Top dealers flocking to the influential Hong Kong art fair see it all, from young talent to genuine show- stoppers to the tasteless and over-priced, writes John McDonald.
It is scarcely believable that the Hong Kong International Art Fair is only four years old. As the infant prodigy among the many, many fairs that have been breeding, virus like, in all parts of the world, Hong Kong’s growth has been freakish. It started as a shrewd, optimistic idea in 2008, struggled through the global financial crisis and a SARS epidemic in 2009 and has its “coming of age” last year as the works top dealers began to take an interest. This year, regardless of the fickle nature of the art market, it has blossomed.
Tim Olsen hosted a show of large, lyrical watercolours of the Australian desert by his dad, John Olsen. After the first day he had made four sales.
