From an artist-curator who runs experimental spaces in Seoul to a seasoned Turkish gallerist with outposts in Istanbul and Bodrum, a wave of new exhibitors will make their debut at Art Basel Hong Kong this year. Here, a cross-sector selection of outstanding newcomers.

A Lighthouse called Kanata, Tokyo

Having spent much of his life overseas, Japanese gallerist Wahei Aoyama developed a deep appreciation for his culture and heritage. True to its name, his Tokyo gallery is known for illuminating art practices from across Japan. In Hong Kong, the gallery will show a group of emerging Japanese artists who are straying from the trend of figurative painting. Instead, Takafumi Asakura, Kiyo Hasegawa, Ayane Mikagi, and Kentaro Sato will create a series of new abstract mineral pigment-based works for the fair. These striking works will be shown in the context of monumental pieces by leading Japanese postwar abstract painters such as Takeo Yamaguchi.

Althuis Hofland Fine Arts, Amsterdam

Located in the heart of Amsterdam’s historic center, this space is the brainchild of gallerists Ornis Althuis and Jeanine Hofland. Their multigenerational roster focuses on artists with strong painting practices, such as veteran Japanese painter Masao Nakahara, alongside younger voices such as London-based Plum Cloutman. The latter will show her dreamlike works made with layers of oil paint, watercolor pencil, and pastel. In these works, Cloutman transforms a garden into a speculative landscape – a strange postapocalyptic world in which she is a survivor. Hung sparsely in the gallery’s booth, her intimate postcard-sized paintings will conjure the experience of gazing through peepholes into this alternate reality.

Brownie Project, Shanghai

Nestled inside Shanghai’s M50 Creative Park – a textile factory turned arts hub along Suzhou Creek – Brownie Project is known for its dynamic roster of socially engaged artists. At the fair, Chinese artist Cao Shu will transform the gallery’s booth into an enclosed room padded entirely with black, spike-shaped sound-insulation foam. Evoking a surreal wartime interrogation chamber, the space will feature an AI-generated film, a book, and a series of sculptures that draw on spirit photography, image-making technologies, and the lingering trauma of the nuclear age.

Cylinder, Seoul

After studying sculpture in London, Korean artist Dooyong Ro returned to Seoul in 2020 and set up a temporary studio in the Gwanak-gu neighborhood. When fellow artist Wonwoo Lee asked if he could mount an experimental show in the space, Ro agreed, and soon found himself launching Cylinder One gallery. He now runs two spaces in the city, which offer an invaluable foothold for rising local talent such as Seoul-based artist Hyun Bhin Kwon. She will take over Cylinder’s booth with ‘<Antidromic Rave>’, a series of marble and travertine sculptures paired with a techno score built from the sounds of chiseling, striking, and sanding the stone.

Double Q Gallery, Hong Kong

When traveling in Hungary on holiday, Hong Kong collector Queenie Rosita Law found herself fascinated by the region’s untapped art scene. After visiting local artists’ studios, she was so inspired that she launched Q Contemporary, a nonprofit foundation in Budapest. She later opened Double Q Gallery in Hong Kong to showcase Central and Eastern European artists in Asia. At the fair, Polish artist Natalia Załuska will transform the gallery’s booth with an immersive installation made of black-and-white painted cardboard. Made by folding and peeling fragments of card, it will feel as if a flat drawing or collage has been transformed into a three-dimensional architectural environment.

Matthew Liu Fine Arts, Shanghai

Former banker Matthew Liu left a career in finance to open his eponymous gallery in Shanghai in 2014. Over the last decade, he has shown established international names, such as Candida Höfer and Vik Muniz, alongside emerging local artists including Qi Lei, Guo Guozhu, and Mao Guanshuai. At Art Basel Hong Kong, the gallery will spotlight two pioneering Chinese painters, Shen Chen and Huang Rui. On view will be seminal works from the 1980s, when both Chen and Rui began their early experiments in abstract ink painting.

Pilevneli, Bodrum and Istanbul

A fixture in Turkey’s contemporary art scene, veteran gallerist Murat Pilevneli’s sleek five-story gallery is located in the historic Dolapdere district in Istanbul. A mixed hanging will offer a glimpse of the gallery’s international cohort of artists, including Turkish artist Lal Batman, the Brussels-based duo :mentalKLINIK, and Berlin-based Nevin Aladağ. At the heart of the presentation will be a vibrant work by Turkish-American digital artist Refik Anadol. Drawing from his Large Nature Model, Anadol’s immersive, abstract work was created using an AI model trained on a dataset of millions of images from nature.

Uffner & Liu, New York

Originally founded by Rachel Uffner on New York’s Lower East Side in 2008, the gallery rebranded last year when Uffner partnered with Chinese-born, Canadian-raised director Lucy Liu (not to be confused with the actress) to expand its international reach. Their Hong Kong debut explores representations of the body through the works of nine artists. Highlights include sculptural wall reliefs by Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi, which draw inspiration from Persian miniatures and Western Surrealism. Fragmenting the female form and enclosing it in unusual architectural spaces, Khosravi interrogates notions of womanhood and agency in Iran.