Below is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: Hong Kong is home to many financial institutions and is one of the richest cities in the world.
However, the number of millionaires here has fallen by 4% over the past decade.
Nonetheless, one area of this “special administrative region” shows great promise – the arts.
The number of member galleries of the Hong Kong Gallery Association increased by 27% between 2021 and 2023.
The world’s largest auction houses – Christie’s and Sotheby’s – which have been operating here since the 1970s – are expanding to meet demand.
I met Nicolas Chow, the chairman of Asia.
Nicholas Zhou: When we came to Asia 50 years ago, we were actually the first people to come here, and we brought Chinese art with us.
This is the centerpiece of our auction.
Today we have really opened the market for all kinds of new experiences and new materials from all over the world, from dinosaurs to cars to contemporary art. NFTs, sneakers, you name it, we have it.
Emily Tan: What has social media done to the art and auction worlds? Are buyers getting younger now?
Nicholas Zhou: Buyers are getting younger, and as we’re actually seeing in 2023, Gen X is now the most important buying group, actually over $1 million, and they dominate the market. This is the first time. Now we are certainly seeing millennials starting to embrace contemporary art. In the current market, more than 40% of buyers fall into this category.
Now, our social media presence on Instagram is very strong and we are seeing a huge response from buyers to these posts and buying into the material they see themselves engaging with.
Emily Tan: It’s not just modern and contemporary art for sale here.
Nicholas Zhou: When we come to Hong Kong, Chinese art and ancient Chinese art is really the origin of Sotheby’s in Hong Kong. The value of these historical artworks has really increased significantly since the Chinese entered the market 25 years ago.
Emily Tan: Tell us a little bit about this piece here.
Nicholas Zhou: So this is an object that truly embodies the power of the emperor. This is a huge white jade seal carved for Chen Long in the 1730s. This is a seal with the words “Chen Long Bi”, which means His Majesty’s gentle emperor’s pen. So the emperor would actually engrave this seal in his own calligraphy.
Emily Tan: How did Sotheby’s get this?
Nicholas Zhou: We originally sold it in October 2008 for about $8 million. It has been in the possession of a collector ever since. We are pleased to now offer it again. These things are really appreciated to some extent by generations.
Emily Tan: How much does it cost?
Nicholas Zhou: The price tag is about 9 million US dollars, 9 to 12 million US dollars.
Emily Tan: What are your expectations? How much can it be sold for?
Nicholas Zhou: I think it could fetch $20 million in today’s market. This is truly an object of the highest historical importance.
Emily Tan: Not everything is available at prices in the region—in fact, for some artists, learning how to monetize their work can be a challenge
Mark 2: In 2019, I was struggling because I couldn’t make a living as an artist. So I gave myself a task, which was to draw a picture. But what can I say, I am not a painter. I’m a conceptual artist.
Emily Tan: I’m Mak 2, an artist based in Hong Kong who will be exhibiting at Art Basel, Hong Kong’s largest art fair.
Mark 2: If I have a good idea, I will use various mediums to realize my idea, for example I do installations, videos and sometimes I also do Instagram videos.
In 2017 I made an inflatable snow globe called: “You better watch out.”
So there are QR codes everywhere inside. So when the audience comes in, they scan your QR code. After scanning, it will take you to watch the video. In fact, the video is the CCTV behind you. So you’re not just watching a snow globe. You will also be viewed inside a snow globe.
In 2019, I wanted to give up being an artist. But then I received an invitation from this gallery to have a solo show at their space in Hong Kong.
Emily Tan: Because she is not a painter herself. Mak2 had to figure out how to create a series—without putting paint on canvas.
Mak2 signed with De Sarthe Gallery in Southern District of Hong Kong.
Zhang Jiajia: One of the reasons we work with a small group of artists is so that each of them gets our time and attention.
Many of the artists we represent are still young, so they are still in an exploratory stage of development. So it’s always helpful to have a sounding board, someone they can talk to, and that’s often our role.
As a gallery we actually try not to prioritize the market, we try to help artists develop their own unique practice, their own unique style. It is important not to compromise with market demands.
Mark 2: When I was younger, I was always worried that people would think I was too commercial. But now I no longer have this fear. Value creation depends on how well you know you’re doing your job correctly. So if I want my work to be valuable, I have to let people know. I think Art Basel is the perfect platform for me to let people know about my work.
Emily Tan: Art Basel, named after the Swiss city where it was held in 1970, has become a global institution, hosting annual events in Basel, Miami, Paris and, since 2013, Hong Kong.
For some visitors, it’s a chance to see art, but for many, the event is about big business.
Angel leaves-Le: We firmly believe that Hong Kong is the best place to start an art business in Asia and that Hong Kong is a natural melting pot. furnace. Hong Kong is a natural cultural melting pot. Hong Kong has always welcomed new culture and new elements.
As an art fair at the center of the art ecosystem, we feel that every actor in the ecosystem has always been very active. We’re able to integrate these different parts of the ecosystem into our platform. At the same time, you know, Hong Kong has always been convenient geographically for arts businesses.
We see that collectors, tourists, and art lovers from the United States, Australia, Switzerland, France, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Japan, etc. are basically all over the world.
Emily Tan: The show has a VIP program, allowing experienced collectors early access to the galleries before the crowds.
Angel leaves-Le: So we actually listen to the guidance of the gallery, we have various VIP training programs, and we make sure that we do have first-hand contact with VIPs.
So we actually got to know them, their collections, their tastes.
Emily Tan: Earlier in the exhibition, we met conceptual artist and Hong Kong native Mak2.
As part of Art Basel’s larger “Encounters” series, she presents an installation called “Copy of Copy”, based on her “Home Sweet Home” series.
The first set of works were originally j-pegs created on the video game The Sims.
Mak2 then splits the image into 3 and hires a painter on the e-commerce platform.
Mark 2: The painters had no idea that they were actually completing an entire painting. So when they were done I put them together. As you can see, the triptych doesn’t match.
Emily Tan: What criteria do you follow when choosing painters for your work?
Mark 2: It’s basically pretty random. Because I want the randomness in it too. Because the concept of it is, I would say, that the ideal version of “home” translated in the real world is basically random. It’s basically out of control.
Emily Tan: So these pieces are based on The Sims, so it’s a copy of a copy, right?
Mark 2: Yes. So the first-level copy is the game itself, because the game is a copy of reality, and Sweet Home is a copy of the game, so Sweet Home is the second-level copy.
Emily Tan: So are these copies of copies? Are there more copies?
Mark 2: right here. I’ll show you.
So while they look similar to what we’ve seen before, they’re actually different. For the original Sweet Home, I hired three painters on eCommerce to help me visualize the idea of a virtual home in The Sims, but this time, I hired just one painter to recreate it Triptych. Hence, from triptych to single canvas.
Emily Tan: And then above us, we have another copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. But this one was gray and looked old and worn. Can you explain it?
Mark 2: So the other part is actually a reimagined version of this booth 200 years later.
What we see above is not actually a painting, but a print of the painting below. So through the process of copying, what I’m saying is that we’re getting further and further away from reality, because The Sims, the game, is a copy of reality, right? So through the process of copying, we get further and further away from the original reality.
Emily Tan: So are you saying that life here has a culture of imitation?
Mark 2: There’s a quote that I particularly like, I guess it’s from the book Steal Like an Artist, that originality is undetected plagiarism, which means nothing is original. But I think maybe that’s true, because when you need to do something new, you have to have some reference, right?
Emily: So what does it mean to you to be part of one of the biggest exhibitions in the world?
Mark 2: It’s actually quite surreal. It is like a dream to exhibit at such an important international art fair.
Emily Tan: How did you fare this year? Have you ever sold any of your work?
Mark 2: Yes, I’m lucky.
Emily Tan: In fact, Mak2 sold a total of eight works worth approximately $100,000, bringing the total sales of the entire show to millions of dollars.
High wealth investors, when they invest in art, what are they looking for?
Angel leaves-Le: They are looking for something different. Many of them actually admire the artist’s practice, and the concept really resonates with individual collectors. So it’s a combination of everything, a combination of reasons why collectors collect these particular pieces of art.
A lot of that is because, because these names are very popular among a group of collectors. Many of them also saw potential in a young artist who had great potential to develop Korean art.
But I still believe that most collectors collect sincerely and that they really resonate with the ideas and processes behind the art. So, yes, I feel like collecting is a sentimental and emotional endeavor and a very personal process.
Emily Tan: The buzzword today is artificial intelligence, AI. Does artificial intelligence have a place in art?
Angel leaves-Le: Absolutely. I think digital art is definitely here to stay. In fact, during the so-called COVID-19 lockdown period, many digital artists have become more and more prominent, and digital art. The definition of digital art today has expanded from simple photography to video art, to NFT, to art generated by artificial intelligence. and other forms of digitally related art. So we feel that as the younger generation becomes more and more prominent in the market, digital artists will definitely become a group of artists that receive more attention.
Emily Tan: Angelle, thank you so much for inviting us to Art Basel.
Angel leaves-Le: Thank you so much.
Emily Tan: All of the above from Hong Kong – join us next time to explore the “art of appreciation” in a new city.
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