How Art Basel Hong Kong Director Angelle Siyang-Le Is Positioning the Fair to Represent the Region

While Art Basel Miami Beach is just around the corner, Art Basel Hong Kong has already announced the gallery list and details for its 2025 fair, set for March 28-30 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year’s edition will showcase 242 galleries from 42 countries and territories, with over half representing the Asia-Pacific—a clear testament to Art Basel’s role as a major platform in the region’s dynamic and eclectic art scene. On the occasion of the announcement, made during Shanghai Art Week, we sat down with Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong, to chat about this year’s strategy, her expectations and what she thinks about Hong Kong becoming the region’s global art epicenter.

Siyang-Le, who was born in Mainland China but raised in the U.K., carved a path in the art world with stints in Dubai, where she managed the non-profit art space Traffic and co-founded Mobile Art Gallery at a time when that scene was still in its infancy. The same could be said for Hong Kong’s art landscape when she moved there in 2012; it was smaller, scrappier and definitely off the beaten path. “It was just at its beginning, with a very small founding circle,” she recalls. In a recent Art Basel interview, she shared how, upon telling a Hong Kong taxi driver about her new job, he chuckled, “Haven’t you heard? Hong Kong is a cultural desert!” Fast forward to today, and no cabbie misses the chance to cash in on the March art week surge. Art Basel’s arrival in 2013 was a game-changer, igniting a rapid evolution that transformed Hong Kong into one of the most vibrant and globally connected art hubs. “With this international platform set up in Hong Kong, local galleries and artists felt more expressive about the work they were doing,” Siyang-Le tells us.

Despite pandemic interruptions and the lingering cloud of national security concerns, this year has been monumental for Hong Kong, marked by the openings of both Christie’s and Sotheby’s new headquarters—a move that cements the city’s status as a leading global art center. “I feel Hong Kong is firmly standing on its feet as the region’s representative, the main international hub connecting Asia with the world,” Siyang-Le says. Hong Kong’s unique role can be attributed to its complex history—it is a former British colony infused with enduring Chinese influence, resulting in a true melting pot. “The mindset here is very global, open to new cultures and perspectives,” Siyang-Le explains. “People in Hong Kong have learned, historically, to adapt to and embrace change.” The city’s multicultural population and social dynamics evoke New York’s melting-pot spirit, fostering a sense of belonging among long-term residents from across the globe. “After a few years here, people see themselves as locals,” Siyang-Le adds. “I have colleagues from England, South Africa, America—all of us feel at home, especially those who’ve built families here, including myself.”

Clearly Hong Kong’s “cultural desert” days are a distant memory—we can only imagine what that taxi driver would say now.

The arrival of Art Basel Hong Kong has further amplified the city’s international character, creating a prime stage for a multicultural artistic community and bringing an impressive array of creative voices from the region and beyond. The fair has functioned as a catalyst to build a local art scene, much like it did for Miami when that city lacked an institutional anchor or public cultural policy to call its own. “We like to think we’ve helped nurture Hong Kong’s and the region’s contemporary art scene as a whole,” says Siyang-Le with an air of modesty.

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As Siyang-Le explains, Hong Kong is considered a crucial validation point for galleries across Asia, especially for newcomers. For this reason, the fair is deeply committed to offering a premier platform for art from the Asia-Pacific region. “Asia is one of the fastest-developing regions when it comes to the contemporary art market,” Siyang-Le notes, adding with a wry grin, “We have an obligation to educate. People in Asia see the Basel brand almost as a seal of approval on where they should lean.”

A rigorous gallery selection process, meticulously curated by established galleries across Asia, ensures both the quality and relevance of presentations, echoing Bridget Finn’s approach in Miami. This collaborative curation broadens the fair’s offerings, presenting a spectrum of perspectives, interpretations and artistic expressions—which is important, given Asia’s vast diversity. Siyang-Le is well aware of the need to encompass a wider definition of ‘Asian’ that stretches from Turkey and the Middle East to South Asia and the Pacific—regions that are among the most dynamic and fast-growing in the art world today.

This year’s Galleries sector will feature a robust mix of exhibitors from across the Asia-Pacific region, including emerging, mid-sized and blue-chip galleries from Japan, Korea, India, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey and Australia. Standout solo presentations include Lawrie.Shabibi (Dubai), Rossi & Rossi (Hong Kong), P420 (Bologna) and Ronchini Gallery (London). The “Insights” section will showcase historical photography from Asia, with contributions from Flowers Gallery (Hong Kong, London), Each Modern (Taipei), Takuro Someya Contemporary Art (Tokyo), Yutaka Kikutake Gallery (Tokyo) and The Drawing Room (Manila), marking its return after a hiatus.

Siyang-Le explains that the gallery selection committee assesses not only the gallery’s programming but also the depth of relationships between galleries and their artists: “As regional representatives of our culture, our watchwords are accessibility, inclusivity, connectivity and sustainability.”

A critical goal of Art Basel Hong Kong, as elsewhere, is to spotlight fresh talent from emerging artists and galleries, particularly during these challenging times of economic slowdown. To support this, Art Basel Hong Kong created Discoveries, a section with heavily subsidized participation costs. This year, 23 new participants join the fair, with 10 debuting in that section. Highlights include Shanghai-based Gallery Vacancy, presenting exciting new works by artists like Chen Ting-Jung, Henry Curchod, Alice Gong, Vivian Greven, Michael Ho, Huang Ko Wei, Peng Ke, Sydney Shen and Sun Woo. Hunsand Space (Beijing, Hangzhou, Shijiazhuang) will showcase provocative paintings, sculptures and installations by Zhang Donghui, Yang Yang and Li Xinyao (Quanzi). Vanguard Gallery (Shanghai) will offer paintings, installations, and photography by Lin Tianmiao, Yuki Onodera, Jin Haofan and Xiao Jiang—artists grappling with the uncertainties of a waning capitalist system. Returning exhibitors include Chapter NY (New York), featuring a multimedia installation by Stella Zhong, and Bangkok CityCity Gallery, which will showcase Tanat Teeradakorn’s transformation of a fictional souvenir kiosk into a sculptural sound installation.

Since its inception, Art Basel Hong Kong has worked closely with local institutions through partnerships and collaborations that have expanded and diversified its Hong Kong Art Week programming year by year. This year, an exciting new addition is the support from Macao-based MGM Resort, which has introduced the MGM Discoveries Art Prize to support emerging artists. The prize will award $50,000 to be shared between the artist and their gallery, along with an opportunity for the artist to exhibit in Macau, reflecting a recent policy encouraging Macau companies to invest in public art, Siyang-Le explains.

Another highlight this year is a collaboration with Para Site, the pioneering non-profit known for its experimental programming, which will curate the Art Basel Hong Kong film section. “Para Site started in a tiny room, presenting cutting-edge projects with young artists,” Siyang-Le explains. “Many artists shown there, especially from Hong Kong, now have international representation.”

Perhaps surprisingly, the film program draws a substantial young audience—a trend unique to Hong Kong—reflecting the energy of a region nurturing a new generation of art collectors, supporters and patrons who, more than anywhere else, seem poised to provide lasting momentum to Asia’s thriving art scene.

In another bid to engage younger audiences, Art Basel Hong Kong will place special emphasis on digital art to encourage moments of exchange between those involved in the digital realm and those in the traditional art world. “We cannot ignore or negate the relevance that these art forms have and will have,” Siyang-Le tells us, pointing out how a new generation of artists is fully engaged in the digital world. She firmly believes digital art should be integrated into the main fair rather than being given a separate section, and a perfect example of a presentation at the intersection between digital and analog will be mounted by London-based Project Native Informant, showcasing works by DIS, Juliana Huxtable, Sean Steadman, Sophia Al-Maria, Shu Lea Cheang and Ahn Tae Won.

Looking toward future opportunities, Siyang-Le points to the Bay Area—a region with a concentration of young wealth and a global perspective, where many have studied abroad and possess a more international cultural awareness than previous generations. “We always operate in Hong Kong as a region rather than just as a city, because we feel obligated to elevate our region’s art scene,” she says. “And we’re fortunate to be right next to mainland China, which accounts for over 80 percent of the art market.” To build momentum in the lead-up to Hong Kong Art Week (or more accurately, Art Month), the fair has begun organizing discussions, activations and warm-up events in cities like Shenzhen, Macau, Chongqing, Chengdu and Guangzhou in an initiative that has the potential to evolve into a pre-fair weekend, much like Guadalajara’s lead-up to Mexico City, expanding the fair’s influence across the region.

As the upcoming edition approaches, Siyang-Le anticipates that this could be one of the most dynamic Art Weeks yet, with local galleries, auction houses and institutions like the M+ Museum preparing some of their best exhibitions and events of the year. The M+ Museum will renew its partnership with Art Basel to present Night Charades by Ho Tzu Nyen, a UBS-co-commissioned video reimagining iconic Hong Kong film scenes through animations projected on M+’s massive LED facade. Wrapping up, Siyang-Le notes, “I feel that Hong Kong’s growth has been very much in sync with Asia’s broader dynamics. Hong Kong now plays a key role as a bridge between East and West.”

Art Basel Hong Kong will run from March 28-30, 2025 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.