Spanning 40 countries, there are a whopping 242 exhibitors at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. To put that into perspective, if you were to spend just three minutes with each booth, it would take you more than 12 hours to complete the fair. It’s scaled up from last year when the post-Covid hangover was still palpable in and around the city, and the renaissance is helping cement Hong Kong as the art capital of Asia, aided by the recent openings of numerous brilliant museums and galleries.
And where the art goes, the crowd follows. Thousands of people are descending on the city for Hong Kong Art Week, with Art Basel being the jewel in the event’s crown. “We feel privileged to have been growing together with the community here for the past decade,” the fair’s director Angelle Siyang-Le says. “It’s also a starting point for us. We want to take this and radiate it out to the world, because what is so significant about this edition is that the artists have all returned to the show floor.”
Below, we list seven must-see galleries from Art Basel Hong Kong 2024.
P·P·O·W, Booth 1D25
P·P·O·W Gallery’s massive booth on the first floor comes jam-packed with a diverse range of gems. A hand-dyed and loomed large-scale tapestry by Brooklyn-based artist Erin M Riley serves as a highlight; with a sultry, headless mirror selfie, she depicts women’s search for self-identity. Elizabeth Glaessner’s ghostly, rich painting of a group of women evokes a surreal sense of freedom and fear, while a 1977 pencil drawing by Martin Wong shows the joys and complexities of American life. More highlights include works by Dotty Attie, Daniel Correa Mejía and Robin F Williams.