ASIA NOW 2017 Program Highlights

Following its launch at the Venice Biennale in 2015 with Zheng Guogu In Situ Project, ASIA NOW continues to explore the artistic scene in Asia. The “boutique” art fair develops an audacious program, and continues to reaffirm its position as a key event in the international arts calendar, unveiling the richness and diversity of the Asian art scene with a platform for conversations, performances and special projects.

ASIA NOW presents 30 of the most influential and internationally recognized galleries and 130 artists from Asia.

2017 Participating Galleries

A Thousand Plateaus Art Space • Chengdu, China | A3 • Berlin, Germany • Singapore | AIKE DELLARCO • Shanghai, China | Art’Loft/Lee-Bauwens-Gallery • Forest, Belgium | BANK • Shanghai, China | Gallery Baton • Seoul, South Korea | Chi-Wen Gallery • Taipei, Taiwan | CHOI&LAGER Gallery • Köln, Germany • Seoul, South Korea | Fabien Fryns Fine Art • Beijing, China | ifa gallery • Brussels, Belgium | J: Gallery • Shanghai, China | Galerie Liusa Wang • Paris, France | Magda Danysz Gallery • Shanghai, China • Paris, France • London, United Kingdom | Galerie Maria Lund • Paris, France | New Galerie • Paris, France | Galerie NOEJ • Paris, France | ON/gallery • Beijing, China | Pierre-Yves Caër Gallery • Paris, France | Primo Marella Gallery & Primae Noctis Gallery • Milan, Italy • Lugano, Switzerland | Richard Koh Fine Art • Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia • Singapore | Galerie RX • Paris, France | Galerie Sator • Paris, France | SinArts Gallery • The Hague, Netherlands | Gallery SoSo • Gyeonggi-do, South Korea | Gallery Su • Seoul, South Korea | Tang Contemporary Art • Beijing, China • Hong Kong, China • Bangkok, Thailand | The Columns Gallery • Seoul, South Korea | The Drawing Room • Makati City, Philippines | Vanguard Gallery • Shanghai, China | Yavuz Gallery • Singapore

2017 Special Projects Highlights

Christie's continues the conversation on Chinese contemporary design at ASIA NOW.  After Shang Xia last year, in 2017 they will present the Shanghai-based architecture Studio MVW, featured within AD collections at the Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Studio MVW has won major awards from Wallpaper and the AD100 China Design Talents. A set of collectible pieces was specifically designed for ASIA NOW.

A talk will take place with Studio MVW & Christie's contemporary design at ASIA NOW with Virginie Moriette & Xu Ming,  MVW founders; Sonja Ganne, Christie's Design XXe Department Director and Sophie Makariou, director of Musée Guimet.

A performance by Chinese artist Zhao Duan, in relation with her drawings, will feature the artist’s bodily desire for elevation despite limitations.

South Korea Platform

A special exhibition will be curated by the new Busan Biennale team for 2018.  A solo show with installations and a performance by Joo Young Kim, part of Korea’s first generation of avant-garde performance artists, will be presented. This will be a continuation of the journey started by Busan Biennale's theme last year "an/other avant-garde China-Japan-Korea".

Talks and film screenings: young Korean artists, including digital artists like Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, who was awarded the ART SPECTRUM Award in 2016 at the Samsung Museum, Lee Wan representing South Korea in Venice Biennale 2017, and Ayoung Kim are invited to present their films and discuss the limits of the medium.

2017 Conversation Platform Highlights

The Chinese lives of Uli Sigg will be screened for the first time in Paris during ASIA NOW. It will be followed by a conversation with Uli Sigg, one of the world’s biggest collectors of Asian and Chinese art with Pi Li, senior curator of M+ museum in Hong Kong.

ASIA NOW & Artists Presented at the Venice Biennale

Thanks to its rigorous selection, far from commonplace shortcuts, ASIA NOW allows collectors and institutions to discover significant works from the rising-star artists presented and already collected by some of the most prestigious local and international private collectors and museums.

ASIA NOW would like to congratulate the artists presented last year at the fair for participating in the 2017 Venice Biennale.

• Lee Wan, shown by 313 Art Project, represents the Republic of Korea with Cody Choi. The dual exhibition Counterbalance : The Stone and the Mountain explores the duality of Korean identity lost between individuality and community.
• Takashi Iwasaki, shown by Urano, was selected to represent Japan. With Upside Down Forest, the artist is hoping to create a multifaceted spacial experience with everyday objects.
• Manuel Ocampo, shown by The Drawing Room, represents Philippines with Lani Maestro. The pavilion titled The Spectre of Comparison opens up a discussion between the western world and Asia.
• Tintin Wulia, participant to the ASIA NOW conversation Platform, was selected to represent Indonesia. Her sociopolitical work 1001 Martian Homes questions the concepts of territory and geopolitical borders in a staging of Venice and Jakarta.

ASIA NOW & Artists Acknowledged by Institutions

ASIA NOW would like to thank curators, museum directors and collectors for their support and also congratulate the following artists and institutions:

Prune Nourry selected by Musée Guimet for a “carte Blanche” (April-Sept 2017).

Polit-Sheer-Form Office (BANK 2015) for its upcoming show next October at Centre Pompidou, Cosmopolis #1: Collective Intelligence. (18 October - 18 December 2017)  

Liu Bolin for being selected for his solo show Ghost Stories at La Maison Européene de la Photographie (6 September - 29 October 2017)