March 24–26, 2016
Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace in Sydney returns to curate the Encounters sector of Art Basel in Hong Kong for the second time, presenting 16 artworks by Brook Andrew, Charles Avery, Hans Berg and Nathalie Djurberg, Roberto Chabet, Chen Zhen, Isa Genzken, Kyungah Ham, Arik Levy, Peter Liversidge, Richard Maloy, Tintin Wulia, Tromarama, Keiji Uematsu, Lawrence Weiner, Pae White and Zhang Ding. Encounters is a unique platform that transcends the traditional art fair stand presenting large-scale sculptural installations.
For this year’s show, Alexie Glass-Kantor explores the nature of an “encounter” itself, curating an edition that aims to inspire both awe and wonder in an audience that will be required to interact with and participate in the immersive environment of many of the works on view.
Edouard Malingue Gallery will present Private Riots (2014–16) by artist collective Tromarama. Private Riots is composed of a flash sequence video and a floor-to-ceiling towering swirl depicting seemingly playful protest banners, conveying the trio’s observations of Asia’s rapidly evolving cultural environment and its social, political and visual undercurrents.
Marian Goodman Gallery will present a number of text works at various locations within the exhibition halls by New York-based conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner, whose emphasis on the interaction between an artwork and the viewer was first outlined in a “statement of intent,” published by the artist in 1969.
Cargo and Decoy (1989/2010) by Roberto Chabet will be presented by Osage Gallery. Cargo and Decoy is comprised of plywood boards that have been coated in blue paint; the boards are then cut in half and propped between wooden sawhorses to form blue V-shaped waves across the floor.
Osage Gallery will also present Five Tonnes of Homes and Other Understories (2016) by Tintin Wulia. Comprised of suspended bales of cardboard waste, the work embodies the development of human experiences in the accidental corners of globalized economies.
Also on view in Encounters will be Starkwhite’s presentation of a site-specific installation Yellow Structure (2016) by Richard Maloy. Seen from a distance, Yellow Structure will appear to be a solid, golden, rock-like structure that is minimal in nature. Closer inspection by visitors, however, will reveal its degradable and humble construction from common industrial materials such as cardboard, paint and tape.
ShanghART will present work by Zhang Ding. 18 Cubes (2015/2016) will consist of 18 large, man-made, steel boxes plated with 24 karat gold. Art Basel visitors will be encouraged to leave their mark on the artwork with any methods, tools or personal belongings that are available to them.
Ingleby Gallery has collaborated with Pilar Corrias to present Tree No. 5 from the Jadindagadendar (2015) by Charles Avery. Cast in bronze and five meters tall, the illuminated sculpture draws on mathematical equations for its design.
In addition, Ingleby Gallery will also present a forest of nineteen skeletal trees of various sizes by Peter Liversidge. The artist has been developing this forest since 2010, and visitors to Art Basel will be able to walk through and around the trees, which represent the artist’s version of a forest in winter.
Three sculptural works made of powder-coated steel and mirror-polished stainless steel created by Arik Levy will be presented by Pékin Fine Arts. The three works, CraterBlue (2015), StoneRed (2014) and RockTripleFusionVertical (2015) are juxtaposed as the confrontation of the body and mind when encountering societal aspects of everyday life.
David Zwirner will present a group of freestanding floor sculptures by Isa Genzken, belonging to her “Schauspieler” (Actors) series. Schauspieler III, 1 was created in 2015 and comprises elaborately outfitted mannequins holding an array of props and accessories.
Galerie Nathalie Obadia will present, in collaboration with Tolarno Galleries, the work of Brook Andrew, which will be shown at Art Basel for the first time. Drawing on the heritage of his mother’s Aboriginal cultural ancestry, Andrew will create a stage-like installation in a black and white optical pattern, which consists of six mounted image components suspended by theatre rope from the ceiling that will reappear and disappear depending on the viewer’s stance in the space.
New work by Kyungah Ham will be presented by Kukje Gallery and Tina Kim Gallery. Chandeliers for Five Cities (2016) is an installation of five large paintings, from the artist’s ongoing series that she began in 2008. While the artist is based in Seoul, South Korea, the embroideries are manufactured by artisans based in North Korea, to whom the artist sends her designed, pixelated images via a mediator.
de Sarthe Gallery will present an installation by Chen Zhen. Created three years before the artist’s death, Opening of a Closed Center (1997) is one of the artist’s finest works, consisting of metal, wood, found objects and furniture, and was conceived as one of two pieces from the artist’s time with the Shaker community in Sabbath Lake, Maine.
Lisson Gallery will present work by Nathalie Djurberg and Hans Berg. A Thief Caught in the Act (2015) consists of a number of wooden tables with colorful birds perched on their surfaces, positioned as if about to steal pills that have been scattered across the tables. The birds are lit by a light that is switched on and off in specific sequences.
neugerriemschneider will show an installation by Pae White. The work comprises a series of tapestries, including the large-scale work OroLlegro (2013), whose layers of form and pattern catch reflected light. To complement these, several works will be included from the artist’s series “Modules” (2014), which comprises boldly colored and uniquely designed hanging light sculptures.
Yumiko Chiba Associates will present work by Keiji Uematsu. Taken from a new series begun in 2014, Floating form – Invisible axis (2016) is a continuation of the artist’s interest in unconscious and unseen things, such as gravity, attraction and magnetic fields.
Art Basel, whose lead partner is UBS, will be open to the public from Thursday, March 24, to Saturday, March 26, 2016, with a preview and vernissage on Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday.
