Mark Bradford has possibly never been busier. After a critically acclaimed Venice Biennale presentation this summer and his largest site-specific work to date, unveiled at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC last month, the Los Angeles artist is creating a new body of work for the opening of Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong in March.
Bradford seems to be winning over collectors in Asia, as well as in the US. At Art Basel in Miami Beach earlier this month, the gallery quickly reported the sale of a monumental 2017 triptych by the artist, priced at $5m.
The gallery’s president Iwan Wirth says there has been “enormous appetite” for Bradford’s work both institutionally and from private collectors in Asia, which “has been steadily building since his exhibition at Rockbund Art Museum in 2015”. He adds: “Venice created an entirely new and huge wave of interest for one of the most relevant artists of our time, not only from mainland China and Hong Kong but also wider Asia, including Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan.”
The new cutting-edge gallery will occupy the 15th and 16th floors of the building designed by William Lim of CL3, joining galleries including David Zwirner, Pace and Pearl Lam. Art world architect-du-jour Annabelle Selldorf, who has overseen the renovation of six Hauser & Wirth galleries in Zurich, London, New York, Los Angeles and Somerset, has designed the new 10,000 sq. ft space.
