Meet the galleries coming to Art Basel Hong Kong in 2020

On March 19, 2020, Art Basel will return to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for the fair's eighth edition in Asia – and you can now find out who the 242 participating galleries are. Several of those joining the fair's main sector have yielded much influence for years, if not decades, in their respective cities and regions. Their upcoming presence at Art Basel's Hong Kong edition will give visitors a chance to discover works by a wide array of outstanding artists, including Richard Long, Shara Hughes, Liu Dan, and Jong Oh. We shed light on five participants, from established powerhouses to emerging enterprises.

Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich and New York City
Eva Presenhuber has always had a sharp instinct for outstanding artists. The Austrian-born, Zurich-based gallerist’s early – and long-term – commitment to people such as Ugo Rondinone, Karen Kilimnik, Liam Gillick, and Angela Bulloch is not the only proof of it. Since founding her namesake gallery in 2003, Presenhuber has regularly added daring positions to her roster, which now also features Eva Rothschild, Sam Falls, Torbjørn Rødland, and Jean-Marie Appriou, among others. Even before the opening of a New York City branch in 2013, the gallery had established itself as a global powerhouse, where conceptual incisiveness meets visual potency. Galerie Eva Presenhuber returns to Art Basel’s fair in Asia after a five-year hiatus.

Sabrina Amrani, Madrid
Sabrina Amrani’s program focuses on artistic voices from Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East. Established in 2011, Amrani’s program features Joël Andrianomearisoa, who has represented Madagascar at this year’s Venice Biennale, Egyptian master Chant Avedissian, South African artist Alexandra Karakashian, Pakistani draftsman Waqas Khan, and Saudi Arabian sculptor and video artist Manal Al Dowayan, among others. Many of the artists the gallery represents use the visual and narrative traditions of their homelands as departure points to reflect on what exactly defines ‘culture’. Amrani herself is French of Algerian origin and runs the gallery from Madrid. After participations in the show’s Discoveries and Encounters sectors last year, Amrani will join Art Basel’s main Galleries sector for the second time in 2020.

Ink Studio, Beijing
Ink Studio’s name quite clearly indicates the gallery’s focus. The millennia-old tradition of ink painting in Asia is the cornerstone of this Beijing gallery, founded in 2013 by Craig Yee and Christopher Reynolds. While primarily associated with the past, the medium continues to be explored by artists to this day - Zheng Chongbin, Bingyi, Huasheng Li, and Xu Bing only being some examples. Ink Studio shows both historic and contemporary works, with a particular emphasis on a critical and scholarly approach to the medium. At Art Basel Hong Kong, the gallery will focus on the transnational aspects of ink painting by featuring a group presentation of works by Japanese, Korean, and Chinese artists.

Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf and Berlin
Konrad Fischer Galerie is nothing short of an institution. Initiated in 1967 in Düsseldorf by its eponymous founder and his wife, Dorothee Fischer, the gallery was among the first ones to give Minimal and Conceptual Art a platform in Europe. Well-known artists such as Bruce Nauman, Sol LeWitt, On Kawara, or Hanne Darboven exhibited there early on. So did exponents of Arte Povera, including Jannis Kounellis and Mario Merz. Over the years, less established – but nonetheless renowned – artists joined the gallery, including Paloma Varga Weisz, Alice Channer, and Manfred Pernice. Since 2007, Konrad Fischer Galerie has also been operating spaces in Berlin, only recently turning a former electricity sub-station into their new headquarters in the German capital. This will be the first time this artworld fixture participates in Art Basel’s Hong Kong edition.

Mayoral, Barcelona and Paris
Since 1989, Barcelona’s Mayoral has been celebrating some of the region’s most fascinating Postwar artists. They include Antoni Tàpies, Modest Cuixart, Antonio Saura, and Manolo Millares, all protagonists or contributors to the Dada and Surrealism-inspired Dau al Set movement. The gallery, which only days ago inaugurated a Paris branch, has also regularly exhibited Joan Miró and Eduardo Chillida, two of Spain’s most revered artists. Earlier this year, Mayoral showed Chillida’s sculptures in combination with works by Fernando Zóbel; the Filipino-born painter was a master at blending the energy of Abstract Expressionism with the subtlety of East Asian ink painting. Mayoral will dedicate its entire booth to him come March.

Art Basel Hong Kong will take place from March 19 – 21, 2020 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Tickets will be available online from January onwards.