Alain Passard, Aya Takano, and Emmanuel Perrotin. (Photo: Guillaume Ziccarelli)
Emmanuel Perrotin held a dinner for the Japanese pop artist Aya Takano at the Hong Kong Jockey Club in Happy Valley. Artists Takashi Murakami, Zhang Xiaogang, and Yoshitomo Nara were on hand to celebrate her solo exhibition at the fair and the publication of a book on her work. Nara had made it to Hong Kong the night before, having traveled from his home in the Japanese countryside to Tokyo before reaching Hong Kong. “I usually don’t go to art fairs, but I had to install,” he said between bites of a monkfish exquisitely prepared by chef Alain Passard of Parisian restaurant L’Arpège. Art Basel co-directors Marc Spiegler and Annette Schönholzer had flown in a mere four hours earlier, and their joint presence seemed another sign that ARTHK had arrived. Like many, Spiegler had hit the ground running. “I went to the hotel, took a shower, and came straight here,” he remarked.
