The world’s most important art fair for the Asia-Pacific region returns to Hong Kong with an expanded program, 240 galleries, and a series of ambitious new initiatives — reinforcing the city’s position as the undisputed cultural capital of Asia.

Scale and context

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 opens its doors at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on March 27, with Preview Days on March 25 and 26. This edition brings together 240 galleries from 41 countries and territories, more than half of which operate spaces across the Asia-Pacific — a figure that speaks to the fair’s deepening roots in the region. UBS remains Global Lead Partner, continuing a partnership that has long anchored the fair’s institutional credibility.

The program extends well beyond the walls of HKCEC, with activations, commissions, and performances unfolding across the city throughout the week.

“Encounters”

The Encounters sector — dedicated to large-scale sculpture, installation, and performance — enters a new chapter in 2026 under an international curatorial team led by Mami Kataoka, joined by Isabella Tam, Alia Swastika, and Hirokazu Tokuyama.

The conceptual framework is rigorous and poetic: the Five Elements — a cosmological system deeply embedded in Asian philosophy — anchor the entire presentation, with each element (space/ether, water, fire, wind, and earth) mapped to specific zones throughout the convention halls. Twelve artworks will be presented in total.

Key works include a multimedia textile installation by Suki Seokyeong Kang embodying the element of space/ether, presented by Kukje Gallery; a yarn-based installation by Parag Tandel exploring ancestral connections to the sea, representing water, presented by Tarq; glazed ceramic shapes by Masaomi Yasunaga evoking fire, presented by Lisson Gallery; and monumental eco-printed fabric columns by Geraldine Javier, resembling trees and representing earth, presented by Silverlens.

Encounters extends beyond HKCEC to Pacific Place, where Christine Sun Kim will present A String of Echo Traps (2022–2026) — a site-specific digital animation installation exploring echo and translation, accompanied by an original sound composition. The work is presented by White Space and supported by Swire Properties, the Official Partner of offsite Encounters.

“Zero 10”

Among the most significant structural additions to the 2026 edition is the Asia debut of Zero 10 — Art Basel’s global initiative dedicated to art of the digital era, following its launch at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2025. The name references Kazimir Malevich’s seminal 0,10 exhibition of 1915 in Petrograd — a historic rupture that redefined creative language for a new century. In that spirit, Zero 10 aims to transform how digital art is exhibited, contextualized, and collected within the contemporary art economy.

Curated by Eli Scheinman and presented by GoTone Privilege Club, the sector features 14 exhibitors: Art of This Millennium (AOTM), Art Blocks, Asprey Studio, bitforms gallery, BottoDAO, Fellowship x ARTXCODE, √K Contemporary, Nguyen Wahed, Office Impart, Onkaos, Plan X, Silk Art House, SOLOS, and TAEX.

Highlights include digital animations by DeeKay exploring psychological states through the visual language of early video games, presented by AOTM; a dialogue between AI, sculpture, installation, and traditional ink painting featuring works by Seneca, Qu Leilei, and Tim Yip, presented by Asprey Studio; a silver sculptural project by Jack Butcher examining systems of value, presented by Silk Art House; and a participatory blockchain-based work by Robert Alice reimagining the East Asian tradition of seals through the lens of digital provenance, presented by Onkaos.

“Kabinett”

The Kabinett sector — focused thematic presentations staged within participating galleries’ booths — features 35 projects in 2026, 23 of which are dedicated to historical and contemporary artists from the Asia-Pacific region.

Standout presentations include luminous hand-painted glass lightboxes by Judy Chicago, presented by Jessica Silverman; Dinh Q. Lê‘s 1998 installation Damaged Gene, using children’s clothing and pacifiers to address the enduring impact of war, presented by P.P.O.W.; a meditative architectural installation comprising two recent bodies of work by Ma Qiusha, presented by Beijing Commune; a curated selection of early works by Christodrawn from Annely Juda Fine Art’s decades-long collaboration with the artist; a suite of abstract paintings by Tang Chang, a pioneering figure in Thailand’s modern art scene, presented by gdm; and a joint presentation of sculptural works by Jeewi Lee and Francisco Tropa reflecting on relics and material transformation as markers of time, presented by Meyer Riegger Wolff.

“Echoes”

Making its debut at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026, Echoes is a brand-new sector — and one of the most significant structural additions to this year’s edition. Dedicated entirely to works created within the past five years, the sector features ten curated booths, each presenting up to three artists, offering a concentrated glimpse into the most current artistic practices and narratives. 

Participating galleries include Christian Andersen, Anomaly, Arcadia Missa, Capsule Shanghai, Double Q Gallery, Flowers Gallery, Klemm’s, Mocube, Max Estrella, Nome, Station, Catinca Tabacaru, and Whistle.

Among the highlights: Madrid’s Max Estrella presents Tiffany Chung‘s embroidered maps of spice routes alongside Miler Lagos‘s carved book sculptures, while Hong Kong-based Double Q Gallery brings Polish artist Natalia Załuska with an immersive spatial installation.

For collectors tracking what is being made right now — not what has already been canonized — Echoes is precisely where to pay attention.

Public program

The Film Program is curated for the first time by Ellen Pau — a pioneering Hong Kong media artist, curator, and co-founder of Videotage, a groundbreaking non-profit platform for media art in Asia. Titled In Between Magic and Reality, the program frames imagination as a strategy for resistance, memory, and survival.

Supported by the Korea Arts Management Service (KAMS) and in collaboration with ArtReview, two films will anchor a special screening followed by an artist talk: Ayoung Kim‘s Al-Mather Plot 1991 (2025), combining personal narrative and historical research to examine oil, geopolitics, and urban transformation in Riyadh; and ikkibawiKrrr‘s Dances with Trash (2024), imagining a post-human world through animations of discarded objects. The program also features Sin Wai Kin‘s The Fortress (2024), presented by Blindspot Gallery; Lucy McRae‘s Delicate Spells of Mind (2022), presented by Capsule Shanghai; and Andrew Thomas Huang‘s sci-fi retelling of a Buddhist folklore story, The Deer of Nine Colors (2025), presented in collaboration with NOWNESS ASIA.

Conversations — Art Basel’s flagship talks program — expands to a four-day format this year. A keynote exchange between Doryun Chong, Artistic Director and Chief Curator at M+, and Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander will open the series, presented by UBS. Uli Sigg and Saeb Eigner, both members of Art Basel’s Global Patron Council, will discuss the role of the collector as cultural diplomat. A special session will mark the tenth anniversary of the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, taking a long-term view of the region’s art market. One full day of programming will be guest-curated and moderated by Venus Lau, Director of Museum MACAN in Jakarta, with speakers including Kandis Williams, Angela Su, Steph Huang, and Joshua Serafin.

The City as stage

The fair’s ambitions extend across Hong Kong’s cultural geography. For the fifth consecutive year, Art Basel and M+ co-commission a work for the M+ Facade facing Victoria Harbour, presented by UBS. From March 23 through June 21, Shahzia Sikander‘s 3 to 12 Nautical Miles (2026) will be screened nightly — an animated cinematic tableau drawn from hand-painted images, reimagining miniature painting to navigate the enduring currents of power and trade that have shaped the global landscape from the nineteenth century to the present. The commission is presented in dialogue with the concurrent Rauschenberg retrospective at M+.

Tai Kwun hosts Artists’ Night on March 27, now in its third consecutive year as an Art Basel partnership. The evening will feature live performances and installations by Justin Talplacido Shoulder, Geumhyung Jeong, Tation, DAVID BORING, and Lydo, unfolding across multiple venues. On March 28, three of those artists return for Art After Hours: Beings in Motion.

Inside HKCEC on March 28, Hong Kong Ballet — joining as a new cultural partner — presents State of Wonder, a multi-site series of dance excerpts that activate the fair’s environments, led by Artistic Director Septime Webre, who will also deliver a standalone talk on the evolving role of ballet in contemporary society.

New initiatives and key Partners

Art Basel launches Friends of Art Basel Hong Kong in 2026 — a new initiative developed with regional museums to strengthen institutional relationships across Asia, including He Art Museum in the Greater Bay Area and Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai.

BMW, an Art Basel global partner for over two decades, returns as Associate Partner providing premium VIP car service for First Choice guests and will present Robert Rauschenberg’s BMW Art Car (1986) — a layered collage transforming a BMW 635 CSi into a meditation on art history and everyday culture — in direct dialogue with the M+ Rauschenberg exhibition.

Qatar Airways, named the World’s Best Airline a record ninth time at the 2025 Skytrax World Airline Awards, continues as Premium Partner across all Art Basel editions globally, including the newly launched Qatar show.

Salone del Mobile.Milano, in partnership with Lissoni & Partners, curates the Collectors Lounge, furnished by leading Italian design brands in a dialogue between material innovation and artisanal mastery. JNBY, Official Uniform Partner, presents staff uniforms designed around works by Shi Zhiying from her signature Stone series — available for purchase at the Art Basel Shop.

The MGM Discoveries Art Prize will again announce its winners during the fair. The jury brings together Aaron Cezar (Founding Director, Delfina Foundation), Antonia Carver(Director, Art Jameel), Christopher K. Ho (board member, Asia Art Archive and Powerhouse Arts), Park Seungho (Chairman, Park Seo-Bo Foundation), and X Zhu-Nowell (Executive Director and Chief Curator, Rockbund Art Museum).

First Initiative Foundation (FIF), joining as a new cultural partner, will pair a musician from its international network with an artist from the Film Program to co-create an original soundtrack for a moving-image work.

Hong Kong’s Museum landscape

The fair arrives in a city offering exceptional institutional programming. M+ presents Robert Rauschenberg and Asia, Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker (co-curated with the Zao Wou-Ki Foundation), Ryuichi Sakamoto | seeing sound, hearing time, Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now (co-organized with Leeum Museum of Art), and Shahzia Sikander: 3 to 12 Nautical Miles. Tai Kwun presents Stay Connected: Supplying the Globe. Hong Kong Museum of Art stages a major thematic exhibition dedicated to Wu Guanzhong. Asia Society Hong Kong Center presents Hung Hsien: Between Worlds. Para Site opens Site-seeing.

The creative campaign for Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 features works by Bi Rongrong, Chan Wai Lap, and Tala Madani across advertising and promotional materials throughout the city. Chan Wai Lap receives particular focus: his pool-inspired works will be shown in the UBS Art Studio, while CHAT – Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile will present a distinct body of his work in its fair booth.

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 is, in the most precise sense, a convergence — of institutions, collectors, artists, and ideas — at the exact moment Asia’s cultural confidence is at its most articulate. For those who shape collections, build institutions, or simply believe that being present at the defining moments of culture is a form of intelligence in itself, Hong Kong in late March is the only place to be.