Art Basel: AI focus
- Art Basel Hong Kong used its March 2026 fair to give digital art a bigger stage, launching Zero 10 in Asia and adding AI, robotics, projection, and code-based works to the show floor. - Zero 10 brought 14 exhibitors to Hong Kong, while the wider fair drew 240 galleries from 41 countries and territories and more than 90,000 attendees across its March run. - The push comes as Hongkongers are also making more short cultural trips to Shenzhen, where the 51,000-square-metre Shenzhen Bay Culture Square opened in November. (artbasel.com) (scmp.com)
Art Basel Hong Kong’s 2026 edition gave digital art a larger place in the fair, with the Asia debut of Zero 10 in March. (artbasel.com 1) (artbasel.com 2) Zero 10 is Art Basel’s platform for art made with code, algorithms, robotics, light, sound, and other digital tools. Art Basel says the sector debuted in Hong Kong after first launching at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2025. (artbasel.com 1) (artbasel.com 2) The Hong Kong edition brought together 14 exhibitors, including Botto DAO, bitforms gallery, Art Blocks, Asprey Studio, and ARTXCODE. The fair overall ran March 27 to 29 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, with preview days on March 25 and 26. (artbasel.com 1) (artbasel.com 2) Art Basel said the 2026 fair included 240 galleries from 41 countries and territories, with more than half operating spaces in Asia Pacific. Design Observer reported the event drew more than 90,000 attendees. (artbasel.com) (designobserver.com) The works on view showed different ways artists are using machine systems rather than one single “AI art” style. Design Observer highlighted Tim Yip’s 4.5-metre installation “Lili,” Emi Kusano’s “Ornament Survival,” and Sougwen Chung’s live painting with a robotic system trained on Chung’s gesture data. (designobserver.com) Zero 10 also spilled beyond the fair hall. Art Basel and the Hong Kong Tourism Board commissioned DeeKay Kwon’s “DeePle The People,” which was projected onto the Hong Kong Club Building each evening from March 24 to 29. (artbasel.com) The timing matters because Hong Kong’s art market is competing inside a wider regional culture circuit, not just inside convention centers. South China Morning Post reported on April 24 that Hongkongers are increasingly taking short “quick escape” trips to Shenzhen for new museums, design venues, cafes, and exhibitions. (scmp.com) At the center of that pull is Shenzhen Bay Culture Square in Nanshan district, a government-backed project that officially opened on November 1, 2025. The complex covers 51,000 square metres, cost 3.7 billion yuan, and has nine exhibition halls, according to South China Morning Post. (scmp.com) South China Morning Post said the square sits about a 20-minute walk from the Shenzhen Bay border checkpoint, making it easy for Hong Kong residents to treat as a day trip. In the first four days of the 2026 Easter break, Hongkongers made 2.12 million outbound passenger trips, up 14.3% from a year earlier. (scmp.com) That leaves Hong Kong’s flagship fair doing two jobs at once: selling art to global collectors and defending the city’s place as a cultural destination. In 2026, Art Basel’s answer was to put newer digital formats, public projections, talks, film, and citywide programming closer to the center of the fair. (artbasel.com) (artbasel.com) The result is not that fairs and museums have merged, but that the competition for attention now runs across the border and across formats. Art Basel Hong Kong put AI and digital work on the floor in March; Shenzhen is building the kind of cultural infrastructure that gives people a reason to come back the next weekend. (designobserver.com) (scmp.com)
