Mickalene Thomas, Left Behind, 2021, inkjet print in colours and pigment printed silk with collage. Hong Kong Editions.
Editions aren’t always just ink on paper. There’s much excitement today about how advances in printing and fabrication technology enable cutting-edge contemporary artists to create editions that go far beyond simple etchings, lithographs, and silkscreens. The works we’ve gathered here from our Hong Kong Editions Auction on 28 March could never have been made decades ago. They epitomize the ideas and techniques at the forefront of our current cultural moment. As we celebrate the 10th year anniversary of Phillips in Asia, we are thrilled to support contemporary trends.
Mickalene Thomas (American, born 1971) is world famous for challenging traditional narratives of beauty, gender, race, and identity. In the present work, she references nineteenth-century painting and popular culture to create an unexpected, complex, and dynamic composition. Endless invention runs through all her paintings, collages, photographs, videos, and immersive installations. The publisher of this edition, Phaidon, helped Thomas translate her vision into a collaged format in a way that is dynamic and physically engaging.
Julie Curtiss, La Femme Secrète (The Secret Woman), 2020, walnut and ash multiple, contained in the original wooden box with printed image. Hong Kong Editions.
Julie Curtiss (French, born 1982) brings Surrealism into the postmodern world, creating a body of work in painting, collage, and editions that beautifully updates pop culture female archetypes. “In my image, “she has said, “I enjoy the complementarity of humour and darkness, the uncanny and the mundane and grotesque shapes.” She is celebrated for figurative portraiture. Here, here in this edition, she brings her style into three dimensions in gorgeously grained walnut and ash. The marvelous surprise is the secret compartment — both practical and resoundingly intimate.
Jeff Koons, Balloon Monkey (Blue), 2017, porcelain multiple painted in chrome. Hong Kong Editions.
Jeff Koons (American, born 1955) is one of the most celebrated of all artists to emerge in New York in the 1980s. His coyly mischievous and iconic works are instantly recognizable. In this edition, he plays with the idea of a balloon, twisted and tied into the form of a monkey. He originally conceived it as a monumental sculpture. This smaller version is cast in porcelain and coated in seductive chrome — a compelling and miraculous execution.
Yayoi Kusama, The Me that I Adore (Grand set), 2013, the complete set of 20 fine-bone china tea-ware. Hong Kong Editions.
Yayoi Kusama (Japanese, born 1929) is the world’s best-selling woman artist — and among the most beloved of all in many countries around the world. This exquisite tea set evokes her obsessive, ever-expanding universe of love. An unusual work for the artist, it was executed in bone china by the Nikko Company for the Mori Arts Center Museum Shop, Mori Building Co., Ltd., to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Roppongi Hills and the Mori Art Museum. It is among Kusama’s most delicate and delicious artworks. Use it for an experience of otherworldly pleasure drinking tea with friends — and savor it day to day as a precious reminder of the wonderful fragility of life and love.
Kohei Nawa, Particle-Trans-Deer (MB), 2020, nylon, stainless steel and glass multiple. Hong Kong Editions.
Kohei Nawa (Japanese, born 1975) famously renders wild animals in manifestly synthetic materials to explore the relationship between the natural and artificial worlds. The stag is among his favorite subjects. The sophistication of his next-generation approach comes to life in this elegant edition through texture mapping, digital lens manipulations, and 3D printing — in perfect realization of the artist's futuristic vision.
El Anatsui, Striped Flags, 2023, inkjet pigment print in colors with hand-cut and -sculpted aluminum collage and copper wire. Hong Kong Editions.
Working much of his life in Nigeria, El Anatsui (born in Ghana in 1944) has commanded international attention for his stunning wall sculptures that transform everyday materials into profound artistic statements that bridge the tactile and the conceptual and explore themes of identity, history, and the fluidity of cultural narratives. In this edition, he characteristically employs a meticulous process of hand-sculpting to create a dynamic collage that combines archival printing techniques in the upper part with hand-cut and hand-sculpted aluminum collage and copper wire to achieve an arresting, textured, and tactile quality.
KAWS, Bronze Figures, 2022, the complete set of 12 bronze figures. Hong Kong Editions.
Famous for his cartoon images, KAWS (American, born 1974) began developing his cast of characters in the early 1990s. Some are reworkings of familiar cultural icons. Others are entirely from his own imagination. All are fun and meant to be universally understood. Here, in this edition, is an ensemble of twenty. KAWS is influenced by such artists as Gerhard Richter, Claes Oldenburg, and Chuck Close, but is more often associated with Andy Warhol for being a crossover between commercial and fine art. The artist has made headlines with his monumental public sculptures. This complete set of bronzes are the size of action figures. The more intimate scale invites you to have an active relationship with them, picking them up to feel their weight and play with them.
Damien Hirst, Mickey (Blue Glitter), 2016, screenprint in colours with glitter. Hong Kong Editions.
For Damien Hirst (English, born 1965), the magic of Mickey Mouse lies in his timelessness. The artist's own children watch and enjoy the cartoons, just as he did as a boy. “Mickey Mouse represents happiness and the joy of being a kid,” he once said, “And I have reduced his shape down to the basic elements of a few simple spots… It is still instantly recognisable – Mickey is such a universal and powerful icon.”
Arising out of the Young British Artists (YBAs) in the UK in the 1990s, Hirst initially sky-rocketed to fame with his shark, sheep, and cow sculptures and such series as his more abstract, Neo-Pop Spot Paintings. He remains today among the most celebrated artists of his generation. The present Mickey (Blue Glitter) screenprint reimagines Disney’s iconic character through the visual language of the Spot Paintings, distilling Mickey Mouse into his signature style of bold, flat circles. He plays with the tension here between abstraction and recognition to demonstrate how the power of Minimalism can evoke nostalgia, playfulness, and celebration. The shimmering glitter enhances the work’s relationship to spectacle and desire, which are qualities central to both Disney’s brand and Hirst’s broader practice.
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