Art Basel Hong Kong 2025: Wild Lines
Located at Booth 1B33, Ora-Ora’s exciting and varied presentation highlights Colombian master painter and sculptor Fernando Botero, whose famously rounded forms, joyous carnivalesque paintings, and sheer zest for life made him an unstoppable international force. The artist drew inspiration from the sun-soaked imagery, traditions and fiestas of his native Colombia, and his unique style of boterismo is celebrated worldwide. The presentation builds on Ora-Ora’s highly acclaimed 2022 Botero solo show, “Living with Botero”, now at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 exhibiting the first major show in Asia of the maestro Botero since his death in 2023.
A key exhibition highlight, a beautiful large-scale portrait of a dazzling woman titled ‘The Saint’ (2014), exemplifies Botero’s fascination with the female form. The artwork is simultaneously an elevation of the human form and a gentle satire, at the meeting point of the earthly and the divine. The painting depicts a voluptuous woman in an elegant yellow dress, red gloves and halo above her hat, a prime example of boterismo in vivid hues and generous dimensions, which is sure to attract great interest from collectors and visitors.
Botero’s son, Fernando Botero Zea, said: “Asia and Hong Kong had a special place in my father’s heart, and it is with great happiness and emotion that I see his work taking centre stage with Ora-Ora at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2025.”
Henrietta Tsui-Leung said: “Fernando Botero was a man of formidable artistic stature, a proud Colombian and citizen of the world, and an ambassador of joy and hope. His legacy is one of celebration and passion, and he lives on among his legions of collectors and enthusiasts worldwide. His ethos of partnership and coming together perfectly complement the optimistic buzz of Super March in Hong Kong.”
The presentation will also include artists from Hong Kong and Mainland China, Colombia, Europe and the United States, spanning digital art, sculpture and painting, namely Halley Cheng, Henry Chu, Peng Jian, William Lim, Juri Markkula, Stephen Thorpe and Huang Yulong. Artworks of note include the never-seen-before installation ‘F(ear) and G(reed)’ (2025) by Hong Kong-based Henry Chu, who was most recently exhibited at the gallery’s “Digital Rhythm” new media art show in January 2025. In ‘F(ear) and G(reed)’, the cryptocurrency market is transformed into generative cello music, in which Chu collaborated with composer Lewis Chung to create music inspired by recent Bitcoin price charts. The music begins and ends with the notes F and G, symbolizing the two polarizing human emotions of fear and greed. Sweden-based Juri Markkula, whose vivid, textured creations are perennially popular, will return with new works which continue to amplify the cadence and colour of the natural world through industrial and chemical interventions.
