Back for its fifth year, ART HK 12 – Hong Kong International Art Fair will take place May 17-20 2012, with previews on May 16. While the fair will only announce its full gallery list in January (probably to coincide and steaal some thunder from competing fair Art Stage Singapore), it's already revealed some tweaking to its format to encourage broad cross-cultural exchange between galleries in Asia and those in the West.
ART HK will continue to have a 50/50 balance of Asian and Western participation (compared with the 70/30 breakdown of Art Stage Singapore, which is trying to position itself as more "Asian" than Hong Kong. )
The HK Fair will also see the return of ASIA ONE, a section dedicated to solo presentations by Asian artists represented by Asian galleries, which debuted this year. But following the huge interest in the section last year, ASIA ONE will now be positioned at the heart of the Fair, divided between ground and first floors, integrating it further into the main fair and setting it alongside some of the most prestigious galleries from the West.
The relocation of this section aims to reaffirm ART HK's commitment to cross-cultural exchange and the Asian art scene by highlighting Asian artists represented by Asian galleries. The location of ASIA ONE amongst the most prestigious galleries from Asia and the West will provide the greatest possible exchange between West and East, and encourage galleries to interact and to discover new artists from which unexpected collaborations may arise, fair organizers argue.
ART HK has also announced the return of ART HK Projects, presenting large scale sculpture and installation works by leading artists from around the world. These works will be selected from applications submitted by exhibiting galleries. ART HK Projects debuted in 2011, and was extremely well-received by both the international buying audience and the local viewing public
ART HK 12 will also see the return of ART FUTURES, a showcase of the most promising emerging artists (under the age of 35 at the time of application) represented by new galleries worldwide. While in previous years ART HK has required that galleries exhibiting in ART FUTURES must be no more than five years old, for the 2012 Fair, galleries of up to eight years old will be able to submit applications. A reduced number of spaces for ART FUTURES in ART HK 12, together with a broader range, ensures that an even higher calibre of galleries will be selected to participate in ART FUTURES than in previous years.