Sprüth Magers

Visitors won’t be able to miss Sprüth Magers’ booth—hanging on the outside of the booth is a huge photograph by Andreas Gursky, while inside an entire wall is emblazoned with a text-based mural by Barbara Kruger that reads NEVER ENOUGH.

Elsewhere in the city, two of the gallery’s artists have institutional shows opening in Shanghai on November 7. Cindy Sherman’s first solo exhibition in China is taking place at the Fosun Foundation and will run until January 13, 2019, while Ryan Trecartin’s show at Pond Society is on until January 20, 2019. To complement these exhibitions, Sprüth Magers is also presenting prints by Trecartin and photographs by Sherman in its booth at West Bund Art & Design.

David Zwirner, who last year was named most powerful gallerist in the world by ArtReview magazine, has put all his eggs in one basket for this year’s West Bund Art & Design fair and is bringing only one work to the show: a monumental neon sculpture titled “untitled (to Sonja)” by Dan Flavin.

Dating from 1969, this fluorescent room-sized sculpture is sure to be a favourite of both art-world intellectuals and casual visitors searching for the perfect selfie opportunity.

Outside of the fair, Belgium-born, Mexico-based artist Francis Alÿs—who’s also represented by Zwirner—has a solo show at the Rockbund Art Museum, which opens on November 9 and runs until February 24, 2019.

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This year is the very first time that Gagosian is participating in West Bund Art & Design, but the gallery is going all in and taking two separate booths at the fair.

The first of these will house a group show, while the second will display a single, 18m-long painting by Takashi Murakami. Titled “Dragon in Clouds—Indigo Blue”, the sprawling work was completed in 2010 and has previously been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

As is their wont, gallerists Iwan Hauser and Manuela Wirth are treating their booth at West Bund Art & Design like a mini exhibition, carefully curating a group show of artists whose works both complement and challenge each other.

This particular booth at West Bund Art & Design has been devised as an exploration of materiality, which Hauser & Wirth will investigate by showing the conceptual works of Roni Horn alongside Eduardo Chillida’s bold sculptures and the minimalist installations of Larry Bell.

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Hong Kong-based gallery Alisan Fine Arts is hosting a group show of seven artists who have been deeply inspired by other cultures: six of them are Chinese artists who were inspired by the art scenes in Europe and America and one is French painter Fabienne Verdier, who spent years in Sichuan learning the art of calligraphy. Don’t miss Walasse Ting’s vibrant works and Chao Chung-hsiang’s unique paintings that mix Buddishm, Taosim, Confucianism and western abstraction on a single canvas.

Hongkongers will remember Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima from when he converted the façade of the city’s International Commerce Centre, an 118-storey skyscraper, into one huge digital work of art in 2016, programming a video of tumbling numbers into the building’s light display.

Now, it’s Shanghai’s turn to experience Miyajima’s magic.

At the fair, Lisson Gallery will showcase “Time Waterfall-panel #12”, the latest in the Time Waterfall series, which also included Miyajima’s mega ICC project. A short drive from the fair, Miyajima will present a much larger work at as part of the ArtReview Asia Xian Chang project at Columbia Circle, where he’ll install a series of ever-changing neon numbers around an outdoor pool.

Mexico-based gallery kurimanzutto is bringing an eclectic mix of works to West Bund Art & Design, including vibrant geometric paintings by Gabriel Orozco, a canvas installation by minimalist Mexican artist Gabriel Kuro and a cardboard box embossed with goldleaf by Danh Vo (who coincidentally has an exhibition opening at Hong Kong’s M+ Pavilion on November 16).

The highlight, however, is one of Haegue Yang’s trademark tactile sculptures. Titled “Knotty Spell in Windy Weeping Forsythia”, this work features yards of knitting yarn, vintage Moroccan jewellery and more strung on a clothing rack.  

Fans of Korean art should make a beeline for Kukje, which is showcasing works by Chung Chang-Sup and Kwon Young-Woo—two of the leading figures of the country’s dansaekhwa movement—as well as a painting by contemporary star Kim Yong-Ik and a massive embroidered installation by Kyungah Ham.  

New York-based artist Leslie Hewitt, who's the subject of a solo show at Perrotin's booth at West Bund Art & Design, merges photography and sculpture in her sparse installations, which have previously been exhibited at leading museums around the USA—including the Guggenheim in New York—but rarely been seen in Asia. 

This article first appeared on hk.asiatatler.com.