Hong Kong is getting an art fair around technology, new media art, NFT Crypto Art & immersive art experiences

In the first quarter of this year, digital art claimed more than one-third of total global online sales of art and in celebration of it; the Digital Art Fair Asia (DAFA) will shine a spotlight onto many from October 3 - 22 in Hong Kong. Showcasing over 200 digital and NFT artworks physically, the art fair will bring digital art from online to the real physical world. This would be the first-ever physical art fair in Hong Kong that focuses on the immersive art experience, new media art and NFT Crypto Art. Art lovers are expected to see artwork by over 40 international and local acclaimed state-of-the-art artists both in physical and virtual format.

“I was getting bored of looking at (traditional) paintings,” said Gillian Au Howard, Co-Founder and Director of the art fair to the China Daily. “Inspired by experiences like TeamLab, I thought, ‘why don’t we do this in Hong Kong?”

The two-week-long exhibition is separated into five zones: Immersive, Prestige, Pioneer, New Media and Virtual Reality.

The Immersive zone features artworks by Turkish-American pioneer of 3D immersive art artist Refik Anadol and Toronto-based artist Krista Kim. Refik Anadol is known for taking the data that flows around us as the primary material and the neural network of a computerized mind as a collaborator, offering the audience a 360° immersive digital experience. His work presented this time is Machine Hallucinations — Space : Metaverse NFT Collection, a site-specific AI data sculpture with live audio and visual performances which took the artist five years just for the research part.

Krista Kim is the other artist displaying in the Immersive zone. The Toronto-based artist created Mars House, the world’s first digital NFT home. Krista’s artwork is currently going on a global tour named Continuum, a digital art exhibition projected on a 100 foot LED wall of healing light and sound by Jeff Schroeder from the American alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins and aims to unite people and promote well-being.

Other highlights can be found in the Prestige zone, there is contemporary urban artist Tsang Tsou Choi (King of Kowloon) who is widely considered to be the pioneer of Hong Kong’s graffiti scene. Over at the Pioneer zone you'll find Sean Foley, SurrealHK (Tommy Fung), Szabotage, photographer Derry Ainsworth who captures the futuristic aesthetic & juxtapositions of Asia’s vertical cities and more. Don’t miss Victor Wong in the New Media zone, the creator of the world’s first artificial intelligence ink artist A.I. Gemini. Lastly, the Virtual Reality Art Experience zone is a DSL collection VR art museum established in 2005 by Paris-based collectors Sylvian and Dominique Lévy.

The Digital Art Fair Asia runs from now until October 22 at 59-65 Queens Road Central in Hong Kong. You can find out more here.