Hong Kong by night Photo: Andrew Wulf via Unsplash
From breaking news and insider insights to exhibitions and events around the world, the team at The Art Newspaper picks apart the art world’s big stories with the help of special guests. An award-winning podcast hosted by Ben Luke, The Week in Art is sponsored by Christie’s.
This week: Art Basel Hong Kong bounces back. After cancellations, delays and two years of restricted fairs, the fair has returned to something like pre-Covid normality. So, as other Asian art centres like Seoul and Singapore become increasingly influential, what is the atmosphere like in Hong Kong? Gareth Harris, chief contributing editor at The Art Newspaper, joins us to discuss the fair, the M+ museum and more.
Courtesy Don't Delete Art
It is becoming increasingly clear that social media corporations have become self-appointed cultural gatekeepers that decide which works of art can freely circulate, be pushed into the digital margins or even banned. Our live editor, Aimee Dawson, talks to the artist Emma Shapiro and Elizabeth Larison, the director of the Arts & Culture Advocacy Program at the US National Coalition Against Censorship, about the issue and a project to counter this tendency, called Don’t Delete Art.
From Brenda L. Crof's Naabami (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) (2016–22)
And this episode’s Work of the Week is Naabami (thou shall/will see): Barangaroo (army of me) (2016–22), a photographic project by Brenda L. Croft, in which she depicts fellow First Nations women and girls. The work is part of The National 4: Australian Art Now, a survey across multiple venues in Sydney. One of the show’s curators, Beatrice Gralton, tells us about Croft’s epic series.
• Art Basel Hong Kong, until 25 March
• Don’t Delete Art's manifesto can be found here
• The National 4: Australian Art Now continues until 23 July