Asia Art Weekly News Bulletin – ISSUE 41 Week of 17 November 2025
(1) Art Basel Hong Kong 2026: New Sector, Exhibitors, and First Highlights
Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 will feature 240 global galleries (March 27–29), introducing new curated sectors like “Echoes,” a collaborative four-curator “Encounters” team, and expanded public programming including an M+ Facade commission by Shahzia Sikander, reinforcing its role as Asia-Pacific’s premier art fair.
(2) “Robert Rauschenberg and Asia”, the first exhibition dedicated to the artist’s travels across Asia, opens to the public at M+
M+ in Hong Kong will present “Robert Rauschenberg and Asia” from November 2025 to April 2026, the first exhibition dedicated to the American artist’s work created in response to his travels and collaborations across Asia.
(3) Seoul Auction aims to revive market with first-ever ‘Evening Sale’
Seoul Auction will hold its largest auction block in 17 years as a breakthrough for the sluggish art market. The two-day auction from Nov. 24 to 25 will feature artworks valued at 29 billion won ($20 million) in total.
(4) SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Unveils This Year’s Winning Animated Stories at Its Computer Animation Festival in Hong Kong
Animation’s future will be on full display as the SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Computer Animation Festival (CAF), organized by Koelnmesse Pte Ltd, announces this year’s winners – works that redefine the boundaries of technology, art, and storytelling.
(1) Art Basel Hong Kong 2026: New Sector, Exhibitors, and First Highlights
(Photo Credit: Art Basel Hong Kong)
Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 will be held from March 27–29 (previews March 25–26) at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, featuring 240 galleries from 41 countries and territories. Over half of the participating galleries have roots in the Asia-Pacific region, including 29 from Hong Kong, reinforcing the fair’s role as a premier platform for regional and global art exchange.
The fair introduces “Echoes,” a dedicated sector showcasing recent works (created within the past five years) across ten curated booths, each highlighting up to three artists. Notable presentations include Natalia Załuska’s immersive installation at Double Q Gallery and works by Tiffany Chung and Miler Lagos at Madrid’s Max Estrella. Thirty-two galleries will debut this year, including Sydney’s The Commercial and Tokyo’s A Lighthouse called Kanata, alongside newcomers from South Korea, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia.
For the first time, the “Encounters” section will be co-curated by a team of four Asia-based curators led by Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum), replacing the single-curator model. Public programming expands with Ellen Pau curating the film program and Venus Lau directing part of the “Conversations” series. A co-commissioned animated work by Shahzia Sikander, 3 to 12 Nautical Miles(2026), will premiere on the M+ Facade, exploring historical and contemporary trade networks.
News Source: https://www.artasiapacific.com/news/art-basel-hong-kong-2026-new-sector-exhibitors-and-first-highlights-2/
(2) “Robert Rauschenberg and Asia”, the first exhibition dedicated to the artist’s travels across Asia, opens to the public at M+
(Photo Credit: M+, Hong Kong)
M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in Hong Kong, is presenting “Robert Rauschenberg and Asia,” a landmark exhibition from November 22, 2025, to April 26, 2026. This is the first exhibition dedicated to exploring the work of the influential 20th-century American artist Robert Rauschenberg that was created during and in response to his travels across Asia. The exhibition features over forty of his works alongside select pieces by Asian artists, tracing his artistic trajectories and cross-cultural dialogues from 1964 to 1990. It is part of both the museum’s Pao-Watari Exhibition Series and the global “Rauschenberg 100” centennial celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of his birth.
The exhibition is structured in two main parts. The first section highlights Rauschenberg’s formative encounters in Asia, including a 1964 performance in Tokyo, collaborative work with a paper mill in India in 1975, and experiments with ceramics in Japan in the 1980s. The second part focuses on the Asian segments of his ambitious Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), a self-funded global initiative launched in 1984 to foster cultural dialogue. Key projects included ROCI CHINA, which was the first Western contemporary art exhibition in China, and ROCI TIBET, the only known solo show by a Western artist in Tibet.
Museum Director Suhanya Raffel stated that the exhibition affirms M+’s commitment to recognising Asian visual culture within the global art landscape, sharing Rauschenberg’s spirit of openness. Curator Russell Storer emphasized how the artist’s encounters with Asian traditions left a lasting imprint on his practice. The exhibition, supported by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, illustrates how Rauschenberg’s collaborative spirit and belief that art could transcend borders reshaped contemporary art and continue to influence artists today.
News Source: https://www.westk.hk/en/newsroom/robert-rauschenberg-asia-opens-public-mplus-22-november-2025
(3) Seoul Auction aims to revive market with first-ever ‘Evening Sale’
(Photo Credit: Seoul Auction)
Seoul Auction is launching its largest auction block in 17 years on November 24–25, featuring artworks valued at 29 billion ($20 million) to revitalize the sluggish art market. The two-day event begins with the “Evening Sale: Eternal Emotion,” showcasing 26 modern and contemporary masterpieces with combined starting prices of ₩27 billion—marking the auction house’s first dedicated masterpiece sale.
The centerpiece is Marc Chagall’s 1937 painting “Bouquet de Fleurs” (starting price: 9.4 billion), symbolizing weightless love through its aerial embrace of a couple. The sale also includes Chagall’s later work “Paysage de Paris,” Kim Whan-ki’s pivotal 1969 dot-painting precursor “15-VI-69 #71 I,” and Lee U-fan’s meditative “With Winds” series. The following “Contemporary Day” targets younger collectors with 64 lots, including Nicolas Party and Kusama Yayoi collaborations.
Parallel to the auction, Seoul Auction hosts the third “Art & Furniture: When the House Reads” exhibition (through November 30), featuring furniture designer Bahk Jong-sun—known for his bone-inspired, minimalist designs showcased in Parasite—alongside works by David Hockney and Choi Wook-kyung. The event includes a curated book list from artists and collectors, emphasizing interdisciplinary dialogue between art and functional design.
News Source: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10616946
(4) SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Unveils This Year’s Winning Animated Stories at Its Computer Animation Festival in Hong Kong
(Photo Credit: Julien Deparis, l’École des Nouvelles Images, Avignon, France)
The SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Computer Animation Festival received 488 entries from 39 countries, celebrating digital creators who use technology to tell profoundly human stories under the theme “Generative Renaissance.” An international jury selected winners to be showcased in December 2025 in Hong Kong, gathering leading global artists, researchers, and technologists to highlight innovations in animation and digital storytelling.
Windy Day(France) won Best in Show for its poetic depiction of strangers transformed by a sudden gust of wind, blending meticulous animation with themes of connection and renewal. A Sparrow’s Song(Germany) earned Best Student Project for its tender story of a wartime widow healing through an injured sparrow, while Russia’s Sonreceived the Jury’s Choice for its moving tale of a father and son overcoming disability through space exploration.
Chairs Tim Cheung and Jennifer Lee emphasized the festival’s role in merging technical mastery with emotional truth, noting animation’s power to foster empathy and cross-border creativity. The awards—including the new Audience Choice—will be presented on December 17, 2025, following the Electronic Theater screening, highlighting works that push both artistic and technological boundaries.
News Source: https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10619114
