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Cheung Hok-hang

SCMP Contributor

There is something unruly about the controlled chaos of Zhou Yilun’s new solo exhibition in Shenzhen, which sees quasi-religious murals alongside paintings nailed on top of other paintings.

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Gay British actor, podcaster and LGBTQ icon Russell Tovey visits Shanghai where, in between gallery visits, he co-curates a David Hockney show and de facto Pride party.

K-pop group NewJeans voiced an audio guide for The British Museum and Chinese actress Zhu Zhu did one for Galleria Borghese as more major institutions court Asian stars to widen their audiences.

The rescheduled and extended Art021 fair will run from August 28 to September 8 in four locations, including a free show in Victoria Park, and take place in conjunction with a Greater Bay Area Art Week.

The staging of Gallery Weekend Beijing to coincide with two art fairs shows the ambitions of Beijing’s art scene to restore its global prominence after years of isolation that began with the pandemic.

Beijing’s art market recently got a shot in the arm at its spring auctions from a new generation of collectors looking for a personal connection to art rather than an investment.

Organisers of the Art021 Hong Kong fair are inviting selected gallery owners from China, the Middle East and other nations in the Global South to increase exposure to their artists’ ‘exceptional’ art.

Sotheby’s spring contemporary art sales in Hong Kong fall short of those in 2023; there and at Poly Auction’s spring sale, fewer lots were on offer. A Yoshitomo Nara work sold for US$12.2 million.

Singapore has recently seen many art galleries and spaces opened by wealthy mainland Chinese new to the city-state, but concerns have arisen over their local integration and a lack of sales.

Organisers of the inaugural Art Week Shenzhen hope to capitalise on the presence of international collectors who will be attending Art Basel Hong Kong in the same week just across the border.

The Chinese contemporary art community was rocked when a cut in funding shut down Guangdong Times Museum in 2022. A fundraising auction of works provided by artists has allowed it to reopen.

At two exhibitions in the Chinese city of Shenzhen, Hong Kong artists consider the changed landscape of their city and the possibility of connecting people across borders.

Moordn Art Fair, created to tap Chinese metropolis Guangzhou’s potential as a market for art, drew a crowd in its first in-person iteration, but slow sales left some gallerists unsure if they’ll return.

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