HUGO BOSS ASIA ART is launched in the context of China and inaugurated from the Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai. We would like to devote the inaugural 2013 HUGO BOSS ASIA ART to emerging Chinese artists originated from mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Rockbund Art Museum will constitute, for each edition, an independent jury composed of independent curators, museum directors, art critics and artists who have been fully involved in and contributed to the evolution of contemporary arts in Asia and internationally. Finalists who are selected from nominations will present their representative works at the Rockbund Art Museum with the winner being announced during the exhibition.

The finalists of the HUGO BOSS ASIA ART are:
- Birdhead, Shanghai
- Hsu Chiawei, Taichung
- Hu Xiangqian, Beijing
- Kwan Sheungchi, Hong Kong
- Lee Kit, Hong Kong
- Li Liao, Shenzhen
- Li Wei, Beijing

To further explore the intellectual and social potential of this award and exhibition, a full educational and research program has been conceived to reflect upon the current challenges of contemporary art in Asia. It will be organized during the exhibitions and will also extend in-between two editions to activate future topics and contexts. Running from July through to the end of the 2013, the series of programs will include dialogues with curators and artists, talks with critics and researchers, and symposium with other experts including the jury members and award finalists. The future editions of HUGO BOSS ASIA ART will orient on other areas and other contexts, each edition adding one to another in order to constantly move the lines according to the transformations and topics in Asia.

As Mr. Larys Frogier articulated, “HUGO BOSS ASIA ART chooses to promote art as a fundamental critical space for debating the future of contemporary art in both local and international scopes. We argue that art is above all a practice for disensusrather than consensus, on the basis of which cultural exchanges and learning process can be forged: creating space for discussion, stimulating thought, and imagining symbols, allegories and all the other intrinsic metaphors of cultural creativity and social dynamism.”

*image (left)
Kendall - Curity, 2012
Acrylic, emulsion paint and inkjet ink on acid-free board, readymade objects
variable dimensions
© Lee Kit

Courtesy of Hugo Boss Asia Art, Rockbund Art Museum