A Lovely Art Basel VIP Lunchtime Excursion

I had the extreme pleasure of going to Art Basel with my friend during lunch this past Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed all the exhibits and people watching, and even had the pleasure of meeting a gallery owner and speaking about some of the art he was exhibiting.

Some exhibits were exquisite, some banal, some downright weird or scary, but all of it wonderful. It was so exciting to see the Hong Kong convention center hopping with so many art galleries, from the most famous to the independent and boutique, and to get such a concentrated dose of culture injected in the middle of my day.  

My eyeballs felt like they have had an entire year's worth of color, texture and composition imprinted on them in the span of an hour and a half.  Similarly, in the past couple of weeks it has felt like Hong Kong has reawakened from the slumber and turmoil of the past 4 years with a vengeance. 

Here are some of my favorites. Turns out staring at art is so deeply good for my soul. 

After all that contemplation and highbrow culture I went to base hall for a late lunch and scarfed down my first guabao (deep fried prawn cake) from the Taiwanese food stand and nearly moaned aloud at how finger licking good it was. Their mayonnaise - what is in it?? 

This wasn't in the same day but to tie in to the art theme, I stumbled upon the global debut of Awol Erizku's Gravity, a 10-meter Tutankhamun-inspired installation, in the lobby of Pacific Place 2 the other day.  It was stunning!  Trust me when I say it was huge.