Ho Tzu Nyen, Charmaine Poh and over 10 Singapore galleries storm Hong Kong art week

HONG KONG – With an estimated 80,000 people shuttling among events during Hong Kong’s art week from March 24 to 30, it was Singapore artist Ho Tzu Nyen’s artificial intelligence-generated animation that was visible across Victoria Harbour.

Night Charades, his video homage to the golden age of Hong Kong cinema, offered a spectacle on art museum M+’s gigantic facade. The pride-of-place co-commission by M+ and Art Basel will be a Hong Kong centrepiece until June 29, proving the veteran artist’s pan-Asian cachet.

Ho headlined a typically strong Singaporean presence at Asia’s buzziest art event of the year, including performance lectures by Charmaine Poh and Shavonne Wong, and booths by more than 10 galleries with a Singaporean footprint.

The art week revolved around the city’s twin flagship art fairs of Art Basel and Art Central, matched with a slew of satellite exhibitions across the city, celebrity sightings and edgy parties.

At its heart, Art Basel at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre was the usual overwhelming proposition, with 240 galleries from 42 countries and territories.

Among participants with a Singapore presence were galleries Ames Yavuz, Gajah Gallery, Intersections, Mizuma Art Gallery, Ota Fine Arts, Richard Koh Fine Art, ShanghART, STPI, Sullivan+Strumpf and Tang Contemporary Art.

Ames Yavuz was part of the fair’s Encounters programme, where monumental installations were presented in the aisles to make for visual wonderment. Its offering was a touching work, Ngangkari Ngura, by senior indigenous Australian artist Betty Muffler, whose meticulous white-on-black paintings resemble tree trunks and are drawn from her First Nations knowledge of being a traditional healer.

STPI, an established presence in the fair, had curated a subtly eye-catching booth comprising the works of South Korean artist Do Ho Suh, Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho, Filipino artist Pacita Abad and Thailand’s Natee Utarit.

But it was Singaporean artist Yanyun Chen’s large-scale charcoal painting and another screen work developed during her residency at STPI that were sited front-of-booth to draw visitors in.

Chen, who was at Art Basel for the first time, said: “I’m in awe of the scale and quality in Hong Kong, and I’m honoured and humbled to see my works alongside many artists I deeply respect. I have gained knowledge of different ways to practise, exchange and grow through observing how the global art scene congregates around different notions of what art and culture should be.”

At alternative art fair Art Central at Central Harbourfront, artist Poh continued her success story since the presentation of two videos at the 2024 Venice Biennale. She performed her half-hour In The Shadow Of The Cosmic four times over the course of the week.

This exorcism of her trauma of being a child actor and having her image proliferated without consent roped in two other Hong Kong artists whom the fair linked her up with. The Butoh-inspired result came with masks of her childhood self distributed to audience members – an intense, participatory experience that also made use of AI to conjure a techno-futuristic vibe.

Of her first performance at an art fair, Poh said: “Such a piece presents its own set of logistical challenges, like its set and installation requirements, as well as finding local performers. Presenting this work in this context can be confronting. It offers a space for other ways of experiencing art that cannot be contained within a fair booth.”

Wong, whose AI project Eva turned heads at Singapore’s Art SG fair in January, was invited to give her take on the psychology behind people’s interactions with AI and the emotional questions this raises.

The Art Central galleries with a Singapore presence included The Columns Gallery, Opera Gallery and Whitestone Gallery.

Meanwhile, home-grown fashion brand Charles & Keith also plugged into the art craze of Hong Kong, debuting a new look at its Fashion Walk boutique created by Singapore’s Venice Biennale representative Robert Zhao.

Zhao, whose research has focused on Singapore’s secondary forests, had interspersed the store’s display shelves with photos, videos and sculptural cut-outs of animals and plants he found in Hong Kong during a research trip.

There were the porcupines he found ambling just 10 minutes from the city and cows resting on the beach. There was also an exclusive bag, with 50 pieces, for sale – Charles & Keith’s Micro Toni Knotted Crescent Hobo Bag embroidered with the phrase Wild Where You Are and a hand-painted porcupine on its ribbon tie.

Singapore representatives spotted in Hong Kong included artist Ming Wong, president of Art Galleries Association Singapore Audrey Yeo, collectors Albert Lim and Linda Neo and personnel from the Singapore Art Museum. Hong Kong remains the Asian city to see and be seen in.