Regarded as “Asia’s most vibrant contemporary art fair,” Art Central celebrates its eleventh year with a grand opening today at the Central Harbourfront event space, maintaining its fearless spirit. Upon entering the venue, visitors will discover that this is not merely an exhibition, but a contemporary art carnival — featuring dazzling installations, immersive interactive works that challenge the senses, and fresh pieces that collectors eagerly compete for. This year, over 100 leading galleries from around the world have gathered, making Hong Kong a shining hub in the global art scene this spring. ZTYLEZ presents an exhibition guide to help you navigate the fair like an art insider!
1. Hau Ka Ki 《Folded 0.01》 (2026)
Location: P1
The Central Art commissioned Hong Kong new media artist Hau Ka Ki to create the large installation 《Folded 0.01》 for the 2026 fair. The work continues her exploration of digital bodies in emotional, perceptual, and technological realms, translating the compulsion for self-regulation into real-time computational image sculptures. Utilizing motion capture and recursive feedback systems, she translates mental symptoms into measurable rhythms of repetition and dissociation, combining “recursive” logic with “folding” imagery. This aesthetic structure reconstructs bodily agency, transforming the inner “invader” into generative movements and visual vocabularies that embody psychological experiences of battling bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The piece presents a low-polygon body that constantly folds and rebuilds, physicalizing dissociative defense mechanisms. Its replay is not merely cyclical, but generates differences through continuous shifts and changes, opening new generative possibilities. Viewers are invited to take a seat and quietly experience the emotions that have been folded within the work.
2. SIDE CORE
《A Temporary State: Tokyo》, 《A Temporary State: Tokyo (Walking Spray)》 (2026)
Location: C10 | Wamono Art
In 2026, Central Stage makes its debut, focusing on artists recently participating in major international exhibitions, biennials, and large curatorial projects. Among the selected artists is the Tokyo-based collective SIDE CORE, established in 2012, comprising members Sakae Takasu, Tohru Matsushita, Toshi Nishi, and video director Ryohei Hamamoto. The collective focuses on public installations and spatial interventions, exploring the flow of information in urban and community contexts, drawing from street culture’s history and aesthetics. Their works have been exhibited at Hirosaki Contemporary Art Museum and Yokohama Triennale, and served as a theme for a large exhibition at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. They present two large paintings dominated by yellow, evoking a sense of urban caution.
3. OrangeTerry
《Faith Readymade》 (2026)
Location: P2 | Square Street Gallery
Hong Kong artist and industrial designer OrangeTerry focuses on post-industrial design, ready-made objects, and surplus materials, often transforming everyday furniture into sculptural installations. Her new work《Faith Readymade》is based on a bench gifted by a friend, creating a large piece that straddles the line between function and sculpture. It deliberately dissolves its original ritualistic function to convert it into a space for introspection. By fostering a sense of “uselessness,” the work opens a reflective field, inviting viewers to reconsider the social and emotional implications behind objects. Amid uncertain times, it encourages people to contemplate faith, values, and life direction.
4. Elnaz Javani
《The Fate》 (2024–)
Location: P3 | RARARES Gallery
《The Fate》is an ongoing series of installations currently featuring twelve pieces in variable sizes (only six are displayed this time). Artist Elnaz Javani uses second-hand men’s coats as material, hand-sewing Persian and Azerbaijani calligraphy into the fabric. One piece includes the Persian word for “Lucky.” Through processes of cutting, reassembling, collaging, and embellishing, the work retains a delicate craftsmanship while showcasing the marks of wear and tear over time. By transforming old garments, Javani evokes memories and emotions tied to diaspora, exile, and migration, weaving personal life experiences into a broader collective history.
5. Wong Yuk Ming
《Sunken Echoes》
Location: P6 | Yiwei Gallery
Artist Wong Yuk Ming constructs a mountain-shaped structure from black raw leather, combining translucent shells, floating organic vessels, and sediment traces to create a dynamic space woven from gravitational and repulsive forces. Inspired by the Eastern concept of “shih” (势), the work transforms the traction and tendency generated by forms into a perceivable “force field,” guiding viewers’ movements and perceptions within the space. In an accelerated and ever-changing context, “shih” becomes a method of perception that allows individuals to self-regulate their positions, adjust their viewpoints, and contemplate their directions forward.
6. CHUNKOOK LEE, MATHIAS MASARATI, TATIANA CHURSINA, USTINA YAKOVLEVA
Location: A18 | RARARES Gallery
The Dubai-based RARARES Gallery presents a group exhibition entitled “Body Is The Foreign Place,” co-curated by Marina Baisel and Art Curatorial Nomads, featuring five artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. The exhibition explores the concept of the body as the inner other and a fluid space. Works utilizing embroidery, sculpture, and painting examine immigrant experiences, technological development, and shifting identities within a context of globalization. The body is viewed as a vessel of memory and history, continuously transforming between belonging and drifting, reflecting the unstable state of contemporary individuals amidst intersecting cultures.
7. Moe Nakamura
Location: A19 | Gallery Tsubaki
Moe Nakamura, a prominent contemporary Japanese sculptor born in 1988 in Tokyo, is renowned for her unique and soothing wooden sculptures, hailed as a rising star in the Asian art scene. Her works are highly sought after in art auctions and the collectibles market. Notable series include “Alone in the Dark,” “Blue Cozy,” “Mt. Fuji,” and the popular character “Antlers Growing Out,” preserving the raw and unrefined wooden textures that showcase a warm quality. Her sculptures often depict innocent children or mysterious creatures, frequently incorporating elements such as stars, clouds, and trees, emanating a unique purity and “healing” quality.
8. Jive Lau, Michal Škapa
Location: B20 | The Chemistry Gallery
This segment showcases the works of Czech graffiti artist Michal Škapa and Hong Kong neon artist Jive Lau. Michal Škapa, rooted in street graffiti, is now active in gallery systems, blending type, abstraction, and data-driven aesthetics, traversing the space between street art and contemporary art. In recent years, his style has shifted to emphasize overlaid lines, rhythm, glitch aesthetics, and light effects, creating a more emotionally charged yet less identifiable signature.
9. Irene Febry & Ni Luh Pangestu
Location: A14h | Puri Art Gallery
Puri Art Gallery presents the exhibition “Rising Currents,” part of an international promotion project for Indonesian art, featuring the works of Irene Febry and Ni Luh Pangestu. The exhibition focuses on ecological, psychological, and socio-political issues, exploring contemporary transitions. Irene Febry constructs imaginary landscapes through collage, reflecting upon land and memory. In her series titled “From Forest to Field,” she combines paper scraps and organic materials to create intricate terrains that reflect how land is continually occupied, transformed, and memorialized. The forest gives way to fields, which evolve into residential areas, accumulating traces of migration, past histories, and life experiences over time. Ni Luh Pangestu critiques power and truth manipulation through printmaking, examining social and political structures with a sharp and critical perspective. Her imagery, often filled with fragmented bodies and proliferating mouths, reveals the psychological burdens borne from misinformation and its normalization within society, creating far-reaching impacts.
10. Lee Jisun
Location: D29 | Hidden M Gallery
Hidden M Gallery brings works from two Korean artists, including Lee Jisun, whose style combines cross-media narratives with delicate captures of sensory memory. Her artistic core revolves around “time, memory, forgetting, and home,” drawing inspiration from childhood memories and natural experiences. Through diverse forms such as painting, video, and installation, she presents a unique artistic context. By reflecting on the innocent world within the subconscious, she constructs an inner landscape reminiscent of a night forest. In the imagery of star collectors, night islands, and forest cabins, it seems as though a secret ritual unfurls on the canvas, interweaving memory, imagination, and present self. Using acrylic and oil pastels, she portrays soft and poetic scenes, reflecting a gaze on time, growth, and self-dialogue.
