From November 14 to 16, 2025, the Horizon International Art Fair (HIAF 2025) officially opened at the MGM Shanghai West Bund Hotel. As a major highlight of Shanghai’s annual art season, HIAF appeared alongside ART021 and West Bund Art & Design, bringing a cross-cultural, multimedia, and interdisciplinary contemporary art platform to the public during the city’s most vibrant art month. Located on the 51st and 52nd floors of the MGM Shanghai West Bund Hotel (688 Yunjin Road), the fair utilizes the hotel’s private rooms, elevated city views, and flexible spatial layouts to create an immersive viewing experience that bridges everyday life and professional exhibition formats.

As the organizer, Art Horizon positions HIAF 2025 as a “platform where creativity and inspiration transcend borders and artistic categories.” In a globalized context, the fair emphasizes the visibility and discursive agency of Asian art within the international landscape. By inviting galleries, artists, and curatorial teams from China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, Russia, France, and beyond, HIAF cultivates an art ecology that balances regional diversity with conceptual depth.

The fair presents painting, sculpture, installation, works on paper, moving image, light-based experiments, and cross-media projects—showcasing the latest structural, formal, and conceptual trends in contemporary Asian art. At the same time, HIAF places particular emphasis on emerging voices, supporting young institutions, independent platforms, and interdisciplinary creators as a key part of its curatorial vision, bringing developing artistic languages to international audiences, professionals, and collectors.

The gallery lineup at this year’s HIAF spans two floors, forming a diverse international constellation: from WAS Gallery, AG Gallery, and K.M. ART LAB—each deeply rooted in the Korean art ecosystem—to Crazy Lab, known for its cross-media toy aesthetics; from EBI ART, which focuses on visual texture and subtle narrative, to New York–based Asian Art Contemporary, dedicated to contemporary Asian art discourse; and to LUMINATORS, which explores the structures of light and shadow. Together, they embody the fair’s most representative spirit of international vision and experimental energy.

These galleries not only present their own artistic directions but also form the spiritual core of HIAF 2025: a cross-cultural framework for dialogue, the dynamism of emerging artists, innovations in material language, and contemporary visual narratives unfolding within the unique setting of a hotel space.

WAS Gallery

WAS Gallery presents a contemporary perspective that bridges modernity and experimentation across the Asian and international art markets. Founded in Shanghai and deeply engaged with Korean art, the gallery promotes East Asian contemporary art through exhibitions and cross-cultural collaborations. This presentation brings together works by three artists: Kwon Hyuk’s large-scale acrylic paintings evoke symbolic visual force; Ju Tae Seok uses rhythmic color blocks to reflect inner landscapes; and Lee Don Ah employs lenticular prints to weave historical textures with optical imagery. The works collectively construct an integrated portrait of contemporary Korean art from a cross-cultural perspective.

EBI ART

EBI ART, founded in New York and guided by the belief that “everyone is an artist,” showcases restrained yet tactile contemporary aesthetics rooted in nuanced material practices and cross-cultural creativity. Artists such as Masaki Kanamori, Yuki Matsueda, and Mika Shimauchi explore rhythm, perception, and the energy of form through diverse media. Masaki Kanamori’s Wavelength_Resonance 5!_068 series conveys the pulse of light and shape; Yuki Matsueda’s Emergency Exit 400—Shanghai Edition I blends LED, acrylic, and wood into a sculptural urban symbol. Together, the works generate a unified visual rhythm grounded in materiality, tonal subtlety, and contemporary observation.

AG Gallery

Operated by the Ahngook Foundation, AG Gallery serves as a nonprofit platform supporting young Korean artists through open calls, interdisciplinary collaborations, and arts education. This presentation forms a layered visual matrix: Lee Ju Yeon constructs psychological spaces with abstract lines and color fields; Kim Ki Tae blends ink painting with allegorical structures to develop new modes of narrative. The artworks engage emotion, spatial metaphor, and cultural signification, offering an open, diversified, and critically engaged portrait of emerging Korean contemporary art.

Crazy Lab

Crazy Lab—founded by Malaysian artist James Lee (Jimsee)—bridges toy culture and contemporary art through humorous, playful, and pop-inspired visual languages. Featuring coffee as a medium, everyday symbols, and stylized characters, the works express the moods and rhythms of daily life. This cross-disciplinary approach merges design, aesthetics, and art experience, transforming the booth into an accessible and instantly engaging space for audiences.

K.M. ART LAB

Founded by sculptor Kim Gyoung Min, K.M. ART LAB focuses on material experimentation and sculptural methodology. The booth features works by Kim Gyoung Min, Kwon Chi Gyu, Park Chan Girl, Kim Byung Jin, and Lee Sung Ok, who explore metal, resin, and composite materials across various structural vocabularies. Kim Gyoung Min’s fluid, glossy forms extend bodily sensibilities; Park Chan Girl constructs tension through weighty masses and sharp cuts; Kim Byung Jin and Lee Sung Ok express spatial energy through geometric assemblages. Together, the works form a forward-looking sculptural landscape grounded in research, experimentation, and material intelligence.

LUMINATORS

LUMINATORS, a Shanghai-based creative studio, approaches art through light, energy, and material interaction. The presentation features Jessica Fu, Blaise Schwartz, and Wu Ding. Schwartz’s Europe, Snail, Bat depicts symbolic scenes through oil on wood, merging tranquility with cross-cultural imagination. Other works incorporate refracted light, reflective surfaces, and geometric forms to create immersive sensory environments.

Asian Art Contemporary

Asian Art Contemporary, based in New York, highlights international perspectives on emerging Asian art. Through exhibitions, interviews, and curatorial collaborations, the platform advances global dialogue on Asian contemporary practices. The booth features three artists: Apollo Wang, who uses cardstock and markers to examine order in the everyday; Jingyi Wang, who paints emotional projections of nature within urban life; and ZiPu, who reinterprets “raw image” logics through oil on panel. Their works intersect in material, composition, and theme, offering a sharp contemporary lens on visual culture.

HIAF 2025 is not merely an experiment in hotel-based art fairs—it aims to become a bridge for cultural connection across Asia. Set against the global visibility of the Shanghai art season, the fair provides a new international stage for artists and institutions from Korea, China, and throughout Asia, demonstrating how art can open new possibilities within contemporary life.

With the participation of diverse galleries, institutions, and artists, HIAF is shaping a distinct cultural identity—one that stands at the intersection of art, life, and cross-cultural exchange, creating a truly open and dynamic horizon.

Written by: Jianing Lu, Asian Art Contemporary
Images courtesy of Art Horizon