In this issue

Even before we had completed this year’s Almanac, it occurred to us that closure was impossible. As our 2018 Almanac reveals, the world is an unfinished symphony of shifting layers, a fantasia of patterns. For more than a decade, ArtAsiaPacific has published an annual compendium. This 13th edition of the Almanac would not be possible without the generosity of our associate sponsor, the Sharjah Art Foundation, and other supporters including Burger Collection, Mapletree, SAHA Association and the Frank F. Yang Art and Education Foundation. In Reflections, we invited six influential figures to comment on the year. Yayoi Kusama revels in 12 months of retrospectives of her work. Patrick Sun, founder of the Sunpride Foundation, pens a moving analysis on queer representation. Independent curator Natasha Ginwala meditates on her involvement in projects such as Contour Biennale 8 and Documenta 14. Australian art patron Simon Mordant weighs up the artworks he has seen in Sydney, New York, Münster, Kassel and Venice. Sultan Sooud al-Qassemi, founder of Barjeel Art Foundation in the UAE, commends the increased interest in art from West Asia. Aaron Seeto, director of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, removes his hard hat after the opening of Jakarta’s first private art institution. In Five Plus One, AAP’s editors selected five artists and collectives who have made significant contributions in 2017, along with one set for a transformative year ahead. These include Karachi-born, London-based minimalist Rasheed Araeen; the 400-member Japanese new-media group teamLab; New Zealand’s video and film artist Lisa Reihana; Beijing conceptualist Song Dong; Indonesian endurance performance artist Melati Suryodarmo; and the Philippines’ emerging video artist Martha Atienza. We also highlight significant museum and gallery exhibitions, and review anthologies and monographs released in 2017. In our News section, we document the year’s controversies and censorship.

ArtAsiaPacific Magazine Description:

For 20 years, ArtAsiaPacific Magazine has been at the forefront of the powerful creative forces that shape contemporary art from Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East. Covering the latest in contemporary visual culture, ArtAsiaPacific is published 6 times a year in Hong Kong, with editorial desks in 25 countries around the world. Our special annual issue, the ArtAsiaPacific Almanac, published in January, covers the major art events of the past year and forecasts the key trends of the year to come.
The dominant artistic influence in the world today - and for many years to come emanates from the vast territory that lies between Turkey and the Pacific island of Tonga that we call the Asia-Pacific. This territory includes India, China, Japan, Australia, Thailand, Pakistan, New Zealand, Korea and Indonesia, whose combined populations make up an amazing half of the world's total population. Also included are Burma, Cambodia, Kiribati and Uzbekistan - places hitherto overlooked, but which like their gigantic neighbors, are producing cutting-edge art of stunning and unexpected quality.
ArtAsiaPacific is authoritative, accurate, even-handed, exact and essential. Included in each issue is an up-to-date directory of the major galleries, not-for-profit organizations and museums with a focus on contemporary art from our geographical footprint. ArtAsiaPacific offers thoughtful reportage, analysis, comment and criticism to its readers made up of collectors, gallerists, curators, artists and those who want and who need to know the latest developments in the fastest-growing and most astonishing region of the contemporary art world.