A giant, inflatable rubber duck sculpture by artist Florentijn Hofman has been installed in the port of Hong Kong, bringing residents out in droves to see it floating in the harbor.  While the duck has traveled to a number of cities around the world, the fervent response to its arrival in Hong Kong has bordered on cultural phenomenon, with restaurants making special rubber-duck themed foods and politicians praising the sculpture for the “limitless amounts of joy” it has brought to the city. (more…)

Damien Hirst, Forbidden Fruit (2012-3), via White Cube Hong Kong

White Cube Hong Kong is currently presenting Entomology Cabinets and Paintings, Scalpel Blade Paintings and Colour Charts, a broad exhibition of new work by British artist Damien Hirst. Through the three series on view, Hirst explores life’s dualities through the beauty and horror of both the Natural world and modernity.

Damien Hirst, The Judged (2012), via White Cube Hong Kong

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Elad Lassry, Russian Blue (2012), via White Cube

Transforming White Cube Gallery’s Hong Kong space into an an erratic mix of color and space, Elad Lassry has created a paradoxical challenge to viewer’s 2^nd and 3^rd dimensional perceptions.  Framed cats with piercing aquamarine eyes dot the room, gazing out at toys guarded by a luminous pink shielding. In another frame, viewers are presented with a tantalizing pair of raw steaks — the blood, emphasized by the disturbingly deep red background, but withheld from reach by its frame. Almost all the images observed in the gallery however, are flat: 2D photographs which are given depth only by the prisons they are situated in.

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The international art fair calendar will see a new addition to the lineup of Art Basel events this year, with the announcement today of Art Basel Hong Kong, running from May 23th-26th.  The festival mirrors the expanding prominence of the Asian art market, and will include a variety of exhibitions, public works, panel discussions and large-scale installations.  “There’s no question today’s serious international collector is looking at Asia,” Art Basel Director Marc Spiegler says. “The notion of collecting by continent is outmoded, and Asian collectors are looking beyond borders, too.” (more…)

French artist JR today launched his Inside Out project in Hong Kong, on elevated footbridge above Connaught Road, in collaboration with Galerie Perrotin and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macau. (more…)

In further auction news, China Guardian emerges as a player in the mainstream contemporary game and will hold auctions in Hong Kong this fall, joining Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The oldest auction house in mainland China is now the fourth largest house in the world, and maintains plans to expand internationally.

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‬Lehmann Maupin Gallery to open Hong Kong location, deeming it “more positioned as a destination” than other Asian cities. “…We recognize there is an opportunity for the promotion of our artists’ work…[and] to contribute to the growth of Hong Kong’s gallery infrastructure,” say founders Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin.

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‬The Economist writes on the political and economic factors behind mainland China-based galleries expanding into Hong Kong: “A presence in Hong Kong makes a lot of sense for us. We can show [our artists’] work to a wider and more diverse audience” says Steven Harris, founder of M97 in Shanghai.

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Daniel Buren, Photo-souvenir From Three Windows, 5 Colours for 252 Places, Work in Situ at Lisson Gallery. Via Wall Street Journal.

In its fifth year, the Hong Kong International Art Fair drew a record 67,205 visitors, up 6% from last year according to Artlyst, with galleries and collectors from across the globe—over 700 booth applications narrowed down to 266, about half Asian, half European and American. The work on view was generally geared toward the more conservative, traditional local collectors, ebbing into today’s contemporary market; many of the works sold were by Asian artists to Asian collectors, though Western galleries were successful as well, including White Cube, Hauser & Wirth, Sprüth Magers, and David Zwirner. The MCH Group—owners of Art Basel—have bought a majority stake in the fair and will officially take the reigns in 2013, renaming the fair Art Basel Hong Kong as they hope to capitalize on the current growth of Asian wealth.

Tatsuo Miyajima’s mirror piece ‘Hoto.’ Via New York Times (more…)

Gilbert and George, Guns (2011). All images via White Cube.

The collaborative duo Gilbert and George opened London Pictures to large crowds in Hong Kong last week, bringing the duo’s brash, oddball brand of British pop to the east for the inauguration of the London-based White Cube gallery’s new location. Based on 3719 source images drawn from newsstand posters stolen in East London over the last six years, the 292 works which comprise the London Pictures are the largest single body of work yet created by the duo, and the exhibition spans all four White Cube spaces—the new Hong Kong location, as well as Bermondsey, Hoxton Square, and Mason’s Yard. The gridded patterns of anywhere from four to forty tiles of found text and imagery—with the artists added in—explore themes of violence, sex, and death, through various methods of repetition. According to the press release, the survey draws “directly on the quotidian life of a vast city, [and] allow[s] contemporary society to recount itself in its own language.”

Installation view (more…)

Lichtenstein, Landscapes in the Chinese Style, installation view. All images via Gagosian Gallery.

Most recognized for his 1960s output of super-sized pulpy comic book prints and cartoon imagery explosions, Roy Lichtenstein‘s work continued to span an additional 30 years, in which he explored a number of styles and motifs that he is not commonly associated with. The current show at the Gagosian in Hong Kong seeks to exhibit some of Lichtenstein’s lesser-known works and, in particular, a number of pieces that re-interpret the style of Chinese landscape paintings.

Roy Lichtenstein, Landscape With Scholar’s Rock (1996)

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Jay Jopling’s White Cube, purveyor of art by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Chapman Bros., to open first overseas branch in Hong Kong, shortly after Larry Gagosian [AO Newslink]

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Damien Hirst, For Heaven’s Sake (2008). Platinum, pink and white diamonds, 85 x 85 x 100 mm. © 2011 Damien Hirst and Hirst Holdings Ltd, DACS 2011

For the inauguration of the Gagosian Gallery‘s new Hong Kong exhibition space, Damien Hirst presents Forgotten Promises, a show displaying new paintings and sculpture by the artist. With these new works Hirst continues his existential interrogations of existence, death, beauty, and decay, including Butterfly Fact Paintings, a series of diamond studded cabinets, and a life-size human baby skull covered in diamonds. “Diamonds are about perfection and clarity and wealth and sex and death and immortality. They are a symbol of everything that’s eternal, but then they have a dark side as well,” says Hirst in the press release.

Artist Takashi Murakami at the exhibition, via Arrested Motion

More text and images after the jump…

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