ShanghART Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in the 2023 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, where it will present a captivating showcase featuring the latest works by 21 selected artists at booth 1C07. The exhibition will include a variety of paintings, sculptures, installations, and photography created by international and intergenerational artists.

In recent years, both nature and society have experienced significant changes and challenges; wars and environmental transformations have disrupted what appeared to be stable. For the presentation, Chinese photographer Jiang Pengyi's latest work "Erosion" serves as an overarching theme for discussing how individuals should navigate and adapt to this intricate and ever-changing deluge. And these intergenerational artists offer different perspectives on whether to resist or tolerate today's social environment. Through Jiang’s use of photographic techniques, he creates a fictional piece depicting eroded lava that poetically expresses concerns about the world.

Highlights in ShanghART's Art Basel Hong Kong presentation include evocative abstract paintings by Yu Youhan, who was one of the most important and influential artists in China. Unfortunately, he passed away in December 2023 in Shanghai, which is a tremendous loss for both China and the global art community. As a leading pioneer of Chinese abstract painting, his artwork showcased at the booth embodies the distinctive characteristics and symbols of Yu Youhan's abstract art. His body of work combines multiple perspectives to explore the structure of cultural identity in China through various pictorial techniques. Yu's paintings are widely recognized and captivating, having had a significant impact on the art scene while inspiring a younger generation of artists. May this exceptional artist be forever remembered and cherished.

Leading Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi, who recently concluded his solo exhibition Old and New (Paintings 1988-2023) at the Pudong Art Museum in Shanghai, presents his latest oil painting  "Pomegranates." His late paintings signify a shift in his focus from a formal concern with the representation of existential unsettlement to an interest in how we imagine ourselves interacting with nature. Another internationally renowned artist Yang Fudong showcases a black-and-white photograph named "First Spring." Additionally, co-commissioned by Art Basel and M+ and presented by UBS, artist and filmmaker Yang Fudong's film "Sparrow on the Sea" was shot in Hong Kong in January 2024. This captivating black-and-white film intertwines scenes from seaside villages and nocturnal city streets. By drawing inspiration from visual motifs and textures found in classic Hong Kong cinema spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, Yang aims to evoke a sense of nostalgic familiarity. Moreover, this artwork serves as an analogical short poem that blends moments from Hong Kong's past and present while offering a glimpse into an unpredictable future. (HKBasel)

Singaporean artist Robert Zhao Renhui exhibits works that are part of Tate's collection: three Myna bodies he discovered in Taiwan affected by human activity. His works often show how man and nature influence and erode each other to varying degrees, often in romantic and poetic forms. In April, Robert will represent Singapore at the prestigious 2024 Venice Biennale. Tang Da Wu, another renowned Singaporean artist who recently returned from Diriyah Biennale, presents an installation called "Poretii's Oath," inspired by Jacques-Louis David's painting "The Oath of the Horatii." Tang Da Wu created this thought-provoking installation by inserting three saws into a brick precariously balanced on the edge of a rusted steel table. The precariousness of the installation symbolises the conditions that artists have to endure through in their commitment to their practice.

Another art master, Liang Shaoji, has been experimenting with a new material - glass - in the past year, which is completely different from his previous work with silk. In January, he successfully held his latest solo exhibition of all glass works called Phantasmagoria at the Shanghai Museum of Glass. His latest piece "Ice Bed" not only reinterprets his Silk Bed "Beds/Nature Series No. 10, 1993," exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 1999 but also prompts us to rethink our relationship with the environment, industry and death. During Basel in Hong Kong, he will hold another solo exhibition called Hai Ming Ming at Sea World Culture & Arts Center in Shenzhen. Xu Zhen®'s Ecosystem as Medium will also be exhibited in Shenzhen, MOCAUP, at the same time. He comes along with his latest work at the booth - an ancient jade piglet shaped like an internet emoji smiley face painted using traditional Chinese ink on silk fabric, which responds to the erosion of culture and the internet.

Emerging female artist Han Mengyun presents her new painting titled "The Finality of Love" at the booth, highlights techniques and imagery from the art and handicrafts of South Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere, proposing a visual conversation in which European art history is still present, but not granted undue prominence. (UCCA) Her practice addresses the decolonisation of the phenomena of Eurasian transcultural hybridisations that occurred across vast landscapes of time and space from the dominative mediation of the Western conceptual gaze. Her solo show at ShanghART Gallery, The Unending Rose, from November 2023 to January 2024 received considerable attention.