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Major events reaffirm Hong Kong as a global art hub
Major events reaffirm Hong Kong as a global art hub
Visitors to Hong Kong last month would have seen first-hand how the dynamic metropolis has fully embraced art.
Major international events, including the 12th edition of Art Basel Hong Kong and the city’s own Art Central fair, had – very visibly – taken up residency in the heart of the city, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and Central Harbourfront, where local galleries hosted exhibitions and parties.
Other activities including special auctions under the “Art March Hong Kong 2025” celebration initiated by Hong Kong’s art and culture hub, the West Kowloon Cultural District, and the fourth Museum Summit, organised by the city’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department, emphasised how Hong Kong has achieved its aim to become an international art hub. It is now also the third-largest centre for art auctions in the world.
Organisers say this year’s three-day Art Basel Hong Kong drew an estimated 91,000 visitors, including “prominent private collectors and art patrons from over 70 countries and territories”, who came to look at artworks from the collections of 240 galleries from across the globe.
Among them was collector and art patron Alia Al-Senussi, who has also served as Art Basel’s United Kingdom, Middle East and North Africa representative for over a decade. She believes international art galleries and artists are drawn to Hong Kong because it offers both inclusivity and opportunity.
“People travelling to a new place often get intimidated by the idea of something foreign or different to them,” she says. “But when artists and collectors in the art world come to Hong Kong, they understand how to make those connections to people, even from their own hometowns – and so, being in Hong Kong makes the world small, but in the most special way.
“Whether it’s at Duddell’s over lunch, or in the convention centre at a booth, or over a drink at Dragon-i late at night … it’s a really perfect place to come and be able to make those connections.”
Her Libyan heritage and education in the UK and the United States have made her an ideal interlocutor for the global art scene. For years, she has visited Hong Kong for art collaborations and curated exhibitions, including one at restaurant and cultural space Duddell’s in Central, featuring Saudi Arabian artist and doctor Ahmed Mater, believed to be the first artist from that country to showcase his work in the city.
