HONG KONG — Sales continued to be strong into the third day of Art Basel in Hong Kong, with many galleries doing brisk business after the lukewarm opening amid stormy weather.
Works by top Chinese and Japanese artists led the way. At Pace Gallery, which has branches in New York, London, and Beijing, all four of prominent Chinese artist and auction darling Zhang Xiaogang’s painted bronze sculptures of children’s heads, priced from $100,000 to $350,000, were sold.
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara also did well at the booth, selling out the handful of pencil drawings of cutesy cartoon figures on view, as well as a large acrylic-on-wood panel “Balance Girl” for about $350,000.
At the joint booth by Japanese gallery Ota Fine Arts and London-based Victoria Miro, 15 works by superstar dot artist Yayoi Kusuma were sold on the first day of the fair, half to Asian collectors and half to Europeans and Americans. The works are priced at six-figure sums each, said Victoria Miro’s director Glenn Scott Wright, who declined to be drawn into details but added that he has sold another three paintings since opening night. The highlight sale was a $2-million triptych painting titled “Flame of Life — Dedicated to Tu-Fu (Du-Fu)” — depicting a writhing mass of red tadpole shapes.
The cash register was also ringing at top Beijing gallery LongMarch Space, which attracted a strong following of Mainland collectors who snapped up works by their compatriots. All three of Zhan Wang’s abstract nickel-coated resin works, priced at 600,000RMB ($98,000) each were sold, together with his stainless steel sculpture titled “Artificial Rock No.146,” at $280,000.
Most visitors will have seen the installation “Play 201301” by Shanghai-based MadeIn Company, a hanging cathedral made from leather fetish gear that stands at the entrance of the fair. Long March sold the work for 2 million RMB ($326,0000) to the White Rabbit collection in Australia, a prominent collection of Chinese contemporary art.
Chinese “thread” artist Lin Tianmiao was the star of New York- and Paris-based Galerie Lelong’s booth, and her large-scale installation “More or Less the Same,” comprising parts of the human skeleton and industrial objects wrapped in silk thread, went for $300,000. At the same booth, Spanish artist Jaume Plensa’s “Sitting Tattoo VIII” — a polyester resin sculpture of a crouching man with glowing light in the middle — sold for €260,000 ($336,000).
Meanwhile, over at top New York gallery Paul Kasmin, a set of three sheep statues titled “Famille De Moutons” by French duo Les Lalanne trotted home with a Hong Kong collector for $650,000.
Art Basel in Hong Kong continues till May 26 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.