While Art Basel Miami Beach is just around the corner, Art Basel Hong Kong has already announced the gallery list and details for its 2025 fair, set for March 28-30 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. This year’s edition will showcase 242 galleries from 42 countries and territories, with over half representing the Asia-Pacific—a clear testament to Art Basel’s role as a major platform in the region’s dynamic and eclectic art scene. On the occasion of the announcement, made during Shanghai Art Week, we sat down with Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong, to chat about this year’s strategy, her expectations and what she thinks about Hong Kong becoming the region’s global art epicenter.
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Siyang-Le, who was born in Mainland China but raised in the U.K., carved a path in the art world with stints in Dubai, where she managed the non-profit art space Traffic and co-founded Mobile Art Gallery at a time when that scene was still in its infancy. The same could be said for Hong Kong’s art landscape when she moved there in 2012; it was smaller, scrappier and definitely off the beaten path. “It was just at its beginning, with a very small founding circle,” she recalls. In a recent Art Basel interview, she shared how, upon telling a Hong Kong taxi driver about her new job, he chuckled, “Haven’t you heard? Hong Kong is a cultural desert!” Fast forward to today, and no cabbie misses the chance to cash in on the March art week surge. Art Basel’s arrival in 2013 was a game-changer, igniting a rapid evolution that transformed Hong Kong into one of the most vibrant and globally connected art hubs. “With this international platform set up in Hong Kong, local galleries and artists felt more expressive about the work they were doing,” Siyang-Le tells us.
Despite pandemic interruptions and the lingering cloud of national security concerns, this year has been monumental for Hong Kong, marked by the openings of both Christie’s and Sotheby’s new headquarters—a move that cements the city’s status as a leading global art center. “I feel Hong Kong is firmly standing on its feet as the region’s representative, the main international hub connecting Asia with the world,” Siyang-Le says. Hong Kong’s unique role can be attributed to its complex history—it is a former British colony infused with enduring Chinese influence, resulting in a true melting pot. “The mindset here is very global, open to new cultures and perspectives,” Siyang-Le explains. “People in Hong Kong have learned, historically, to........