Art Basel Hong Kong

Past
May 25 – May 29, 2022
Hong Kong

Art Fair Details:

Art Basel Hong Kong
Booth 1C18
May 25 – 29, 2022

Press:

Press Release

Connect:

(opens in a new window) Art Basel Hong Kong
(opens in a new window) @artbasel
(opens in a new window) @pacegallery

Above: Elmgreen & Dragset, On Target, Fig. 2, 2021 (detail) © Elmgreen & Dragset

Pace Gallery is pleased to detail its presentation for the 2022 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong. The gallery’s booth will reflect its long history and global program, featuring works by leading contemporary artists as well as key 20th century figures.

The booth will spotlight Asian artists in Pace’s program, including Zhang Xiaogang, Song Dong, Hong Hao, Yin Xiuzhen, Li Songsong, and Qiu Xiaofei from China, Kohei Nawa from Japan, and Lee Kun-Yong from South Korea. Underscoring its commitment to supporting artists’ advanced studio practices and boundary-pushing digital projects, the gallery will showcase NFTs by Zhang Huan, Glenn Kaino, and Lucas Samaras in its booth, with Zhang’s NFTs also available to view and purchase on Pace Verso, the gallery’s Web3 hub.

Additional highlights in Pace’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong 2022 include works by Louise Nevelson, Elmgreen & Dragset, Torkwase Dyson, Sam Gilliam, Marina Perez Simão, and Robert Mangold. A new painting by Loie Hollowell, who had a widely acclaimed exhibition at the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai in 2021, will be presented at the fair. Two new sculptures by Arlene Shechet, whose solo exhibition at Pace’s Hong Kong gallery coincides with the fair, will also be exhibited in the gallery’s booth. Titled Moon in the Morning, Shechet’s inaugural exhibition at Pace in Hong Kong runs from May 20 to June 30.

The gallery will participate in the fair’s online viewing room from May 24 to 29, at (opens in a new window) artbasel.com/hong-kong. The gallery will also launch an online exhibition on its website to complement its in-person presentation at Art Basel Hong Kong.

On the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong, Pace will extend the regular hours at its Hong Kong gallery, through Sunday, May 29. Shechet’s solo show, on view at the Hong Kong gallery during this period of extended hours, features new and recent sculptures reflecting the artist’s interest in biomorphic forms, visual paradoxes, and the effects of bold color.

Featured Works

Elmgreen & Dragset

Michael Elmgreen | b. 1961, Copenhagen, Denmark
Ingar Dragset | b. 1969, Trondheim, Norway

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset's work radically recontextualizes quotidian objects, altering conventional methods of representation and making space for new modes of perception. Often playful and subversive, the duo’s work examines complex questions and themes relating to identity, sexuality, and mortality. Elmgreen & Dragset’s On Target, Fig. 2 (2021) subverts traditional notions of success and failure, right and wrong, and violence and beauty. The work is comprised of a stainless-steel arrow embedded in the center of a circular plate affixed to a wall. The black, blue, and red circles reflect the composition of a target, but instead of featuring concentric circles, the work is skewed to the right. In this way, the sculpture presents two potential realities, bringing into question the terms in which we perceive the world around us. Imbued with tension and ambiguity, the work can be interpreted as a freeze-frame of an archer’s practice. Subtly referencing Jasper Johns, who explored imagery of targets, Elmgreen & Dragset investigate new possibilities of the form, reimagining its meanings and associations.

Sam Gilliam

b. 1933, Tupelo, Mississippi

Sam Gilliam is one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, having emerged in the Washington, D.C. scene in the mid-1960s with works that elaborated upon and disrupted the ethos of the Washington Color School. Since that time, Gilliam has continued to create richly colored abstract compositions. The techniques that Gilliam has explored in watercolor—staining, folding, and otherwise distressing the paper's surface—have had a powerful effect on his artistic practice. As his practice matured, the artist’s watercolors played a key role in shaping his approach to paintings on canvas, cultivating a dialogue between different facets of his work.

Gilliam’s recent watercolors possess a palpable, textural quality that seems to belong more to our world than to the surface of the painting. Like his iconic draped canvases, a sense of depth is echoed in the composition of each watercolor painting. In Annie (2021), vertical washes of purple, yellow, and blue on a flat surface create the illusion of folds or pleats within rich and rhythmic planes of light and dark that bleed and overlap. As in much of Gilliam’s work, both chance and choice play a vital role in this work, reflecting the artist’s love of jazz and its improvisatory nature.

Song Dong

b. 1966, Beijing, China

Song Dong often examines quotidian and domestic subjects through his multifarious practice. The artist’s recent work Usefulness of Uselessness – Varied Window No. 22 (2020) is a continuation of his Usefulness of Uselessness series, which investigates the cultural significance of found objects, urban life, and repetition. Created during the pandemic, this work explores enactments of isolation and the ways windows function as barriers between domestic and public spheres. The artist compresses the original proportions of window frames, creating an image reminiscent of a crowded city skyline. Working with humble materials such as window frames, glass, and mirrors, he constructs installations using found objects. These collaged remnants of people’s homes carry with them a complex history of a city and the lives of its people. Looking closely at the work, viewers become accidental voyeurs, imagining distant homes and personal stories, and identifying shared experiences of the past.

Arlene Shechet

b. 1951, New York, New York

Arlene Shechet’s methodology for creating idiosyncratic, biomorphic, boldly colored sculptures is both highly technical and entirely intuitive—she does not employ drawings or armatures as part of her process. Guided by a general impulse, the artist engages in a spirited dialogue with her works, embracing improvisation and chance as she brings a sculpture into existence. Shechet’s ceramic works are marked by complex finishes, which the artist creates by layering glazes over the course of multiple firings. Reflecting Shechet’s deep interest in combinations of seemingly disparate, incongruous materials and forms, the artist’s new sculpture Second Gem (2022) features interacting layers of ceramic, wood, and steel. With a multicolored, organic form emerging from a largely black composition, the work exemplifies Shechet’s explorations of the emotional and psychological resonances of color and shape.

Marina Perez Simão

b. 1980, Vitória, Brazil

Rooted in the natural landscape of her native Brazil, Marina Perez Simão’s luminous works on canvas, such as Untitled (2021), pulse with a magnetic, musical, and hypnotic energy. Influenced by painters Tarsila do Amaral, Agnes Pelton, and Luchita Hurtado, Simão cultivates a practice situated within a larger constellation of artists who have also explored the metaphysical elements of nature. Building on the artist’s process of combining memories with literary and musical references to create singular, abstracted landscapes, Simão’s recent body of work reflects the evolution of her artistic practice during quarantine in Brazil in 2020. Neither solid nor liquid, sky nor ground, the shapes in Simão’s works defy easy classification. Her watercolors and paintings, comprising disparate references and visual cues, often leave the viewer with a lasting sense of wonder.

Lee Kun-Yong

b. 1942, Sariwon, Korea

A key figure in the Korean avant-garde movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Lee Kun-Yong is widely known for his innovations in performance art. The artist’s practice also spans sculpture, installation, video, painting, and his boundary-pushing performances have often intersected with these mediums. Lee’s ongoing Bodyscape series, which he began in 1976 and continues to produce today, challenges conventional modes of painting and art making. The abstract works in this series reflect the artist’s interest in documenting the physicality of painting. For these pieces, he approaches his canvases from various vantage points—behind and in front of the painting—to create a series of spontaneous and expressive marks. This new work from the series features robust swathes of yellow, black, and blue forming elegant lines that extend across the canvas. The present works are among the latest pieces in the artist’s historic and highly experimental Bodyscape series.

Torkwase Dyson

b. 1973, Chicago, Illinois

Though she works across multiple mediums, Torkwase Dyson primarily considers herself a painter, using geometric abstraction to create a unique visual language that is both diagrammatic and expressive. In her painting practice, Dyson gradually builds compositions through repeated marks, brushstrokes, and washes of color, engaging with form, opacity, and texture to explore themes of Black spatial negotiation and liberation. Dyson’s recent tondo works, including (Bird and Lava #03) (2021), blur the boundary between painting and sculpture. Featuring curves, trapezoids, and triangles, these works reflect a language of abstraction that speaks to physical spaces inhabited by Black and brown bodies, such as the hull of a slave ship or the garret in which people hid. In Dyson’s words, “Thinking through the histories of Black liberation, these are the victories that fortify my being in the objects I make. It’s time for a new relationship with abstraction, an illegal abstraction developed out of the condition of a new world building toward liberation and revolution.”

Louise Nevelson

b. 1899, Kiev
d. 1988, New York

Louise Nevelson is known for her monochromatic works comprised of wood elements collected from areas surrounding her studio. Incorporating surrealist, cubist, and abstract expressionist styles in her work, Nevelson investigated the relational possibilities of sculpture. Transforming materials from the external world into personal landscapes, Nevelson used disparate wood elements to create unified structures. Although she experimented with other materials and produced numerous collages as well as large-scale unpainted assemblage works throughout her career, Nevelson is widely recognized for her series of monochromatic wood sculptures painted black, which she began in the mid-1950s. She later made monochromatic white and gold painted works; however, black remained dominant throughout Nevelson’s oeuvre because, for her, it reflected a culmination and unification. “It’s the most aristocratic color in the world,” Nevelson once said. “Plus, it is not black. Nothing is black. Nothing is one color. There are so many shadows and shades in it that are so subtle that it isn’t quite black. You can take almost anything and once it’s black it has another meaning.” [1] In painting her works in black, white, or gold, she was “going back to the elements: shadows, light, the sun, the moon.” [2]

[1] Louise Nevelson quoted in “Louise Nevelson: Maquettes in Steel and Related Works,” in Adventures in Art: 40 Years at Pace, ed. Milly Glimcher (Milan: Leonardo International, 2001), 212.

[2] Louise Nevelson quoted in Diana MacKown, 145.

Robert Mangold

b. 1937, North Tonawanda, NY

For over six decades, Robert Mangold has explored the evocations of line, color, and shape as they relate to painting. His attention to these fundamental compositional elements has yielded boundary-pushing geometric abstractions on shaped canvases that charted new frontiers within the medium. He often uses works on paper to parse his vision for a painting. He wrote in 1988 that these pieces “are where the ideas are worked out and most of the important decisions are made, the momentum from them carry me into the painting.”

Up until the late 1990s, Mangold created drawings using stick graphite and conté crayon, which he would rub into the surface of the paper.[1] However, the graphite and conté restricted his ability to freely explore color. After experimenting with pastels borrowed from his wife, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, he began to consistently incorporate the medium into his working process. He noted in 2005 that “the use of pastel has opened up ideas of color and light in the recent work, which I have carried over into my paintings by using thin acrylic washes applied with a roller in layers, creating a luminous color surface.” [2] Two Columns (2006) reflects the dynamism of Mangold’s oeuvre, offering an intimate experience of his abstractions.

[1] See Robert Mangold, Robert Mangold: Works on Paper 2000–2005. (Chicago: Donald Young Gallery, 2005), 1.

[2] Robert Mangold, Robert Mangold: Works on Paper 2000–2005. (Chicago: Donald Young Gallery, 2005), 1.

Presented by Pace Verso

Zhang Huan

b. 1965, Anyang, Henan, China

Pace Verso, the Web3 arm of Pace Gallery, is pleased to present four editions of Zhang Huan’s new NFT series, Celestial Burial. Informed by Zhang’s storied My New York (2002) performance in a suit made of meat, this new series reinvents the presentation in the digital space.⁠ Celestial Burial is deeply engaged with one of the most iconic performances by the artist, whose practice also spans painting, photography, and sculpture.

Celestial Burial of an Artist #1 by Zhang Huan — Zhang Huan, *Celestial Burial of an Artist #1*, 2012/2021, non-fungible token; Contract ID: TBD, Token ID: TBD

Celestial Burial of an Artist #4 by Zhang Huan — Zhang Huan, *Celestial Burial of an Artist #4*, 2012/2021, non-fungible token; Contract ID: TBD, Token ID: TBD

In My New York, which was staged at the 2002 Whitney Biennial less than a year after 9/11, Zhang wore a meat bodysuit with bulging muscles contoured in flesh. The performance, which involved the release of doves from cages, served as a poignant exploration of the artist’s relationship to the city. For the Celestial Burial NFT series, Zhang reimagines his Whitney Biennial presentation in a new medium. Participants in the gamified project created distinct versions of the artist’s meat suit-wearing avatar, resulting in 2,500 individual works that comprise the Celestial Burial NFTs. Arranged to form large, semi-abstract figures representing the artist in his costume, the player-customized images of Zhang in the meat suit makeup the NFTs in this body of work. Each of these composite works in the Celestial Burial series features a mosaic of colors and tones, blurring the boundary between figuration and abstraction. The artist’s formal and conceptual experimentations with these NFTs situate his performance in a technological context.

Celestial Burial of an Artist #5 by Zhang Huan — Zhang Huan, *Celestial Burial of an Artist #5*, 2012/2021, non-fungible token; Contract ID: TBD, Token ID: TBD

Celestial Burial of an Artist #6 by Zhang Huan — Zhang Huan, *Celestial Burial of an Artist #6*, 2012/2021, non-fungible token; Contract ID: TBD, Token ID: TBD

Lucas Samaras, XYZ 0810 (Chinoiserie), 2012/2021, non-fungible token

Lucas Samaras

b. 1936, Kastoria, Macedonia, Greece

Lucas Samaras’s XYZ series, which includes four bodies of work created between 2010 and 2012, exemplifies the artist’s longstanding investigations of form, color, space, and the expansive possibilities of image making. The NFTs from this series are dated 2012/2021 to reflect their original format and later transformation into NFTs. In these digital artworks, psychedelic, electrically colored formations intersect and interact, forging captivating compositions that beckon viewers into dreamlike realms. With the XYZ series, Samaras constructs ineffable universes rife with mystery and magic. The series engages with some of the artist’s most iconic works, including his Photo-Transformations series (1973–1976), centered on unorthodox manipulations of Polaroids, and Photofictions (2003), featuring fragmented self-portraits and fantastical abstractions. The artist has devoted much of his career to charting new frontiers in photography and digital art, and experimentation remains integral to his practice.

Glenn Kaino

b. 1972, Los Angeles, California

NFTs from the Pass the Baton series are inspired by the storied career of Olympic track and field athlete Tommie Smith, Glenn Kaino’s longtime collaborator in his Legacy Team works. Smith is known for his salute for human rights at the 1968 Olympic Games, a gesture that has been deeply impactful for future generations. Through the Pass the Baton project, baton NFTs facilitate a generative crypto-giving structure that directly funds social justice efforts and nonprofit organizations in the US. Informed by Smith’s record breaking 1600-meter relay race in 1966, these unique digital works bear the names of prominent activists, advocates, and changemakers alongside Smith’s, with each name linking to a nonprofit organization focused on social justice. Smart contracts ensure that the associated organizations receive ongoing support through Pass the Baton.

Baton #384 (Team Unity) by Glenn Kaino — Glenn Kaino, *Baton #384 (Team Unity)*, 2021, non-fungible token

Baton #2344 (Team Power) by Glenn Kaino — Glenn Kaino, *Baton #2344 (Team Power)*, 2021, non-fungible token

With the Legacy Team project, which includes Pass the Baton, Kaino has said, “Our charge is to create sustainable ways for the memory of Tommie’s salute to live on for generations, and for as many people around the world to benefit from the hardship that he endured, and the sacrifices he suffered as the result of his courageous act … Pass the Baton is a technology-driven art project that has as its core the intention to create a sustainable engine for philanthropy, one that drives resources to 23 different organizations around the country who all are engaged in the fight for equality and human rights. It is meant to bring together the best qualities from the disparate worlds of art, blockchain, and social justice that it connects.”