Cover Yayoi Kusama, Life Shines On (2019). (© Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts)
Today Art Basel opens its first ever online viewing rooms, featuring 231 galleries exhibiting more than 2,000 artworks that have a combined value of more than US$250 million. Here are 10 galleries worth checking out

1. David Zwirner

Tatler Asia
Above Chris Ofili, Vessel 11 (2019). (© Chris Ofili. Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner)

Figurative painters are in the spotlight at David Zwirner, which is exhibiting works by contemporary artists who are investigating what painting means in the 21st century, including Lisa Yuskavage, Luc Tuymans and Chris Ofili.

See also: The Tatler Guide To Art Galleries In Wong Chuk Hang & Aberdeen

2. Lehmann Maupin

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Above Do Ho Suh, Main Entrance, 388 Benefit Street, Providence, RI 02903, USA (2016). (© Do Ho Suh. Courtesy of Lehmann Maupin)

One of Korean artist Do Ho Suh’s signature polyester sculptures is a highlight of Lehmann Maupin’s viewing room. These works of “fabric architecture” are painstaking recreations of Suh’s past homes—this one features the entrance to his old home in Providence, Rhode Island.  

Lehmann Maupin’s viewing room will also feature works by American artist McArthur Binion, Shirazeh Houshiary and Erwin Wurm, among others.

See Also: Do Ho Suh: Behind The Korean Artist's Haunting Sculptures

3. Southard Reid

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Above Prem Sahib, 'DESCENT I. People Come & Go', November 13-30, 2019, Southard Reid. (Courtesy of the artist and Southard Reid. Photo by Lewis Ronald)

London-based gallery Southard Reid—which was due to take part in Art Basel in Hong Kong for the first time this year—is presenting sculptures, installations and paintings by British conceptual artist Prem Sahib, whose work explores themes of identity, desire and shame. 

4. Kukje Gallery

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Above Lee Ufan, From Line (1982). (Courtesy of the artist and Kukje Gallery)

Seoul-based Kukje Gallery is offering a mixture of South Korean and western art in its viewing room, including paintings by dansaekhwa masters Lee Ufan, Chung Sang-hwa and Kim Yong-ik, as well as one of Anish Kapoor’s famous circular mirrors and a large bronze sculpture by Scandinavian stars Elmgreen & Dragset.

5. Fergus McCaffrey

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D2019.37 - JAPAN IS AMERICA, 10/11/19, 9:25 AM, 16C, 6178x8999 (488+0), 112%, Repro 2.2 v2,   1/8 s, R112.5, G107.6, B122.9
Above Ed Ruscha, Japan Is America (2019). (© Ed Ruscha. Courtesy of Fergus McCaffrey)

New York-based Fergus McCaffrey, which is most famous for representing many of the leading artists who emerged in post-WWII Japan, is showing Japan in America, a project featuring artists who were affected or inspired by the complex relationship that emerged between the two countries in the second half of the twentieth century.

The artists included are Miyako Ishiuchi, Jasper Johns, Nobuaki Kojima, Tomio Miki, Sadamasa Motonaga, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Ken Price, Ed Ruscha, Robert Rauschenberg, and Toshio Yoshida.

6. Nanzuka

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Above Keiichi Tanaami, The Laughing Spider (2016). (Courtesy of the artist and Nanzuka)

One of Tokyo’s leading galleries, Nanzuka, is exhibiting an animation by Keiichi Tanaami. Titled The Laughing Spider, the video depicts scenes from Tanaami’s memories and dreams.

7. 10 Chancery Lane Gallery

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Above Frog Awakening (2019) by Kwok Mang-ho (Courtesy of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery and Kwok Mang-ho)

Hong Kong’s 10 Chancery Lane Gallery is presenting Living Legends: Frog King Kwok, Xiao Lu, Huang Rui and Wang Keping.
 
These four artists have radically shaped contemporary art in China and Hong Kong over the past forty years: sculptor Wang Keping and performance artist Huang Rui were both members of the daring “Stars” group of artists that formed in 1979, while Xiao Lu is perhaps most famous for firing a gun at her own work when it was hung in the National Art Museum of China in 1989 and Frog King has been a pioneer of performance and conceptual art in Hong Kong since the 1960s.   

See Also: The Man Behind The Mask: A Look Inside The Life Of Performance Artist Frog King
 

8. Sprüth Magers

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Above Barbara Kruger, Is blind idealism reactionary? (2011). (Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers)

Sprüth Magers, which has galleries in Berlin, London and Los Angeles, is offering a selection of works in a variety of media. One of the highlights is one of Barbara Kruger’s trademark text-based works about power, politics, desire and gender.

See Also: Barbara Kruger on Feminism, #MeToo And The Power Of Words

9. Galerie du Monde

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Above Wesley Tongson, Bamboo No. 1041 (2011). (Courtesy of Galerie du Monde)

Paintings by the late Hong Kong ink artist Wesley Tongson are being shown by Galerie du Monde alongside a selection of works by other artists who similarly explore the relationship between Euro-American abstraction and East Asian philosophy. 

See Also: Art Insider: Fred Scholle

10. Ota Fine Arts

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Above Yayoi Kusama, Life Shines On (2019). (© Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts)

Yayoi Kusama’s psychedelic mirrored installations have become a sensation in recent years as selfie seekers have flocked to them in museums and galleries. Ota Fine Arts, which has galleries in Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore, is showing Kusama’s LIFE SHINES ON, which is more of an infinity box than an infinity room—it’s only two metres tall by two metres deep. But it still provides the same experience of seemingly never-ending, cosmic space.

Art Basel’s online viewing room opens to Art Basel VIPs at 6pm Hong Kong time (HKT) on Wednesday, March 18. It opens to the public on 6pm HKT on Friday, March 20 and closes at 6pm HKT on Wednesday, March 25.

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