It is evident that Hong Kong has recently become one of the biggest art hubs in terms of sales of arts maybe after London and New York and doubtlessly No. 1 in Asia.I visited the 2nd "Affordable Art Fair in Hong Kong (HK$1,000 - 100,000 or US$128 - 12,800)" held in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on 21-23th March, 2014. I had a biased idea from the title "Affordable Art Fair" - a mini version of Art Basel Hong Kong and some expectation. Yes, it was a mini version of Art Basel Hong Kong in terms of the size but neatly organized, a lot better than the messy Art Basel Hong Kong in 2013, which I hope will be improved this year (15-18 th May, 2014 also in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre). Meanwhile the expectation was happily proved to be wrong. I had expected mediocre works instead of very good works.The followings are the facts I encountered and what I thought about it after the visit. I spent about two hours there - fairly enough when considering the size.
1. The exhibited works are principally very good ones, not mediocre ones, when considering the pricing.
2. The exhibited works are Contemporary Arts and most of them (say more than 90%) are paintings of various paiting media - Oil, Watercolor, Acryle, Collages, etc, etc and Traditional China origin paintings were few. Considering the recent rapid upward valuation of the Chinese Modern and Contemporary paitings of the well known painters the exhibition gave me a good opportunity to think about the real values of good paintings.
3. The exhibited works are not solely exhibited but you can buy instantly after the show if you book, not through auction.
4. The exhibitors are not worldly well known auction houses and galleries but well selected mid size galleries.
5. The exhibitors are fairly international including Japan, South Korea(*), China (Beijing), Hong Kong(*), Macao, Philippines, Australia, Vietnam, Singapore(*), Thailand, Israel, Italy, France, Belgium, UK(*), Spain, South Africa, Canada, USA (roughly from East to West) - (*) relatively many.
6. Unlike the name (Affordable Art Fair) suggested generally not so sales or money oriented and more like an Art Exhibition by mid size galleries. A place to enjoy arts rather than to make some business.
7. You can talk with gallery staff and get information from them on the works / artists which / who you find interest in. Most of them are well trained and informative.
8. The brochure given at the entrance is small but nicely designed and gives you useful information.
AAG
