Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Asia’s rapidly growing economies have bolstered, and at times rescued, the global art market since the financial crisis of 2008. International auction houses, galleries and art fairs have invested heavily in Hong Kong, the de facto hub of the continent’s art trade, and successfully captured its burgeoning buyers.In recent years, though, demand from China, by far Asia’s biggest consumer base for luxury and art, has waned, as the country suffers its own economic malaise. This dented public auction sales in Hong Kong, which fell 27.5 per cent last year, a greater drop than in the market’s other centres of New York and London according to the specialist analysis firm ArtTactic. Shifting political dynamics, not least the threat of tariffs from the United States, are adding to the economic uncertainties around China. Fortunately, for the art market, the net is spread wider through Asia, with countries such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan among those now on the commercial cultural map. The question is whether these other regions can make up the slack in a shifting landscape. This seems to be the longer-term goal of Magnus Renfrew, co-chairman and global director of The Art Assembly, which runs fairs in Taipei, Tokyo and, opening this week, Art SG in the wealth haven of Singapore. “Asia’s art scene has changed out of all recognition since 2008,” Renfrew says, having launched Hong Kong’s first international fair that year (Art HK, now owned by Art Basel). He acknowledges that back then, “I used to pitch Hong Kong over Singapore, mostly because of its location. Now, being a bit further south and further from China is seen as an advantage.” He notes that tech giants, including Meta and Alphabet, have their Asian headquarters in Singapore. “It is one of the only places regarded as a neutral territory [in Asia]. The Chinese are happy to do business here, the Americans are happy to do business here, it’s seen as neutral. Singapore doesn’t have political beef with anybody,” Renfrew says. A business-friendly tax regime likely adds to its appeal while wealth migration since the Covid-19 pandemic, including from mainland China, continues today, he says.With art business down around the world, some of this week’s fair exhibitors welcome the opportunity of Art SG. “For some time I’ve wanted to show Makiko Nakamura’s paintings in Singapore,” says the London gallerist John Martin, a fair newcomer this year. The Kyoto-based Nakamura — born in 1951 — who makes delicate abstract paintings, has never had a show in Asia, he says, adding “with the London market relatively flat, Art SG was perfect for us.” Liza Essers, owner-director of Goodman Gallery, says that Singapore has proved “an easy place to do business”, helped by a wide use of English. She notes too that the hub’s reach stretches beyond south-east Asia. “Australia is proving an important market for us and many collectors are happy to come from there to Singapore,” she says. Despite cooling winds, Asia still has a higher share of global billionaire wealth than Europe — 27 per cent versus 22 per cent, according to last October’s Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2024, with the bulk in mainland China, Hong Kong and India. Christie’s reports that Asia Pacific buyers contributed 26 per cent to its global auction sales in 2024, down slightly from 2023, but responsible for some mega-sales above HK$200mn ($25mn), including paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet.Rebecca Wei, an auction and gallery veteran who recently opened her own advisory business in Hong Kong, says that the big-brand, 19th- and 20th-century artists will continue to be the first choice of Asia’s top art collectors. She estimates there are about 30 such buyers across the continent, “and while they used to buy Chinese contemporary art or Asian masters [such as the bold and colourful French-Chinese painter Sanyu, 1901-1966], it’s now all about the big western names,” as the market everywhere zones in on the safer investment of blue-chip art. In terms of specifics, she says these are few and far between. “Many collectors just say they are looking for a Picasso. They can be very vague, sometimes about their budget too,” she says.Further down the wealth chain, taste is changing, says the Singapore gallerist Richard Koh. “There has been a real generation shift in the 21st century as older collectors are slowing down and their kids don’t want the same works. There is still a market, with lots of younger collectors entering in the past few years, but they are not so into connoisseurship or understanding an artist’s practice, it’s all very visual.” The prevalence of social media is thought to have contributed to this more surface-based taste. “If they like something, they will buy it, though at a certain price point,” Koh adds.Emi Eu, executive director of Singapore’s STPI gallery and project director of the boutique S.E.A. Focus fair for Southeast Asian Art, which opens alongside Art SG this week, characterises a more nuanced next gen. “Sure, they are looking at what’s plainly out there and well-marketed by the auction houses and international galleries, but they are also becoming interested in artists from Singapore and Asia, including the older generation,” she says. This week, her gallery opened a show of the multimedia artist Suzann Victor, born in Singapore in 1959, whose latest works toy with the effects of light on transparent acrylic discs. Sales have already been made, “and not just under S$10,000” ($7,300), Eu says. Her prices for Victor’s work go up to S$80,000 (the exhibition, Constellations, is on view at STPI until March 2).Meanwhile, investment in Hong Kong, still by far the most internationally-friendly trade centre on the continent, has not stopped, notably from the auction houses that remain Asia’s preferred sales channel. But, Renfrew says, what Singapore and some of Asia’s other emerging art centres offer “is a sense of optimism, which you don’t feel everywhere in the world at the moment”. There is a way to go before any of these become key strategic locations for the trade — Renfrew is working to a 10-year plan — but south-east Asia’s fast-growing economies bode well, he says. “It is accurate to say that money doesn’t make a market, but if there’s no money, there is definitely no market.”Art SG runs January 17-19 at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore, artsg.comS.E.A. Focus runs January 18-26 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, seafocus.sgFind out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning
