Global Impact: caution over economy, national security law looms over Hong Kong’s ‘Art March’ as city seeks to paint a better picture

According to the Art Market Report 2024, released by UBS and Art Basel this month, sales in China in the second half of 2023 were “considerably slower, with projections of weaker economic growth and a persistent real estate slump weighing on demand”.

But the report also pointed out that while the United States remains the leading market worldwide, accounting for 42 per cent of sales by value, China – including the mainland and Hong Kong – had overtaken the UK to become the second-largest global art market, with its share rising to 19 per cent.

Art Basel Hong Kong 2024, back at full scale, draws a diverse VIP crowd

These spaces – galleries and private museums – have initiated a cultural dialogue between the mainland Chinese diaspora and the local artistic community in the Lion City. But whether their presence will add to the broader commercial art scene is yet to be seen.

Auctioneer Christie’s noted a spike in new buyers among those in the younger generations – millennials and Gen Z – saying that the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 66 per cent of its global millennial buyers last year, with more than half from mainland China. Gen Z buyers from Asia-Pacific also more than doubled.

Will top-class summit put Hong Kong on global cultural map?

Held at the West Kowloon Cultural District, the three-day event brought together key figures from major cultural institutions from around the world to not only exchange ideas, but also forge new partnerships with its two museums, M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

“I am not worried if Hong Kong will remain a free port. For Hong Kong, it’d really be a disaster if the government puts on importation tax. All the interest in Hong Kong would be destroyed,” he said.

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Deep dives

Will top-class summit put Hong Kong on global cultural map?

• Arts hub to sign memorandums of understanding with 20 institutions for exhibitions, collection sharing, conservation and more

• Cultural summit brings global experts together despite geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the West

On Sunday evening, the top brass of museums and cultural institutions from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Qatar, Australia, Colombia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, mainland China and more will gather at the start of the three-day International Cultural Summit.

‘It’s not revenge’: restitution at Europe’s largest museum of Asian art

• Yannick Lintz, the president of Paris’ Musée Guimet, believes provenance is key to understanding whether objects have a place in museums outside their origin

• She says she admires what has been done at Hong Kong museums, and will be on a panel at the first Hong Kong International Cultural Summit

When you enter the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts, in Paris, France – the largest museum of Asian art in Europe – what you see first is not its vast array of porcelain objects from China or Buddhist artworks from India.

Instead, in a departure from many other Asian art museums, Musée Guimet opens with a Khmer courtyard of sculptures, straight from Angkor.

Second Frieze Seoul art fair shows it’s catching up to Art Basel Hong Kong

• Gallerists at fair in South Korean capital relish the chance to meet a generation of young Korean collectors spurred by influencers such as RM of boy band BTS

• Visitors in Seoul for Frieze and the long-standing KIAF fair were just as impressed by how rapidly the city’s contemporary art scene has grown in recent years

Last week, the thousands of art collectors and art professionals who flew to South Korea for the second edition of the Frieze Seoul art fair got a sense of how much the art scene in the country’s capital has grown since the Covid-19 pandemic.

In total, 121 galleries from over 30 countries were represented at the emerging international art fair.

‘Great art films can be shot in Hong Kong’: Chinese artist on M+ movie

“Architectural” may be a curious way to describe a film, but it is precisely the adjective that Chinese artist Yang Fudong uses when discussing his latest work, Sparrow on the Sea.

“An architectural film doesn’t only refer to what people can see – such as high-rise buildings and houses – it also refers to architecture that people cannot see,” says Yang. “This invisible architecture includes what you carry in your heart and mind.”

How Singapore’s art scene is ‘maturing’ with growth in private shows

• The moderate success of Art SG 2024 shows Singapore’s art scene is on the right track, but there’s still a way to go if it is to become a major regional art hub

• Art foundations and a small number of collectors have begun opening private art spaces and exhibitions to support emerging and avant-garde artists, however

Singapore may have cemented its reputation as a wealth management powerhouse in recent years, but there is still a great deal of scepticism regarding its ambition to become a major centre for the visual arts.

The launch of the international art fair Art SG in 2023 was much anticipated; it aimed to be a catalyst for the art market. But sales were lukewarm, based on several gallery reports.

‘A new view of the city’: US artist’s film of Hong Kong, star of M+ facade

• She’s made films about New York, Beijing and more. Now Sarah Morris talks about capturing the aura of Hong Kong in her latest piece, ETC

On January 26, two depictions of life in Hong Kong had their global premieres.

One was Expats, a six-part Amazon television series starring Nicole Kidman, based on the 2016 novel The Expatriates, by Janice Y.K. Lee. The outside world has given it mixed reviews but as no one inside Hong Kong is (legally) able to watch it, no further analysis is possible here.

First Shenzhen art week aims to capitalise on nearby Art Basel Hong Kong

• Initially only around 20 galleries and institutions were expected to join the inaugural Art Week Shenzhen but that number has doubled, the event’s director says

• Headlining the event – which is divided into two parts – are solo exhibitions by acclaimed artists Liang Shao-ji and Xu Zhen

Shenzhen will hold its inaugural art week from March 18-24 at the Sea World Culture and Arts Centre (SWCAC) and various art spaces across the city, including the OCT Loft creative complex and historic Nantou old town.

Global Impact is a weekly curated newsletter featuring a news topic originating in China with a significant macro impact for our newsreaders around the world.