T he first edition of Contemporary Art Online auction in 2022 offers a fantastic selection of works by sought-after contemporary artists including Aboudia, Baldur Helgason, Damien Hirst, Edgar Plans, Michael Kagan and Mr Doodle. Opening the same day as International Women's Day, we celebrate the works of more than twenty female artists, ranging from the internationally established market darlings to young rising stars. The lineup includes Yayoi Kusama, Rhee Seundja, Chiharu Shiota, Danielle Orchard, Stickymonger, Super Future Kid and Vivien Zhang. The auction also marks the first online sale to incorporate NFTs.
香港蘇富比欣然呈獻2022年首場當代藝術網上專場,為藏家搜羅一系列藝壇炙手可熱的藝術家作品,當中涵蓋阿布迪亞、巴爾杜·赫爾加、達米恩·赫斯特、埃德加·普蘭斯、邁克爾·卡根和Mr Doodle等。
即將於3月8日開拍的專場適逢國際婦女節,為歌頌女性在藝術歷史演變中不可或缺的貢獻,隨時代進步透過創作爭取平等,及慶祝她們在二十一世紀大放異彩,續漸推翻男性主流藝壇並為藝術界注入嶄新活力,拍場匯集了逾20位來自世界各地的女性藝術家作品。精彩陣容上至當代殿堂下至年輕新星,包括草間彌生、李聖子、鹽田千春、丹尼爾·奧查德、Stickymonger、Super Future Kid及張月薇。是次專場亦為香港當代藝術首個上呈NFT藝術品的網拍。
In this sale, we celebrate the remarkable women who have broken boundaries to reach new artistic heights. This selection represents a cross-section of leadings works from the contemporary art world and underscores the importance of women’s representation in the art world. Their works express a distinctly rich narrative with a unique tapestry of experience that covers diverse geographies and generations.
這場拍賣聚焦於一眾衝破障礙、登上藝術新峰的卓越女性藝術家。她們的佳作以不同角度展現當代藝術圈生態,見證女性在藝術界角色轉變的關鍵時刻。來自不同地域和世代的女性藝術家以創作傳遞出豐厚多元的敘事,反映自身獨一無二的人生軌跡。
Highlights
Young and New
Western
Asian
The auction offers non-fungible tokens (NFT) by The Monkey Kingdom, which launched last year and was sold out within two minutes of its roll out. Inspired by the epic story of the Monkey King (Sun Wukong), The Monkey Kingdom project was the largest NFT release in Hong Kong. This is the first online auction to incorporate NFTs, a measure of the way they have presented a paradigm shift for digital art and other forms of online media. Since NFTs have risen to prominence in recent years, they have quickly moved from a subversive creative counterculture to artistic and media mainstream. Contemporary artists have approached NFTs with novel approaches – for example, Damien Hirst’s ‘The Currency’ NFT project underscored the divide between the worlds of digital and physical art. Part of a new generation of creators, Nikki is a young artist new to the market that paints in the digital realm.
The Monkey Kingdom 創作的NFT藝術品也將亮相,這些作品在去年推出時,只花了兩分鐘就旋告售罄。這個由 The Monkey Kingdom 籌辦的計劃是香港最大型的NFT項目,靈感來自「美猴王」孫悟空。是次專場是香港當代藝術首個上呈NFT藝術品的網拍,顯示市場的注意力開始轉向數碼藝術及其他形式的網絡媒介。NFT在近年發展聲勢浩大,它迅速從反體制及逆主流文化的創意成果,變成一種主流藝術形式和媒介。當代藝術家紛紛以前所未見的方式,將NFT運用到創作中,例如達米恩·赫斯特透過NFT項目「貨幣」,凸顯數碼藝術與實體藝術的分歧。另外一位市場上的後起之秀,是作品主打數碼繪畫的新生代藝術家Nikki。
Discover promising artists who have captured the attention of collectors worldwide, and who continue to push the boundaries. Poised to leave their mark on the contemporary art world, these rising stars will become era-defining artists of today.
一睹引發全球藏家矚目的藝術新銳如何繼續挑戰界限,奮力在當代藝壇留下印記。這些冉冉上升的明日之星,必將成為定義現今藝壇的一代。
Dreams and the netherworld of the subconscious mind have inspired some of the notable works in this sale. Fueled by surrealism and abstract free association, these works open the gateways to hidden depths and creativity.
潛意識的夢境與關於未知世界的想像,啟發了今次拍賣中一些引人注目的作品。在超現實主義與抽象藝術自由聯想的推波助瀾下,這些作品開闢了一條潛往神秘奧義和創意的通道。
“I've always liked street art. Urban art. It is an art that I see very free, just like when children create. And I have wanted to transform it to translate into my paintings."
Madrid-born artist Edgar Plans is known for his mixed media work that combines street art aesthetics with his distinctive masked mouse-eared characters known as 'Animal Heroes'. Through these characters Plans expresses social critique of what he describes as 'human acts against the planet' as these expressive protagonists fight against gender violence, racism and envy. At the end of 2021, Plans and Exile Content Studio announced a collaboration to create the ‘Lil’ Heroes’ NFT collection based on the artist’s characters, and will become a new children’s entertainment franchise.
「我一向喜歡城市街頭藝術。在我眼中,這種藝術非常自由,就像小孩子畫畫一樣,而我總想將它加以轉化,然後融入自己的畫裡。」
普蘭斯生於西班牙馬德里,以混合媒材創作最為人熟悉。他將街頭藝術風格融入長著老鼠耳朵的幪面角色,創造出只此一家的「動物英雄」(Animal Heroes),並透過這些挺身對抗性別暴力、種族主義及嫉妒情緒的角色,批判他口中的「反地球人類行為」。2021年尾,普蘭斯與 Exile Content Studio 宣佈將以「動物英雄」為藍本,聯手推出「Lil’ Heroes」NFT系列,並在此基礎上開發全新的兒童娛樂節目、遊戲、玩具及書籍等。
Since his first commercial solo exhibition at London’s Hoxton Gallery in 2016, Mr Doodle has become an irrepressible force on social media and at auction. To understand his popularity, one would only have to look at the artist’s eccentric style and the riot of cartoon characters noodling across the surface. Highlights in this sale present a range: The Bucket is an early work from before Mr Doodle’s debut; The Fastest Food was part of his 2016 solo exhibition and features his early black and white street style; the extra-large canvas from the artist’s major show ‘Doodle Tokyo’ marks his rise in 2019, plus works created in the same year from the Hong Kong selling exhibition ‘Mr Doodle Invades Sotheby's’. In all of these works, Mr Doodle brings an energy and wit that toys with the boundaries between art and absurdity.
自倫敦霍克斯頓畫廊於2016年舉辦首場 Mr Doodle 個人商業展覽後,這位藝術家就成為了社交媒體及拍賣場上炙手可熱的新星。他的作品畫滿了密密麻麻的卡通人物,彷如塗鴉,風格鮮明,因此備受追捧。今次拍賣的焦點包括 Mr Doodle 的多幅作品,例如他正式出道前所繪的早期作品《The Bucket》;以他早年的招牌黑白街頭風格並在其2016年個展上展出的《The Fastest Food》;在其2019年大型個展「Doodle Tokyo」上展出、使他聲名大噪的巨幅作品,以及他在2019年創作並在同年香港蘇富比舉辦的「Mr Doodle 逆襲蘇富比」展出的作品。這些作品橫跨 Mr Doodle 創作生涯裡的不同時期,每一幅都充分體現這位藝術家積極充沛的能量,以及詼諧幽默的風格,展現了他在藝術與荒誕邊沿的反覆試探與摸索。
Street art is in its nature a form of open rebellion, reflecting the instinct to challenge authority. While the art form has come a long way from its gritty beginnings, it is still inspired by the same spirit of provocation and social commentary. Frog King is a legendary conceptual and performance artist who emerged in Hong Kong from the late 1960s, known for his style of incorporating ink painting and calligraphy into multimedia installations and performances. Representing a later generation of street artist, LOUSY’s art have appeared in both galleries and alleyways all over Hong Kong, as well as in Taiwan and Seoul. LOUSY takes inspiration from the spontaneous energy of urban life, finding meaning in various cultural works such as punk rock, manga and even cave paintings.
街頭藝術的本質就是一種公然對抗,反映人挑戰權威的本能。這種藝術形式在街頭巷尾崛起,時至今日已發展成為主流文化,但仍然保留著挑釁、刺激觀者和評價社會的初衷。1960年代末,「蛙王」郭孟浩開始在香港為人所熟知。這位以概念及表演藝術聞名的傳奇人物,把水墨畫與書法融匯進多媒體裝置藝術及表演中,風格鮮明奪目,別開生面。LOUSY 則為新一代街頭藝術家的佼佼者,他的作品雅俗共賞,除了經常出現在香港的藝廊及大街小巷外,足跡更遠及台灣和首爾。LOUSY 從都市生活中吸取即興創作的能量,亦從各式各樣的文化作品中尋找意義,龐克搖滾、漫畫,甚至洞穴畫都是他的靈感來源。
We take look at how artists view our connection with nature, as well as our sense of materiality and ephemerality. Michael Kagan is well known for his paintings of astronauts and racecar drivers, depicting man’s approach the very extreme boundaries of nature. His works revisits mankind’s instinct to meet with danger, revealing our relationship to the landscape. Damien Hirst’s paintings of butterflies or skulls expresses his preoccupation with the dichotomy of life and death, immortality and extinction. Hirst has repeatedly turned to these motifs as a means of exploring the complex relationships between art and nature.
今次拍賣亦希望讓大家了解藝術家如何看待人類與自然的連繫,反思人類的物質存在性和易逝的本質。邁克爾・卡根以繪畫太空人及賽車手而為人所知,他的作品描繪了人類面對大自然極限的情境,訴說人類以身犯險的本能,揭示我們與自然環境之間的關係。達米恩・赫斯特的作品以蝴蝶及頭骨為題,闡釋生與死、永生與滅絕的二元關係。這位畫家對此主題深深著迷,多次藉此探討藝術與自然間千絲萬縷的複雜關係。
Many of the notable works in this auction are from ‘Bridging Generations’, a single-owner grouping of Southeast Asian contemporary art. From an important private art museum in Southeast Asia, its founder built a collection of historically significant modern and contemporary artworks and made them on view to the general public, offering visibility and access to art in places that would otherwise lack government support or infrastructure for art education.
這次拍賣有不少作品來自一個東南亞當代藝術私人珍藏。這位藏家集合了一些在藝術史上具意義的現當代藝術品,取名「跨世代」,並創立了一間私人美術館,向公眾展出其藝術珍藏。此舉為本來缺乏政府支助及藝術教育基建的地方,雙向地促進藝術發展,公眾可接觸藝術之餘,藝術家亦可向更多人展示作品。