Billionaires rush to buy at Art Basel HK

Photo by Philippe Lopez / Agence France-Presse

Collectors on more modest budgets can head over to the Conrad Hotel for the Asia Contemporary Art Show where five floors of guest rooms are transformed into temporary gallery spaces featuring emerging artists from 18 countries from May 16 to 18. VIPs got an advance preview on May 15.

UBS AG, which also sponsors Art Basel and Art Basel Miami, has added the Hong Kong fair for the first time this year. "Our private banking clients include people interested in fine art, so it's a natural fit," says Chi-Won Yoon, CEO of UBS Group Asia Pacific.

Local galleries are taking advantage of the influx of deep-pocketed visitors this week to launch new shows.

Blindspot Gallery, located in the burgeoning art district of Wong Chuk Hang overlooking the city's Aberdeen harbor, is showing London-based photographer Nadav Kander's latest works that feature nudes of sitters covered in marble dust that evoke Michelangelo and Lucien Freud.

Pace Gallery opens its Hong Kong space with oil-on-paper works by Zhang Xiaogang in the heart of downtown on the 15th floor of the Entertainment Building. Next door Antwerp, Belgium-based Axel Vervoordt Gallery is also having its inaugural show with Ghanian artist El Anatsui, who employs youths to weave work with discarded liquor caps and fastenings to create tapestries selling for $1 million a piece.