtfully curated areas across different sections of the fair. Having curated this category for a decade, Glass-Kantor noted how visitors’ natural urge to touch artworks over the years influenced her choice to include “increasingly touchable” pieces. Highlights included Jon Rafman’s Signal Rot, which absorbed onlookers as they entered the installation. The work reimagines broadcast media as an algorithmic spectacle, where music videos, animations, and experimental content morph and converge.
Jon Rafman, Signal Rot (Catastrophonic I-IV), 2025. Multimedia video installation, custom inkjet on polyester, custom wrapped sofa, single channel video and sound. 700 x 650 x 900 cm, 21:26 runtime. Courtesy the artist, Spreuth Magers and Neon Parc. Photographs by Michele Galeotto.
Fair Director Angelle Siyang-Le mentioned that each year people are curious whether the fair has a theme, stating that the fair flows in the “natural direction” of Hong Kong based on what’s happening in the market and world. There were, however, some trends among HNI collectors in Hong Kong with 69% of them focusing on emerging and new talents.
Gallerist Roshini Vadehra also shared how the fair attracts young collectors, adding, “Basel being a strong brand reassures younger collectors when they’re looking at initiating their collections at the fair.” Among Vadehra’s booth were new works by Praneet Soi, Ashfika Rahman (a recent Future Generation Art Prize winner), and Zaam Arif, whose pieces attracted significant attention.
Art Central 2025. Image courtesy of Art Central.
Art Central, within walking distance from ABHK, opened its 10th edition and attracted over 43,000 visitors over six days. The fair drew several galleries from South Korea and Japan, introducing artists like Sujin Lee at FIM, while also showcasing household names such as Marc Chagall at Opera Gallery.
Beyond the fairs, several galleries presented their artists’ Hong Kong debuts. Sarah Sze exhibited her work at Gagosian, Emma McIntyre at David Zwirner, and Dominique Fung at Massimo de Carlo. Villepin’s three-story solo exhibition of Yukimasa Ida’s work captivated audiences with its immersive installations.
Villepin opened its sole space in 2019 with a strong focus on adapting the gallery to suit each artist’s work—redesigning the interiors with every new show. “The palpable energy that permeated the city this week reinforced Hong Kong’s role as a beacon of artistry on the world stage,” said Senior Director Rishika Assomull.
DAY ZER0 by Yukimasa Ida. Photo credit: Villepin.
Further south in Wong Chuk Hang, a cluster of popular galleries—both young and established—continue to thrive. PODIUM, founded in 2023, attracted strong interest from collectors of emerging artists. Executive Director Charlotte Lin remarked, “During Art Week, I’ve fielded questions like: ‘Have they been shown at any institutional shows in the past two years? Where has this artist exhibited before? What exhibitions are coming up?’ There’s a noticeable shift in how the industry defines emerging artists today.”
“Collectors and institutions now seek evidence of an artist’s and gallery’s sustained commitment to development. It’s no longer just about potential; it’s about witnessing a clear trajectory of professional growth and dedicated investment,” she added.
Installation view of Lee Mingwei: Guernica in Sand, 2025. © Lee Mingwei. Photo: Dan Leung. Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.
Most of Hong Kong’s institutions overlook the scenic Victoria Harbour. The Hong Kong Museum of Art, established in 1962, hosted a retrospective of Wu Guanzhong, a pivotal figure in 20th-century Chinese art, alongside Xu Bing’s stellar install Eying East, Wondering West, which blends Chinese and English through innovative calligraphy. The museum’s senior staff also verbally announced its role in organizing the Hong Kong Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
M+, one of the world’s top twenty most-visited art museums, welcomed over 2.6 million visitors in 2024. Located in the West Kowloon Cultural District, the institution presented Picasso for Asia: A Conversation in collaboration with the Musée National Picasso-Paris. “By considering Pablo Picasso’s extraordinary work throughout his life, this exhibition is built on the premise that museums working together can create new ways of seeing,” said Museum Director Suhanya Raffel.
In another futuristic part of the city, Christie’s new 50,000 sq ft headquarters at The Henderson featured Picasso’s Femme à la Coiffe d'Arlésienne sur Fond Vert (Lee Miller) from the collection of Leonard & Louise Riggio, with Riggio known as the entrepreneurial founder of Barnes & Noble. The highlight of their 20th/21st Century Evening Sale was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), which sold for US$14,544,212. This sale marked their first collaboration and alignment with Hong Kong Art Week. At the ground floor, the Henderson Art Garden serves as a public art sanctuary amidst the city’s skyscrapers, showcasing works by Ned Kahn and Philipp Frank.
Courtesy of Christie’s.
Meanwhile, Sotheby’s presented the poignant exhibition Corpus – Three Millennia of the Human Body at its newly opened Maison in the city this summer. The show featured nearly 50 works spanning from antiquity to contemporary art. Later this year, Bonhams, which focuses on the middle market, plans to relocate to a new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong in mid-October.
As Art Week drew to a close, misty clouds drifted through Hong Kong’s towering skyline, but the city’s pulse remained vibrant. Red taxis zipped through bustling streets, and art enthusiasts lingered, their minds stirred by a week of art, exploration, and immersive experiences.
Edited by Xuezhu Jenny Wang
