Talentspotter shines a spotlight on emerging Asian artists and appears in every edition of The Asia Pivot, Artnet Pro’s biweekly members-only newsletter, which provides mission-critical analysis, insights, and exclusive intelligence on developments in Asia’s art markets, with a focus on business opportunities and challenges. Subscribe here to receive it directly to your inbox. The profiles below ran in previous editions of the newsletter.
Asian painters, particularly those from the ultra-contemporary generation (born after 1974), are arguably the most intriguing group of artists working today, with many developing practices that blend elements of Eastern and Western art history. Tradition and contemporaneity, as well as fantasy and contemplation, meet on canvas or paper, and the results can be at once whimsical and poetic. Below are five key figures to watch.
Zhang Zipiao
Zhang Zipiao, Mushroom Cloud 02 (2021). Courtesy of Christie’s.
Who: Zhang Zipiao (b. 1993, Beijing, China)
Based in: Beijing
Galleries: Lévy Gorvy Dayan and White Space
Auction record: Mushroom Cloud 02 (2021), sold for CNY 1.26 million ($172,333, including fees) at Christie’s 10th Shanghai Auction Anniversary: 20th/21st Century Art Evening Sale, September 2023.
Why we care: Zhang Zipiao’s paintings reveal either direct or subtle erotic imagery. Her unapologetic authenticity infused with the body, emotion, and feelings in her work has amassed a massive global collector base, particularly millennials. This past summer, Zhang had her debut show at LGDR’s 89th Street space, “Swallow Whole”, where she continues to paint with intertwined lines and twisted forms, further expanding her exploration of the human body and organic matter. In addition to her previously invoked metaphors of beauty, desire, and pleasure, the new works also expose the dark side of prosperity, blurring the line between balance and chaos, aggression and confinement.
Yukimasa Ida
Cinderella, 2017, Oil on canvas. Copyright IDA Studio Inc. Courtesy of Mariane Ibrahi
Who: Yukimasa Ida (b. 1990, Tottori, Japan)
Based in: Tokyo, Japan
Galleries: Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and Villepin Gallery
Auction record: Picasso (2019), oil on canvas. Sold for 55 million Yen ($408,764) at SBI Art Auction on March 11, 2023.
Why we care: This millennial painter’s art may not be everyone’s cup of tea but he’s certainly a name to watch, especially in the context of the art market. Billed as the message-bearer of the Japanese traditional philosophy of “ichi-go ichi-e” (translates to “once in a lifetime”), which originated in the history of the tea ceremony, Ida’s art practice is deeply entwined with the landscapes of his hometown of Tottoria. He works between abstraction and realism as a painter, focused primarily on portraiture. Ida trains himself to paint quickly and sometimes reinvents conventional painting techniques. He was included in Jay Chou and Sotheby’s collaborative sale in 2021, where he set an artist record at the time. Five works by Ida were sold at an SBI sale on October 27 and 28.
Fan Yang-Tsung
Fan Yang-Tsung, Swimming Pool Series—Sunny Season (2014). Courtesy of Christie’s.
Who: Fan Yang-Tsung (b. 1982, Taiwan)
Based in: Hsinchu, Taiwan
Galleries: Aki Gallery, Taipei
Why we care: It may have been a lackluster year for art auctions in Asia, but that certainly didn’t dampen the results for Fan Yang-Tsung. The mid-career Taiwanese artist known for his paintings of swimming pools has widely exhibited for more than a decade. But 2023 has been the first fruitful year for Fan’s works at auctions. Recently Swimming Pool Series—Sunny Season (2014), which hammered at nearly four times the presale low estimate and sold for HK$478,800 ($61,405) after fees at November’s Christie’s Post-Millennium Evening Sale in Hong Kong, became the artist’s second most expensive work sold at auction. His exploration of human lives and urban spaces through his whimsical depiction of swimming pools and swimmers has earned him a solid following locally. However, the artist has told us that those who want fresh work from him will have to be patient.
Up next/Ongoing: A solo exhibition with Aki Gallery in Taipei in 2024
Gongkan
Gongkan, Black Hole, Acrylic on canvas, 70 × 100 cm, 2021
Who: Gongkan (b. 1989, Bangkok, Thailand)
Based in: Bangkok
Gallery: Tang Contemporary Art
Why we care: Thai artist Kantapon Metheekul, also known as Gongkan, is fascinated by black holes, viewing them as portals to an ideal world and seeking solace in this concept. In his surreal canvases, cartoon characters, rendered in flat brushstrokes, calmly traverse through these cosmic realms. The artist says that he aims to create an alternative reality, offering different perspectives on the present or the past, a process he describes as “Teleport art.”
A native of Bangkok, Gongkan graduated from Silpakorn University in the Thai capital, and then spent three years in New York, where he established his signature style and gained attention in the street art scene. His work was in high demand at the just-concluded Art Basel Hong Kong, and Apple CEO Tim Cook is among his ever-expanding list of collectors.
In 2022, one of Gongkan’s paintings went for HK$420,000 (US$53,751) at Holly’s International (HK) Auctions, setting the artist’s auction record, according to Artnet Price Database. Along with staging exhibitions around the globe, the artist reaches enthusiasts through Gongkan Artistry, which produces limited-edition collectibles.
Hyunsun Jeon
Hyunsun Jeon, Two, Lying Down, Exposed Roots (13), 2023, watercolor on canvas, 150 x 100 cm. Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul. Image © the artist
Who: Hyunsun Jeon (b. 1989, Seoul, South Korea)
Based in: Seoul, South Korea
Galleries: Esther Schipper (Berlin, Paris and Seoul), Gallery 2 (Seoul and Jeju), and Galerie Lelong (Paris).
Why we care: Hyunsun Jeon’s paintings evoke a sense of storytelling and emotional ambiance, often beginning with personal experiences. The artist prefers to paint the trivial and ambiguous rather than the obvious, blending abstraction and representation. Her signature enigmatic shapes depict compounded emotions and situations, creating a narrative depth. Jeon has invented her own pictorial language with superimposed and overlapping geometric shapes, often using a traditional Korean chromatic palette dominated by greens, blacks, and blues. She has developed an expansive vocabulary of proportion, balancing symbolic geometry and suggestive landscapes, often inspired by early videogame pixelation. In her more recent work, Jeon has adopted watercolor, building images slowly with small brushstrokes. This technique allows layers and objects to blend while maintaining a flat surface, creating distinct textures.
Jeon received her BFA and MFA in painting from Ewha Womans University (in 2014 and 2018, respectively), and has exhibited with major Korean institutions and biennales. She recently appeared in the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale at the Seoul Museum of Art (2023) and in group shows at the Suwon Ipark Museum of Art (2022) and the Leeum Museum of Art (2022). She received the 20th Song Eun Art Award in 2020 and made her secondary market debut at the 21st-century day sale at Christie’s Hong Kong in May, where her watercolor on canvas Memory of Shapes fetched 75,600 HKD with premium ($9,675), 26 percent higher than its high estimate.
Up next: Hyunsun Jeon will have a solo exhibition with Esther Schipper in Berlin in September.
Yu Nishimura
Yu Nishimura, Canary, 2023. Oil on canvas, 72.7 × 91 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Crèvecœur, Paris. Photo: Mark Blower
Who: Yu Nishimura (b. 1982, Kanagawa, Japan)
Based in: Kanagawa, Japan
Gallery: Crèvecœur
Why we care: At Art Basel Hong Kong in March, Japanese artist Yu Nishimura’s work at the booth of Paris’s Galerie Crèvecœur drew a substantial waitlist. It is easy to see why. Nishimura’s paintings capture nature with airy brushstrokes that evoke traditional literati ink painting, and his portraits have a photographic feel. A “portrait,” in Nishimura’s conception, can depict more than just a person: animals in action, cars speeding by, or even landscapes. The interplay between painting and photography is a central, dynamic theme in his work, and his paintings often mimic the effects of a camera capturing an image. His compositions, characterized by overlapping and misaligned elements, create fluid visuals with a blurry focal point, like an afterimage.
Nishimura studied at Tama Art University in Tokyo and lives in his birthplace, Kanagawa. His works have been collected by various institutions, including the Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art in Wales, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan. He recently entered the secondary market when his artwork man (2021) sold for JPY 1.675 million (about $11,300), at SBI Art Auction, according to the Artnet Price Database.