Art Basel Hong Kong is vast. Featuring 240 galleries (including 23 new galleries) from 42 countries and territories, this major art fair is a colossal event in the global art world calendar. Attending such a huge event is always a bit overwhelming – faced with so much art, it’s easy to reach one’s saturation point before you’ve seen a fraction of what’s on display. And while there’s no end of blue-chip big names on show, it can be harder to seek out the lesser-known artists. This year, the Discoveries section of the fair has been curated to spotlight solo projects by emerging artists. And, below, we’ve put together a selection of five up-and-coming artists for your radar. 

ZHU TIAN

China-born, London-based multidisciplinary artist Zhu Tian explores “collective desires, power dynamics, and societal norms” by interrogating the cultural, political or bodily structures that govern us. A Long Defeat – conceived specifically for Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 – brings together performance, installation, video, text and sound to address the intellectual and cultural crises of our time. 

“I’m absorbed by the tension between individual agency and the structures that govern us—whether cultural, political, or bodily. My work often begins with personal experience but expands to explore collective desires, power dynamics, and societal norms. I’m fascinated by moments of rupture—when expectations are frustrated, when order gives way to chaos, when the familiar becomes unsettling. I see these moments as opportunities for transformation, where we can question the systems we exist within.

“A Long Defeat is a project conceived specifically for Art Basel Hong Kong 2025, bringing together performance, installation, video, text, and sound to address the intellectual and cultural crises of our time. At its core, the project is a performance that reimagines the myth of Narcissus in a contemporary context – not as a simple tale of vanity but as a meditation on identity dissolution. The modern narcissism crisis isn’t just about self-obsession – it’s a structural condition shaped by neoliberalism and digital culture. In A Long Defeat, I explore how selfhood today is trapped in a cycle of self-surveillance, performance, and validation, where true introspection is replaced by endless self-curation… where Narcissus is no longer admiring oneself but is trapped in an endless cycle of self-reinforcement, making true self-knowledge impossible.”

Zhu Tian’s A Long Defeat will be on display at the Mocube booth in the Discoveries section at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. 

ERNIE WANG

Taiwanese ceramist Ernie Wang, now based in Berlin, explores aspiration and ideal and how this manifests itself in our ritualistic everyday practices. His installation at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong conflates a church-like space with a gym environment, replete with ceramic weights

“I find the peculiar spaces of gym and the idea of religions having idealistic similarities to the spaces I have been looking at throughout my practice. These fenced-up locations are designed to have a single purpose – the gym being transformation of the body and religion, a transformation of the mind. I was fascinated by gym-goers’ process of transformation and their desires and determination to elevate themselves into another identity. Staring at themselves in the mirrors, with each lift, each repetition, they edge closer to the fantasy or vanity they aspire to. The mirror reinforces both admiration and doubt, as one constantly measures the gap between the reality and the desired one and reflects on the longing to escape to the ideal identity. 

“This tension is carried throughout the entire workout – from the rhythmic solitude of cardio to the raw intensity of weightlifting and, finally, into the shower room where bodies are fully displayed, and where the cruising happens.  Throughout my practice, I have been looking at such ideas, the opening between something one possesses and one longs for and the environments that hold them. In theme parks, ‘where dreams come true’; in video games, where the formidable wizard character can perform teleportation. I try to answer questions that occur between this duality.”

Ernie Wang’s installation will be on display at the Linseed booth in the Discoveries section at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong. 

CLAUDIA KOGACHI

Painter and textile artist Claudia Kogachi, based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, creates striking, colourful vignettes of everyday life with a touch of the fantastical. Deploying a bold colour palette, Kogachi explores family, nature, community and much more.

“The Waders is a mixture of painting and tufted textile pieces, mounted in sculptural walnut frames featuring hand-carved and painted maple wood stars on the corners. The frames are a collaboration with my partner Josephine, a furniture maker and woodworker. Most of the works are subtle self-portraits, set in watery, dream-like natural or pastoral landscapes through the seasons, populated by koi fish, horses, swans, insects and plant life.

“I usually make work about my everyday life, focusing on relationships. Most often there is an element of self-portraiture in my work – it usually depends on how I'm feeling at the time. I enjoy depicting stories of self-reflection, growth and discovery within oneself and within others. Love and friendship; connection and longing. Moments of joy and peace, queer life, loss and yearning, creativity and expression. A central theme of The Waders is cycles of growth, rebirth and restarting, hence the focus on nature and the seasons. In one of the paintings, for instance, I encounter my future self – we're both swimming in a silvery pool and accompanied by luna moths, symbols of new beginnings and transformation.”

Claudia Kogachi’s The Waders will be on display at the Phillida Reid booth in the Discoveries section at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong.

MICHELE CHU

Exploring intimacy and ritual, Hong Kong-based artist Michele Chu uses a range of materials and elements to investigate ‘ how the body manifests and adapts in situations of public tension or private introspection’. In her exhibition at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong, visitors are invited to interact with the artworks in its “kitchen-like ambience” offering “a space for connection and contemplation”.

“I would say I explore themes of intimacy, somatic memory and grief. [This exhibition] is a homage to the kitchen as a place for communal grieving, exploring how grief intersects with gastronomy. It serves as a communal sanctuary to foster dialogues on the taboo topic of death and life’s fleeting nature. 

“My work explores proximity and distance by examining how physical space shapes social interactions. In my practice, I challenge these norms through participatory works, where I invite participants to engage in exercises that foster connection and closeness. In a place like Hong Kong, where personal space is carefully maintained, touch – especially between strangers – carries heightened significance. My street interventions disrupt the monotony of daily life, creating moments of unexpected connection. I think of these as a form of ‘urban acupuncture’ – small, targeted gestures that nudge people to engage with one another and exercise their ‘intimacy muscles.’”

Michele Chu’s artworks will be on display at the Property Holdings Development Group booth in the Discoveries section at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong.

NICOLE COSON

Multimedia artist Nicole Coson explores “memory, transience and time”, bringing to her work elements of anonymity and intimacy undercut by a sense of the uncanny. Her exhibition at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong (which riffs off her current solo exhibition, Membranes, at Silverlens in Manila) is formed of “hyperrealistic replicas of styrofoam mesh packaging that protects the skin of fruit to keep them fresh and blemish-free on their journeys across the world”. Created using a 3D printer, the work recalls the produce she ate as a child in the Philippines and traces “the trajectories of these goods across time and space”. 

“All my works, in one way or another, are facsimiles of objects which I invite the viewer to take a closer look at with me. I create imprints and casts of things I believe can reveal themselves and their significance more clearly upon closer inspection. I often take ideas from things we encounter day to day. By reframing what is familiar, we see it again as if at first glance, allowing the subjects to oscillate in and out of recognition. I hope to instil a meditative quality in my work, encouraging the viewer to take a prolonged gaze at the glimpses of our everyday lives and contemplate the layers of history and meaning embedded in things. I am obsessed with tracing the histories and trajectories of food, language and culture across the world and finding links in unexpected places.”

Nicole Coson’s artworks will be on display at the Silverlens booth in the Galleries sector at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong.

Art Basel Hong Kong takes place 28-30 March, 2025.