Your guide to the highlights of Art Central 2024

This year’s Art Central sees the launch of a brand-new sector named Neo, which highlights galleries joining the fair for the first time showing new, or as yet undiscovered, artists. 11 galleries and 15 artists have been selected by Art Central’s 2024 curatorial director Enoch Cheng as part of this new sector, including Tokyo’s biscuit gallery, Seoul’s ThisWeekendRoom, Hong Kong and Tokyo’s wamono art, and Bangkok’s Warin Lab Contemporary. If you want to be at the forefront of Asia’s art scene, Neo is a great place to start exploring.

For art that immediately wows, head to the Yi Tai Sculpture and Installation Projects sector, which presents large-scale works. In particular, Sangsun Bae has a rope-based piece symbolising womanhood inspired by the traditional Korean craft of maedeup; Andrea Samory has created a large iridescent creature that mirrors humanity’s fear of the future; and Rony Plesl uses cast glass sculptures to build a surreal landscape.

After years of touring around North America, Europe, and Asia, Sunayama Norico’s renowned A Sultry World performance is also coming to Hong Kong for this Art Central edition. Featuring a performer wearing a giant red dress, visitors are invited to enter the intimate liminal space beneath the skirt. Needless to say, there will also be a strong presence of Hong Kong artists at the fair, headlined this year by Ho Sin Tung, whose commissioned installation is inspired by her martial arts practice and highlights the mental and physical discipline required of the sport.

Art Central will be held in a specially designed structure at Central Harbourfront, from March 28 to 31. Full-price tickets run from $250 for weekdays to $330 for weekends, with discounts available for students, children, and other concessions. Advance tickets are available from now until March 27 with adult tickets priced between $210 and $270.

There are plenty of outstanding artists to check out at this year’s fair – here are just some whose work we cannot wait to see. Scarlet Yu will be presenting a choreographed culinary art piece named Planting Tastes, which traces the history of food ingredients and how they play a role in our social experiences. Participants are brought into the experimental storytelling, giving them a multi-sensorial experience.

Hong Kong artist Nobody Here will be presented by Square Street Gallery, with works that examine society’s ideas of beauty and ugliness, disguise and reality, and creation and destruction – as well as their influence on the human psyche. See if you can point out the range of cultural inspirations taken from Yukio Mishima novels to classic Hong Kong films.

Other notable artists and galleries who will be at Art Central include local artist Kongkee with Whitestone Gallery; Madrid gallery Veta by Fer Francés with a group exhibition highlighting works as responses to art history; and self-taught artist Marcelo Suaznabar with surrealist oil-on-panel paintings presented by Gallery Theo.

Several artists from all around the world have been invited to present recent moving image works on Art Central’s state-of-the-art LED wall, so this is definitely something for the audio-visual fans to look out for. The fair will also host a range of talks, discussing a range of topics such as the soft power of art, cultural practitioners across generations, and the heritage of Cantonese-Cuban artist Wifredo Lam.

For one night only on March 28, Art Central will also continue the festivities after dark with Night Central, combining art lovers, movers and shakers, and Hong Kong’s social crowd into one key event. Of course, this year also sees the return of the popular dining terrace, where the city’s artsy social set can enjoy culture over food and drinks.

Advance tickets to Art Central are still available at a discounted price, but not for much longer, so start booking now if you haven’t already!