Resilience seen among Asian buyers, with China recovery aiding prospects
Gallery owner Meg Maggio is optimistic about the prospects for the Asian art market in 2021, believing buyers appetite will hold up even as the coronavirus changes how the players connect.
Maggio, the director of Pekin Fine Arts, with contemporary art galleries in Beijing and Hong Kong, has witnessed how the ranks of the region s art collectors have expanded in the past few years, and hopes that the buyers will remain in the market. The art market moves in tandem with the economy. What comes first is the foundation of Asian economic growth . it doesn t look like it s affected too much (by the pandemic). And that s because of the strength of domestic consumption, said Maggio, who is from the United States.
From November 26 to 30, Art Basel pulled off an event that many doubted was possible in a pandemic: a real-life, in-person art fair. Titled Hong Kong Spotlight by Art Basel, it was the only physical event the company held in 2020: Covid-19 forced it to cancel its flagship fairs in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong, and pivot to hosting online sales instead.
Twenty-two galleries took part in Hong Kong Spotlight, among them international players like Gagosian and Simon Lee Gallery, as well as local names such as Kwai Fung Hin and 10 Chancery Lane. The fair kicked off just as the fourth wave swept into the city, but nothing could deter art collectors and connoisseurs from getting their fix: 8,000 of them visited Hong Kong Spotlight and its neighbour, local fair Fine Art Asia, which took place simultaneously at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.