ART HK has confirmed its position as the must-visit art fair of Asia with today's announcement of a slate of exhibitors for its fifth edition, which will run from May 16 to 20. The list, in its depth and breadth, places it far ahead of any regional competition. With its list of 264 participating galleries from 37 countries, ART HK has also achieved a balancing act unique amongst the world’s art fairs — they feature an almost exact 50/50 split between Western and Asian participants.

This diversity has been achieved through three different strategies. First, the fair has attracted a greater number of leading Asian art houses to participate in the main “gallery” section of the event. Notable new local entrants this year include Koyanagi from Japan (which is selective to the point of reclusivity when it comes to art fairs, hitherto only spotted at Art Basel), Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke and Volte from Mumbai (all of whom were standout participants at this month’s India Art Fair), and new entrant to the Hong Kong scene de Sarthe Gallery.

In a second move, the dedicated Asian section of ART HK, ASIA One, is returning this year with 49 participants (up from 47 in 2011.) Last year, ASIA One provided some of the fair’s most invigorating moments, with an array of booths largely devoted to solo presentations of emerging Asian artists. It lost some impact by being placed on a separate floor from the main drag, but in 2012 a new layout will place it at the center of the event — the main gallery section will be spread over two floors and ASIA One situated at the middle of each. The section looks set to provide some of the most distinctive experiences of the fair with a range of notable new entrants including New Delhi’s Latitude 28, Beijing’s PIN Gallery, Seoul’s GALLERY SKAPE, and Hong Kong’s Edouard Malingue.

Finally the Art Futures section of the fair, which is devoted to emerging galleries from around the world showing artists younger than 35 has — perhaps unsurprisingly — a notable number of Asian participants. However achieved, the global reach of the event is likely to become one of ART HK’s trump cards going forward in an increasingly crowded art fair calendar. ART HK director Magnus Renfrew confirmed that the 50/50 split was something the fair was committed to: “We want to ensure a balance, to show different aesthetics, and to get away from this West-centric view of the world.”

Still, there is no sign of quality taking a back seat to balance. It is hard to identify a leading gallery in either Asia or the West that is not participating this year's ART HK (see full list below). Visitors won't be able to quibble with a lineup that includes such Western players as Sadie Coles HQ, Hauser & Wirth, Acquavella, Marianne Boesky, Leo Castelli, Cheim & Read, Gagosian Gallery, Marian Goodman, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, and David Zwirner, and Asian ones such as Pace, Long March Space, Vitamin Creative Space, Roslyn Oxley9, ShanghART, Platform China, Hanart TZ, and SCAI THE BATHHOUSE.

ART HK may have seemed like a gamble when the fair was established five years ago, but the organizers’ bet that the balance of power in the art world was shifting East seems to have paid off. In a cooling market for contemporary art — at least outside the auction room — ART HK’s spread of galleries is pitched perfectly at where the money is today: with Asian collectors.

Hong Kong’s position as the natural hub for the art market is also confirmed by the number of ART HK exhibitors who have already or are planning to open permanent spaces in the city. In the next few months recent entrants like de Sarthe, Edouard Malingue, and Gagosian will be joined by White Cube, Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Platform China, Pearl Lam, and Simon Lee.

Meanwhile, ART HK is following the lead of art fairs around the world in stressing the curatorial quality of the event as well as the commercial. Their Art Projects section, which will devote 10 100-square-meter spaces to artist installations, will be curated by Yuko Hasegawa, the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo. Hasegawa was recently given stewardship of the 11th edition of the Sharjah Biennial, which opens in March 2013. As fair director Renfrew points out, devoting some 1000 square meters of space to non-commercial purposes is a significant investment, but he hopes that with the help of Hasegawa these spaces will give visitors a greater idea of “what art can be.”

ART HK 12 (the Hong Kong International Art Fair) will take place 17–20 May 2012, preview 16 May, at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). A full list of participants follows.

Galleries Section:

10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong

1301PE, Los Angeles

AANDO FINE ART, Berlin

acb Gallery, Budapest

Acquavella Galleries Inc, New York

ALISAN FINE ARTS (ART HK 10), Hong Kong

Andersen's Contemporary, Copenhagen

Arario Gallery, Cheonan/ Cheung Nam

ARATANIURANO, Tokyo

Ark Galerie, Jakarta

ARNDT , Berlin

ART ISSUE PROJECTS, Beijing

AYE Gallery, Beijing

Beijing Art Now Gallery, Beijing

Beijing Commune, Beijing

Gallery Bernier/Eliades, Athens        

Bitforms Gallery, New York

Blum & Poe, Los Angeles

Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing        

Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York

The Breeder, Athens  

Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong

CAIS Gallery, Seoul                                        

carlier | gebauer, Berlin

Galleria Massimo De Carlo, Milano  

Casa Triângulo, Sao Paulo

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York

The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

Cheim & Read, New York

Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai/ Maharashtra

Chi-Wen Gallery, Taipei

James Cohan Gallery, New York

Sadie Coles HQ, London

CONTEMPORARY FINE ARTS, Berlin

Galleria Continua, Beijing

Pilar Corrias Gallery, London

Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris

DNA, Berlin

The Drawing Room, Makati City

Galerie Eigen + Art Berlin, Berlin

Eslite Gallery, Taipei

Gallery EXIT, Hong Kong

Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

Gagosian Gallery, Hong Kong

Galerist, Istanbul

Gana Art, Seoul

Gandhara Art, Karachi

Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerp

Gladstone Gallery, New York

Galerie Gmurzynska, Zug

Marian Goodman Gallery, New York

The Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago

Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York

Greene Naftali Gallery, New York

Greengrassi, London

Green On Red Gallery, Dublin

Galerie Karsten Greve Ag, St Moritz

Grotto Fine Art, Hong Kong

The Guild, Mumbai

Hakgojae, Seoul

Hanart TZ Gallery, Hong Kong

Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Zurich

Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago

Hopkins Custot Gallery, London

Michael Hoppen Gallery, London

HORRACH MOYA, Palma de Mallorca

GALLERY HYUNDAI, Seoul

I-20 Gallery, New York

IBID PROJECTS, London

Gallery IHN, Seoul

Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh

Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London

Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin

Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong

Annely Juda Fine Art, London

Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York

Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney

Sean Kelly Gallery, New York

Kerlin Gallery, Dublin

Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zurich

Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo

Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo

Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna

Kukje Gallery, Seoul

Kwai Fung Hin, Hong Kong

L&M Arts, New York

Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai

Yvon Lambert, Paris

Langgeng Gallery, Magelang

Simon Lee Gallery, London

Galerie Gebr. Lehmann Dresden, Dresden

Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York

Galerie Lelong, New York

Lin & Lin Gallery, Taipei

Lisson Gallery, London

Lombard-Freid Projects, New York

Long March Space, Beijing

Galeria Soledad Lorenzo, Madrid

Galleria d'Arte Maggiore G.A.M., Bologna

Marlborough Gallery Inc, New York

Galerie Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf

McCaffrey Fine Art, New York

Galerie Urs Meile, Beijing

Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna

Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai

Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo

The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow

Hadrien de Montferrand Gallery, Beijing

Galerie Mark Müller, Zürich

Nadi Gallery, Jakarta Barat

Galerie Christian Nagel Köln, Cologne

NANZUKA, Tokyo

Nature Morte / Bose Pacia, New Delhi

Neugerriemschneider, Berlin

Anna Ning Fine Art, Hong Kong

Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris

Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris

ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul

Galleria Lorcan O'Neill Roma, Rome

Osage Gallery, Hong Kong

Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo

Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney

The Pace Gallery, Beijing

Pace Prints, New York

MAUREEN PALEY, London

The Paragon Press, London

Pékin Fine Arts, Beijing

Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris

PKM Gallery, Seoul

Platform China, Beijing

Poligrafa Obra Grafica S.L., Barcelona

Galería Joan Prats, Barcelona

Project 88, Mumbai

Galerie Quynh, Ho Chi Minh City

Rampa, Istanbul

Galerie Almine Rech, Paris

Röntgenwerke AG, Tokyo

Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris

Rossi + Rossi. London

Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan

de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong

SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Tokyo

Schoeni Art Gallery, Hong Kong

SCHUEBBE PROJECTS, Dusseldorf

Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne

Shanghai Gallery of Art, Shanghai

ShanghART Gallery, Shanghai

Stuart Shave / Modern Art, London

ShugoArts, Tokyo

Sies + Höke, Dusseldorf

Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Silverlens Gallery, Makati City

Singapore Tyler Print Institute, Singapore

Skarstedt Gallery, New York

Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami

Galeria Filomena Soares, Lisbon

Soka Art Center, Taipei

Sperone Westwater, New York

Sprüth Magers Berlin London, Berlin

STARKWHITE, Auckland

Stevenson, Cape Town

Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing

Timothy Taylor Gallery, London

Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris

Tornabuoni Art, Paris

Two Palms, New York

Vadehra Art Gallery (ART HK 09), New Delhi

Van De Weghe Fine Art, New York

Vilma Gold, London

Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou

Volte, Mumbai

Michael Werner, New York

White Cube, London

Max Wigram Gallery, London

Wilkinson Gallery, London

XL Gallery, Moscow

YAMAMOTO GENDAI, Tokyo

David Zwirner, New York

 

ASIA ONE Section:

ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka

Art Informal, Madaluyong City

Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong

NELLIE CASTAN GALLERY, Melbourne

Chambers Fine Art, Beijing

Chan Hampe Galleries, Singapore

China Art Projects, Beijing

C-Space, Beijing

Gallery Espace, New Delhi

Etemad Gallery, Tehran

Fine Arts Literature Art Center, Wuhan

Gajah Gallery, Singapore

Hemuse Gallery, Beijing

ifa gallery, Shanghai

Yoshiaki Inoue Gallery, Osaka

JIA ART GALLERY, Taipei

Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Taipei

Tristian Koenig, Melbourne

Richard Koh Fine Art, Singapore

Latitude 28, New Delhi

CONTEMPORARY BY ANGELA LI, Hong Kong

Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong

Primo Marella Gallery, Beijing

Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney

MISA SHIN GALLERY, Tokyo

Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong

MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto

Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin Beijing, Beijing

Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney

Galerie Ora-Ora, Hong Kong

Park Ryu Sook Gallery (ART HK 09 &10), Seoul

PI Artworks, Istanbul

PIN Gallery, Beijing

Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane

Semarang Gallery, Semarang

GALLERY SIDE 2, Tokyo

Sin Sin Fine Art, Hong Kong

GALLERY SKAPE, Seoul

Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney

A THOUSAND PLATEAUS ART SPACE, Chengdu

TIVAC (Taiwan International Visual Arts Center), Taipei

TKG+, Taipei

Tolamo Galleries, Melbourne

Umahseni Gallery, Jakarta

valentine willie fine art, Kuala Lumpur

x-ist, Istanbul

XVA Gallery Dubai, Dubai

Y++ / Wada Fine Arts, Beijing

Yavuz Fine Art, Singapore

 

ART FUTURES Section:

AIKE-DELLARCO, Shanghai

Brancolini Grimaldi, Rome

EDS Galeria, Mexico City

Eleven Rivington, New York

Gallery EM, Seoul

Exhibit 320, New Delhi

Green Art Gallery, Dubai

Green Cardamom, London

Herald St, London

Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London

island JAPAN, Tokyo

Karma International, Zurich

Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York

Josh Lilley Gallery, London

Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires

ltd los angeles, Los Angeles

Magician Space, Beijing

Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo

Francesca Minini, Milan

Mother’s Tankstation, Dublin

mujin-to production, Tokyo

Neon Parc, Melbourne

Take Ninagawa, Tokyo

Nou Gallery, Taipei

Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne

PLATFORM3, Bandung

Simon Preston, New York

Rokeby, London

Rotwand, Zurich

Saamlung, Hong Kong

Seven Art Limited, New Delhi

Galleri Maria Veie, Oslo

WEINGRULL, Karlsruhe

Galerie West, Den Haag

White Space Beijing, Beijing