Art Basel Hong Kong opens its 2026 fair to the public today, with galleries from and representing the region using the platform to deepen relationships with Asian collectors, curators and institutions.
Running until Sunday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the event brings together 240 galleries from 41 countries and territories. More than half of this year’s exhibitors operate spaces across Asia-Pacific, underscoring the fair’s role as a regional meeting point as much as an international market event.
For galleries representing artists from the Middle East and North Africa, that regional role is a central part of the appeal. Hong Kong offers access to not only collectors, but also curators, institutions and biennale networks across Asia.
“This is our sixth year here in Art Basel Hong Kong,” Tunisian gallerist and collector Selma Feriani tells The National. The founder of Selma Feriani Gallery, which is based in Tunis and London, adds: “We’ve been introducing our artists to the community here in Asia slowly but surely. We steadily place our artists in Asian collections with returning collectors and newcomers every year. There is an interest and curiosity towards our programme and artists.”
Feriani says that visibility has also been reinforced by the growing presence of Mena artists she represents in major exhibitions across the region. “We currently have Massinissa Selmani participating in Sydney Biennale and Monia Ben Hamouda in Taipei Biennale,” she says. “It makes our presence here stronger.”
At this year’s fair, her gallery offers art from across the region and the world, describing the presentation as one centred on memory, material histories and the transmission of cultural knowledge across geographies and generations, with works spanning painting, textile, glass and marble.
Among the artists on view is Tunisian-Italian artist Hamouda whose practice draws on symbolism, ritual and inherited forms. Sara Ouhaddou, a French-Moroccan artist, works across textiles, ceramics and mosaics, often examining cultural exchange and the shifting meanings of objects. Saoudi Ait Khay, a Moroccan artist based in Tunisia, weaves traditional Moroccan wool into abstract compositions shaped by memory and landscape.
A similar ambition is behind Catinca Tabacaru Gallery’s presentation of Moroccan artist Youssra Raouchi.
“Youssra is very new to the art world conversation, so building her an international base of collectors, curators and thinkers is critical at this point in her career,” says gallery founder Catinca Tabacaru.
“There are many connections across history between the region and Mena, and we hope local museums are thinking seriously about exploring these threads through historic and contemporary acquisitions and exhibitions.
“There is much to say about why these ties continue to be relevant today given the current state of peace and conflict.”
The fair’s Mena presence also extends beyond gallery booths. In the film programme, British-Lebanese artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan is presenting 45th Parallel (2022), a five-act monologue performed by filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel. Elsewhere, White Cube is showing works by Mona Hatoum, while Catinca Tabacaru Gallery and Berlin’s Nome are jointly presenting Raouchi, whose work draws on elements of Amazigh culture.
Additions to this year's fair include Friends of Art Basel Hong Kong, an initiative developed in collaboration with regional museums to strengthen ties across Asia. The fair is also extending its footprint across the city through collaborations with institutions including Tai Kwun, M+, Hong Kong Ballet, and a range of non-profit and university partners.
Also launching regionally is Zero 10, Art Basel’s digital art initiative, which is making its Asia debut in Hong Kong after launching in Miami Beach in December.
Curated by Eli Scheinman, the section features 14 exhibitors, and is intended to expand how digital work is exhibited, contextualised and collected within the fair.
Scheinman says Zero 10 aims “to platform and amplify the voices of artists who are asking critical questions about the use of emerging technologies and the way that those technologies increasingly infiltrate our daily lives”.
He points to Zhu Wen Chung’s Recursion as one example, describing it as an exploration of human-machine collaboration and authorship through a performance in which the artist paints alongside robots, moving according to a data set she has built over time.
The Hong Kong edition follows the February debut of Art Basel Qatar, the fair’s first platform in Mena, at a time when Arab artists are appearing across multiple parts of Art Basel’s global programme.
