Art journal #130: HKAF 2011

The fair's just getting bigger and bigger! Even more international this year. Bit too many Warhol's, surely?! Wonder if Asian works sold better, or the less often seen Western ones? (but there's no risk taking at all on the Western art side - its still Julie Opie, Takashi Murakami, Anish Kapoor, Daimen Hirst; and Picasso, Warhol, etc. on the modern front)

Had to say Art Futures upstairs is more interesting and has more energy than downstairs, despite smaller and often poor-lit booths. Obviously quality varies, but there's clearly more experimentation. Rampa from Istanbul showed Turkish female artist Nilbar Gures' diverse body of work, from photos, videos to drawings centering around gender tension. Tokyo BTAP's has a sold-out show for Miki Taira's cloth/calligraphy 'figures'. The few Indonesian booths had interesting works, including a popular Jompet installation. Of course there's Para/Site's Wedding Project booth designed by G.O.D. which was a major crowd pleaser! The experience began with the kneeing down to get in - esp popular with kids, it appeared.

Downstairs in the main hall, from HK, Osage's set of works is disappointing. EXIT drew crowds, and curated the critically acclaimed Nadim Abbas's coral tunnel installation. Hanart was a Luis Chan salute (sold out too apparently?). Continua showed Gu Dexin which was refreshing. Eslite repeats with Cao Guoqiang just like last year. Hyundai brought Young Hae Heavy Industries work done during the AAA residence. UCCA has some rare Liu Xiaodong editions from his recent show there. Urs Meile brought only one Ai Weiwei - the only one in the fair - there's still taboo given sensitive times now. Surprised that Acquavella is bringing out that Zeng Fanzhi's Mao scribbly oil - which must only have been picked up in auction like 6 months ago?! Love the ZFZ 'Portrait of a Girl' at F2. Sean Kelly's Teching Hsieh was never seen before, edition of 36, with all 6 of his performances! Gagosian was boring and repeated Murakami/Hirst. Applauded Yvon Lambert's courage to bring the light installation - clearly a hard to sell piece? Still remember the Yang Fudong from ShangArt's last year - nothing to match that this time. Lee Kit was shown in 3 spaces - Shugo, Osage, and one more (next stop: Art Basel). Vitamin is the only gallery who put thoughts and created a reconfigured booth, and showed Ming Wong, Cao Fei, Duan Jianyu, Tozer Pak and Olafur Eliasson (two of these pieces were recent Venice Biennale entries in 2009).

There's lot of student groups starting at 5-6pm, esp upstairs. Did overhear conversations; not all were inspiring (eg, 'oh I didnt get that at all, WTF'), but its better to offer exposure than not?

Missed the ZFZ solo as part of Christies. Also felt the auctions - Christies, AAAA, Seoul Auction, Pury, etc., are drawing less crowd - certainly I found the Christies showroom fairly empty at 630pm.

With new owner next year, wonder how will 'Art Basel HK' be like in 2012?