Deciding whether to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong this year was keeping Wendy Olsoff up at night.The art fair, taking place until Sunday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, has new, pandemic-adjusted features that include booths staffed by local representatives who are not gallery employees, so-called satellite booths. It is a solution to the problem posed by travel restrictions, especially the city’s strict quarantine rules.
Ms. Olsoff — a co-founder of the New York gallery P·P·O·W, which recently moved to TriBeCa — recalled wrestling with the compromise.
“I went back and forth on it,” she said. “At first I said: ‘No, we can’t do this, I have to be there personally. How can this possibly be good?’”
But she slept on it. Or tried to.
“I woke up and said, ‘I want to support the Hong Kong fair; we should do it,’” Ms. Olsoff said.
P·P·O·W is showing the work of the painter Elizabeth Glaessner, including “Tongue Tied” (2021), with work in the booth handled by people arranged through the fair, along with some independent help organized by the gallery.
“This artist has a lot of interest in Asia,” Ms. Olsoff said, explaining her decision. “We want collectors to see work in person,” not a photograph online or a social media post.
Of the more than 100 galleries on hand from 23 countries and territories, about half are operating satellite booths. (Tickets are currently sold out.)
Most of those galleries are making presentations in the online viewing room concurrent with the physical fair, but there are no dealers showing only virtually.
This stands in contrast to the art fair Frieze New York, which took place this month; more than half its dealers offered online-only presentations.
Art Basel is making a bet on the long-term viability of in-person events.
“The vibrancy of the physical fair will return — we’re convinced of that,” said Marc Spiegler, global director of Art Basel, which also has editions in Basel, Switzerland, and Miami Beach.
“The fact that more than 50 have done satellites reflects the appetite for innovation and the trust they have in us,” Mr. Spiegler said of the galleries.
The fair’s coronavirus precautions include a mask requirement, temperature checks, timed entry and a revised floor plan with wide aisles for social distancing.