Since the pandemic, the art industry has faced unprecedented challenges but Asia’s art market has displayed resilience with Hong Kong emerging as the region’s arts & culture hub. Thanks to the city’s success at hosting art events, exhibitions and auctions safely, Hong Kong’s art scene blossomed.
With the busy artistic calendar starting in May, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) launched an ‘Arts in Hong Kong’ campaign – a year long campaign to showcase to a global audience the city’s extraordinary and enduring appeal as an arts and cultural hub. The campaign aims to raise Hong Kong’s international profile further, offering in-depth community arts and cultural tours and interactive art tech experiences to encourage the local public and visitors alike to rediscover the city from a cultural perspective.
Helmed by marquee events – Art Basel Hong Kong, Christie’s Hong Kong Spring Auctions and exciting additions such as French May and Art Central, art events are reporting strong sales and support across all sectors and market segments. And, along with newly opened world class infrastructure at West Kowloon Cultural District; the M+ Museum and the Hong
Kong Palace Museum solidify the city’s standing as an arts and culture powerhouse attracting investors and art businesses across the globe.
Digital art, an art form that has gained traction over the years was highly visible in many art events this year. The Hong Kong Museum of Art’s and the upcoming Affordable Art Fair have included digital art elements to cater to growing appetite for digital art. Most notably at Art Basel, where Hong Kong-based moving image pioneer Ellen Pau’s ‘The Shape of Light’,
co-commissioned by Art Basel and M+ and supported by UBS, was presented as first major co-commission project on the LED façade of M+.
As a leading Arts and Cultural Hub, Hong Kong continues to pioneer art technology by championing new art trends such as NFT and shining a spotlight on diverse talents. This year alone, there are upwards of 10 ground-breaking NFT related events in the city. From “A Woman’s World”, a first of its kind in Asia showcasing NFT art by female artists in Hong Kong to Asia’s largest NFT exhibition “ARTAVERSE” featuring more than 100 exhibitors to K11 MUSEA’s “METAVISION”, an ambitious showcase of more than 200 NFT works around the mall.
Derry Ainsworth, a Hong Kong based NFT artist and Creative Director of Digital Art Fair Asia hopes to cultivate and inspire a new generation of art collectors to embrace the use of digital technology to explore the beauty of art and culture.
“I truly believe that art in all its forms will always have value, whether it be a digital NFT or a physical painting. Currently, there is a huge interest in NFTs because it is an exciting, technology that offers a new platform for people to collect and experience art. NFT art also benefits both the artist and collector because of traceable secondary sales, security and
utility.” Said Derry Ainsworth.
