Michele Chu
Property Holdings Development Group (Hong Kong)
Discoveries

What makes us human? PHD Group debuts at Art Basel Hong Kong this year with ‘Kitchen’, a solo presentation of new works by local artist Michele Chu, based on the communal activities around food of cooking, gathering, and mourning. Inspired by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto’s novel Kitchen (1988) and by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija’s practice of using cooking as an artistic medium, this presentation is a continuation of Chu’s exploration of intimacy, memory, and grieving rituals. Her installations focus on the interplay between sensory elements and space in order to amplify emotional connections between individuals. P.L.

Daniel Correa Mejía
mor charpentier (Paris, Bogotá)
Kabinett

In Daniel Correa Mejía’s paintings, raw nudity contrasts with the ethereal settings of his subjects. Depicted in shades of blue and red, the Colombian artist’s figures relish nocturnal walks, bathing, and smelling flowers – when not giving themselves over to the pleasures of the flesh. The vibrant paintings take the viewers into the realm of the senses, allowing them to feel the soft breeze of a summer night, soft grass under the feet, or the reassuring silence of a moonlit beach. Nestled in mor charpentier’s booth, this intimate presentation promises an oneiric escape. J.A.

Alec Egan
Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles, New York)
Kabinett

Painter and writer Alec Egan lost his home, studio, and many of his recent artworks in the January 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. Despite this devastation, Egan quickly resumed painting in an improvised setting at his dealer Anat Ebgi’s gallery. At Art Basel Hong Kong, he presents a new series of oils on canvas (all 2025) depicting coastal LA scenes – with cars and windy palms – that appear subtly deserted. Human presence is suggested only through personal objects, like books and toys. Often featuring his signature floral wallpapers and intense sunsets in the distance, his new works evoke both the recent disaster, and the comfort of domesticity. Egan emerges as a voice of hope and resilience: his sunset-fire skies evoke Ed Ruscha’s iconic Hollywood screen print (1968), placing him within a lineage of artists who have composed love letters to a wounded yet perpetually reborn Los Angeles. P.S.

Shin Min, Ew! There is hair in the food!!
P21 (Seoul)
Discoveries

P21 will present South Korean artist Shin Min’s solo exhibition, spanning her 18-year career. The multimedia presentation reflects the artist’s experiences in the service sector, highlighting the challenges faced by women in South Korea. The centerpiece is a large paper bust from the ‘Semi’ series, symbolizing her part-time work at a global café chain. This series, a form of self-portraiture, explores the identities imposed on workers. The hairnet stands as a symbol of constraint, addressing female laborers’ struggles and urging action against systemic injustice. S.L.

Nakahira Takuma (Each Modern, Taipei), Nobuo Yamanaka (Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo), Kunié Sugiura (Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, Tokyo), Huang Po-Chih (Yiri Arts, Taipei), Birdhead (Flowers Gallery, London, New York, Hong Kong), Sangita Maity (Shrine Empire, New Dehli)
Insights

Photography in the Insights sector places artistic evolution and experimentation in sharp focus. Nakahira Takuma, a key figure in Japan’s 1960s Provoke movement, reveals his progression from gritty, objective black-and-white photography to subjective color imagery. A showcase of Nobuo Yamanaka – a member of Japan’s Postwar avant-garde – highlights his brief but influential career through mystical pinhole photography and extended exposures. Kunié Sugiura pairs subtle photographs of urban landscapes with paintings of simple deconstructed forms, in order to examine perception and memory.

Mixing photography and text, Taiwanese artist Huang Po-Chih playfully interprets labor and memory in his ‘Blue Elephant’ project. In these works, his mother humorously poses as an elephant – a nod to the nickname textile workers give their swollen legs. Shanghai-based duo Birdhead further explores contemporary culture, chronicling rapid shifts in China through mixed-media installations, including a scaffolding wall of collaged images taken in Hong Kong over a decade, displayed here for the first time. Finally, Sangita Maity documents the profound impact of mining on India’s Indigenous communities with serigraphy prints, paintings, and image transfers onto iron sheets. A.R.

Shimomura Ryōnosuke
Shibunkaku (Kyoto, Tokyo)
Galleries

Have you ever clutched your proverbial pearls while looking at a flock of sparrows, or gasped as you saw a crane flying through the midnight sky? Reaching such a state of avian ravishment might well be possible at Art Basel Hong Kong – and you will have Shimomura Ryōnosuke (1923–1998) to thank. Using the principles of nihonga, which emphasize the use of natural pigments and traditional techniques, the Japanese artist created a genre-defying body of work defined by organic textures and populated by striking beings, many of them birds – sometimes elegant, sometimes droll, but inevitably seductive. Shibunkaku, a Tokyo- and Kyoto-based gallery known for its impeccable curation and longstanding expertise in traditional Japanese art (the gallery was founded in 1937), will dedicate its presentation to Shimomura’s singular works on paper and ceramics. K.C.

Sanyu
HdM Gallery (Beijing)
Insights

HdM Gallery will present ‘Parisiennes’, featuring over 20 works on paper by Chinese-French artist Sanyu. These drawings from the 1920s, exhibited in Asia for the first time, capture the female form through Sanyu’s distinctive single-line technique that combines Chinese ink traditions with European Modernist influences. The selection documents both the artist’s formative period in Paris and the changing image of women during the interwar years, thereby continuing HdM’s focus on artists who bridged Eastern and Western artistic traditions. J. F.

Performances
Conversations

Marking a first in the history of Art Basel Conversations, the 2025 Hong Kong edition of our flagship talks program will feature no fewer than four performances. Minahasan artist Natasha Tontey will open the series with ‘Primate Visions: Macaque Macabre Show Tune’, organized in collaboration with Audemars Piguet Contemporary. At once comical and wry, this theater-cum-dance extravaganza builds on her eponymous exhibition, currently on view at Museum MACAN in Jakarta. Next is an unmissable double bill, ‘Indigenous Songs’, featuring senior Tiwi cultural leader Pedro Wonaeamirri and Ainu musician Mayunkiki. Originating respectively from Melville Island, Australia, and Japan, each will tap into distinct yet connected storytelling traditions through chanting and sound. The fourth piece, ‘Human Unreadable: Generative Choreography’, is a lecture-performance. It comes courtesy of Art Basel’s tech-focused offsite talks program ‘Digital Dialogs’ and will see Madrid-based artist duo Operator deploy its pioneering methods to generate, capture, and market dance algorithmically. C. M.