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Art Basel announces further highlights for its 2025 edition in Hong Kong, including details on unique sectors and an extensive week-long onsite and offsite public program.
Encounters, Art Basel Hong Kong’s curated sector dedicated to large-scale projects, will feature 18 exceptional installations foregrounding digital art, design and architecture, textiles, nature, and human interactions. More than half of the works are being created specifically for the fair.
For the third year, the sector will include a site-specific installation: Monster Chetwynd’s Lanternfly Ballet will be presented at Pacific Place, supported by Swire Properties, the Official Partner of offsite Encounters.
Kabinett, the sector featuring thematic presentations within participating galleries’ booths, will comprise 36 projects—the highest number in the fair’s history—focusing strongly on historical and contemporary solo presentations from Asia. It will present works by 21 Asia-Pacific artists and 15 from the rest of the world.
The MGM Discoveries Art Prize, an award established for the show and supporting emerging artists, has unveiled its shortlisted artists and jury of international experts. Showcasing the cultural dynamism of its host city, Art Basel Hong Kong will feature an extensive Public Program, both onsite and offsite, including the Film and Conversations Programs and the Exchange Circle, which will be accessible to the public for free at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Furthermore, Art Basel will collaborate with leading cultural institutions M+ and Tai Kwun for joint offsite programming.
The show’s Film program, curated for the first time by Hong Kong’s independent art institution Para Site, will feature seven screenings and the works of 30 artists. Art Basel will continue collaborating with Nowness Asia, a cultural video channel, and Videotage, one of the region’s leading non-profit organizations dedicated to video art. The show continues to broaden its support to encompass more creative fields and welcomes new cultural partners, including Design Trust, HASS Lab, and Tomorrow Maybe.
Art Basel Hong Kong, whose Global Lead Partner is UBS, will take place at the HKCEC from March 28 to 30, 2025, with Preview Days on March 26 and 27.
The 2025 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong will bring together 240 exhibitors from 42 countries and territories, including 23 newcomers, presenting artistic practices that reflect the show’s commitment to global diversity and regional representation. More than half of the participating galleries are from the Asia-Pacific region, highlighting Art Basel’s vital role as a platform for the region’s dynamic art scene. The extensive week-long offsite and the onsite public program will further underscore Hong Kong’s role as a significant cultural hub.
Encounters
Encounters, the show sector dedicated to large-scale projects, will feature 18 large-scale installations by artists from various geographies.
Curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor and titled ‘As the World Turns,’ Encounters will be structured across four platforms: Passage, foregrounding themes of cultural resonance, resilience, and storytelling; Alteration, delving into the subversion of abstraction and materiality; Charge, exploring the intersections of digital and physical realms; and The Return, homing in on mythology, spirituality, and the cyclical nature of existence.
The sector will also extend beyond the show floor with an offsite Encounters project. This year’s edition will include fourteen works, especially for the fair. This will be Glass-Kantor’s last edition as curator. Highlights include:
As part of Passage, three monumental paintings by Pacita Abad showcasing the late Filipino-American artist’s ambitious exploration of iconographies and techniques from the Global South, presented by Silverlens and Tina Kim Gallery.
As part of Alteration, a suite of 30 brass sculptures by Hong Kong-born artist Christopher K. Ho, drawing from the visual language of Modernism to create a playful visual enigma, presented by Property Holdings Development Group
As part of Charge, a new work by Lu Yang, for which the Tokyo-based artist will stage a pop-up store selling artworks produced by a digital avatar named DOKU, presented by de Sarthe and COMA
As part of Charge as well, an installation by Chinese-born, New York-based artist Frank Wang Yefeng, recreating an abstracted garden inspired by a trip the artist took to the Gobi Desert and exploring the concept of nomadism, presented by Vanguard Gallery.
As part of The Return, a project by Vajiko Chachkhiani, a work that evokes the eternal cycles of migration and displacement, reflecting on the recurring dynamics of ‘them and us’ that shape human history, presented by SCAI The Bathhouse
At Hong Kong’s Pacific Place Park Court, an offsite Encounters project by Zurich-based artist Monster Chetwynd, which will combine sculpture and performance, inspired by cinematic choreography and metamorphosis, presented by Galerie Gregor Staiger, Massimodecarlo, and Sadie Coles HQ, supported by Swire Properties, the Official Partner of offsite Encounters
For the complete list of participating artists and galleries, please visit artbasel.com/hong-kong/encounters.
Kabinett
A record number of 36 galleries will participate in Kabinett, the sector for thematic presentations within galleries’ main booths, with a strong focus on solo projects from the Asia-Pacific region and the Asian diaspora. Highlights include:
P.P.O.W. presents a series of gestural ceramics and paintings by the late American artist Martin Wong, made between the late 1960s and early 1970s in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A group presentation of ink paintings bringing together work by artists from the post-Mao period, including Liu Dan, Li Jin, and Yang Jiechang, showcasing the diversity of approaches to the medium, presented by Ink Studio
Ann Leda Shapiro’s ‘Manifestation of Qi’, a series of figurative watercolours in which the American artist explores life’s intricate systems and landscapes of mind and body, presented by Axel Vervoordt Gallery
A suite of cardboard sculptures and drawings by the late Vũ Dân Tân, one of Vietnam’s pioneering contemporary art figures, exploring the concept of the garment as armour, presented by 10 Chancery Lane Gallery
A presentation of masterful ceramic works by Takahiro Kondo, which the Japanese artist made using his patented ‘Silver Mist’ technique and exploring the shapeshifting qualities of water, presented by Tokyo Gallery + BTAP
A group of new paintings by Pei Yanqing, executed in a muted palette articulated around indigo and depicting oneiric scenes, anchored in the New York-based artist’s training in Chinese painting, presented by Hive Center for Contemporary Art.
To view the complete list of participating artists and galleries, please visit artbasel.com/hong-kong/kabinett.
The MGM Discoveries Art Prize
The MGM Discoveries Art Prize, a newly established award for the 2025 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong aimed at supporting emerging artists and fostering new talent, has unveiled its jury of esteemed international experts. They are Aaron Cezar, Founding Director of Delfina Foundation; Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel; Christopher K. Ho, Executive Director of Asia Art Archive; Park Seungho, Chairman of PARKSEOBO FOUNDATION; and X Zhu-Nowell, Artistic Director of Rockbund Art Museum.
The shortlisted artists for the inaugural MGM Discoveries Prize are Shin Min, represented by P21; Kayode Ojo, represented by Sweetwater; and Saju Kunhan, represented by Tarq. The winner will be announced during the show at the MGM Lounge and will receive a cash prize of USD 50,000 to be shared between the artist and their gallery, along with the opportunity for the artist to exhibit their work in Macau.
Film
Hong Kong’s independent art institution, Para Site, will curate the 2025 Art Basel Hong Kong Film Program. Titled ‘In Space, It’s Always Night,’ this year’s program is inspired by themes addressed in Isadora Neves Marques’ Vampires in Space (2022), a feature film that will be presented during a special screening.
The Film Program will feature seven screenings bringing together the works of 30 artists. It will showcase short films reflecting ecological interdependence, resilience amid physical and mental societal constraints, human desires, and an inquiry into the technological realities shaping humankind’s increasingly hybrid and interconnected existence.
Echoing Para Site’s curatorial direction, collaborations with cultural video channel Nowness Asia and Videotage—one of the region’s leading non-profit organizations dedicated to video art—will also explore topics foregrounded in the special screening of Neves Marques’ work. Videotage will dedicate its selection to Hong Kong artists.
Highlights include:
A special screening of Vampires in Space (2022) by Isadora Neves Marques, which follows a family of vampires travelling to an Earth-like exoplanet, reflecting the Portuguese artist’s interest in Queer identity and family structures, presented by Umberto di Marino
Thai artist Chulayarnnon Siriphol’s ANG48 (2022), a film that blends archival material from Asian film history, creating an intelligent operating system embodied as a half-human, half-golden-snail figure, presented by Bangkok CityCity Gallery
Corpo Fechado—The Devil’s Work (2018), a film by Colombian artist Carlos Motta retracing the story of José Francisco Pereira, an enslaved West African man from the 18th century who, after creating a syncretic religion was tried for sorcery, presented by more Charpentier German artist Sung Tieu’s Memory Dispute (2017), a short film shedding light on forms of violent Alteration, such as the effects of Napalm on Vietnam’s environment and people, as well as the process of skin bleaching, presented by Email
London-based artist duo Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings’ Good Society (2024), a work exploring Queer life in Berlin during the Weimar Republic and its contemporary echoes, based on the memories of Hastings’ grandmother, presented by Arcadia Missa
Cao Shu’s Phantom Sugar (2023), a film in which the Chinese artist takes AI-controlled vertical farming as a starting point to sketch out a speculative future in which plant respiration can be predicted, presented by ShanghART Gallery. The program by Videotage, ‘The Pixelated You,’ features work by five Hong Kong-based artists: Jolene Mok, Wong Winsome Dumalagan, Lam Wing Sze, Tsui Hou Lam, and Jess Lau. The artists explore and imagine others through self-recorded footage, segments from other sources, fictional plots, and reconstructed materials. By Nowness Asia, the films in ‘Ghostly Metaphors’ deploy various metaphors as threads linking the past, present, and future with works by Kitty Yeung, Riar Rizaldi, Yuyan Wang, and Dongnan Chen. The Film program is freely accessible to the public. To view the complete list of participating artists and galleries, please visit artbasel.com/hongkong/film.
Conversations
Conversations at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 will bring together leading figures to examine the forces driving the world of art and culture today. The panels will cover topics ranging from the evolution of Southeast Asian patronage and artists’ engagement with AI to the artistic dimensions of rave culture and the links between art, design, and architecture. The program will also include an offsite panel in Shenzhen focusing on contemporary living with art in today’s Greater Bay Area in partnership with the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).
Highlights include:
What are artists learning from tech and AI today? with Taiwanese-American filmmaker and multimedia artist Shu Lea Cheang, moderated by Chinese American artist Tishan Hsu
How is arts patronage evolving in Southeast Asia? With Purat Osathanugrah, Chairman and President of the Dib Bangkok Museum of Contemporary Art
Living traditions: remixing heritage to challenge old stories, with artists Shao Fan and Citra Sasmita, moderated by fellow artist Jordan Nassar
Hybrid Architectures: when art meets design, with architect Kulapat Yantrasast, moderated by Marisa Yiu, Co-founder & Executive Director of Design Trust.
A performance by Pedro Wonaeamirri, a senior cultural leader on the Tiwi Islands (now part of the Northern Territories, Australia) and musician Mayunkiki, a member of the Ainu Indigenous ethnic group (who reside in Northern Japan and Southeastern Russia), followed by a discussion with Aichi Triennale curatorial advisor Professor Ishikura Toshiaki, associate professor in the Department of Arts & Roots at Akita University of art and Alexie Glass-Kantor, curator of Encounters
Onsite Conversations are free and open to the public. The entire Conversations program will be available shortly on the Art Basel website.
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