HONG KONG.- Gagosian announced its participation in Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 with a presentation of new and recent paintings, sculptures, and photographs by a group of international artists. The works on view offer a variety of contemporary approaches to abstraction, the natural world, human figures, and cultural signifiers of the past and present.
Explore the evolving vision of legendary Chinese painter Zeng Fanzhi and his new abstractions. Click here to purchase this beautifully produced book and witness his 'restless journey of discovery.'
Albert Oehlen’s untitled abstraction from 2020 marshals a diverse array of gestural brushstrokes, drips, and layered veils of scumbled pigment in a painting that avoids a singular compositional impetus. Mary Weatherford’s Tokyo Lights (2024) combines diluted Flashe paint with lit neon rods and cords. These elements operate as both linear, three-dimensional “drawings” and sources of active illumination that transform the colors and forms of the flowing, sedimentary passages of paint.
New paintings by John Currin draw on both classical portraiture and pop-cultural imagery while disputing their conventions through varying degrees of resemblance, idealization, and grotesque exaggeration. New Girl (2025), for instance, is a disarming portrait that combines the stylization of a painted likeness with that of a posed fashion photograph.
The Adventures of Rome: The Temptation of Saint Anthony (2025) by Hao Liang interprets the European subject of the saint resisting an assault by demons. Rendered in the style of a traditional guohua ink wash painting and exemplifying Hao’s synthesis of historic and contemporary sources, this work is the first from a new series the artist began following a visit to Italy.
Tetsuya Ishida’s untitled painting from 2003 depicts a young man seated at an industrial machine topped by a street scene, in a surreal juxtaposition of scales. The image evokes a feeling of entrapment and lack of control, articulating a profound sense of unease with the modern world. In contrast, Lauren Halsey’s untitled column from 2024 is celebratory and aspirational, resembling an ancient monument in its form and Afrocentric Egyptian imagery. Uniting past and present, the monolithic work channels local identity and pride through imagery and slogans associated with her neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles.
Yayoi Kusama’s vividly realized painting Pumpkin (1989) is a classic example of one of her most celebrated motifs, which she admires for its “unpretentious and simple beauty.” The pumpkin’s volume is conveyed through a mesmerizing array of dots in graduated sizes, arranged into swelling, organic folds over a crackling patterned ground. An untitled painting from 2020 by Zeng Fanzhi from his Landscape Abstraction series (2002–23) also takes the natural world as its inspiration, layering brightly colored calligraphic brushstrokes so densely that they resemble tangled undergrowth.
Sarah Sze’s multilayered mixed-media work Last Lap (2025) weaves together painted abstractions with elements from her visual vocabulary: hands, a sunset, a bird, a mountain, and an urban skyline. Sze’s striking compositional methods allow recurrent imagery to appear and disappear, evolve and disintegrate—prompting meditations on time, memory, and perception. Related works may be seen at Sze’s first exhibition in Asia, on view at the gallery’s Hong Kong location from March 25 to May 3, 2025.
Participating artists include Carol Bove, John Currin, Edmund de Waal, Jadé Fadojutimi, Urs Fischer, Cy Gavin, Nan Goldin, Katharina Grosse, Lauren Halsey, Hao Liang, Damien Hirst, Tetsuya Ishida, Yayoi Kusama, Rick Lowe, Brice Marden, Tyler Mitchell, Sabine Moritz, Takashi Murakami, Albert Oehlen, Nam June Paik, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Pierre Soulages, Spencer Sweeney, Sarah Sze, Mary Weatherford, Tom Wesselmann, Anna Weyant, Stanley Whitney, Jordan Wolfson, and Zeng Fanzhi.
Artdaily participates in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn commissions by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. When you purchase through our links, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. These commissions help us continue curating and sharing the art world’s latest news, stories, and resources with our readers.
