HONG KONG—18 March 2025—Phillips is pleased to present highlights from the upcoming New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design auction on 29 March in Hong Kong. The sale will include over 120 lots, from blue-chip names to those debuting on the secondary market for the very first time, appealing to both new and seasoned collectors alike. Highlights include works by renowned artists such as Ayako Rokkaku, Issy Wood, George Condo, and Mel Bochner, alongside auction newcomers who are shortlisted for The 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, the 21st edition of Asia’s most coveted contemporary art award. Also on offer is a selection of exceptional examples of 20th Century and Contemporary Design works, and Phillips is delighted to collaborate with Hong Kong’s home décor brand LALA CURIO to showcase a curated selection of design items and art pieces at the pre-sale exhibition in Phillips’ Asia Headquarters in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

Kimberley Wong, Associate Specialist, Modern & Contemporary Art, said, “We are excited to present our New Now Spring sale in Hong Kong, coinciding with the city’s highly anticipated Art Week. This season’s offering showcases the depth and diversity of the market, from cutting-edge creations by emerging artists and compelling works by renowned Contemporary names to the very best of 20th and 21st Century design. The auction embodies the innovative spirit of New Now and underscores our commitment to providing young artists with opportunities for recognition. We are particularly honoured to be the auction partner of The 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, featuring works by outstanding talents across Asia. We look forward to welcoming visitors to explore the auction highlights and see the exhibition firsthand when Phillips' West Kowloon galleries open on 21 March.”

Leading Highlights

Celebrated for her groundbreaking technique of applying paint directly with her hands, Ayako Rokkaku’s Untitled (illustrated page 1), presented in this season’s sale, is another prime example of her meticulous finger-painted works with lush composition. The work embodies key aspects of her artistic vision through depiction of colourful, dreamlike scene. The three figures seem to be floating with lightness among a vibrant shrub of flowers, the colours all blending together in the most harmonic way. Monumental in scale, this mature composition exists as the artist’s first triptych to appear at auction.

Issy Wood

Professional Help on Rye, 2020

oil on linen, 182.5 x 240 cm.

Estimate: HK$800,000 - 1,200,000/ US$103,000 - 154,000

Professional Help on Rye rhymes with British artist and musician Issy Wood’s recent effort to distil food as a symbol and problem of desire from her routine activities. The motif of food signifies a dangerous fetishist impulse and speaks to a more intimate experience within our biological mechanics. By deliberately cropping out the protagonist's face and surrounding her with symbolic artifacts, Wood prompts viewers to contemplate themes of consumerism, satisfaction, and the psychological implications of daily rituals.

Executed early in the artist’s career in 1983, Untitled demonstrates George Condo’s signature ability in creating controlled chaos. The composition features a series of musical instruments which seem to materialise and dissolve into the surrounding space, evoking a sense of rhythmicality that almost mirrors the temporal quality of music. An exquisite example of the artist’s neo-Modernist era, Untitled is a highly abstract and dynamic composition that draws the viewer into a highly imaginative world.

George Condo

Untitled, circa 1983

oil on canvas, 134.9 x 119.7 cm.

Estimate: HK$550,000 - 700,000/ US$70,500 - 89,700

Mel Bochner

Oh Well, 2012

oil on velvet, 159.7 x 119.4 cm.

Estimate: HK$400,000 - 600,000/ US$51,300 - 76,900

Jansson Stegner

Cedar Lake, 2020

oil on linen, 91.8 x 61 cm.

Estimate: HK$350,000 - 500,000/ US$44,900 - 70,500

Oh Well (2012) by Mel Bochner exemplifies the late artist’s enduring fascination with language and words as both a medium and a conceptual focus. The work features a cascade of colloquial phrases in a soft palette against a misty grey background. Besides Bochner’s usual canvas works, his unique application of velvet as a medium in this particular work creates a distinctive visual depth, whereby the letters appear to reveal and conceal through a process of masking and resistance.

With an emphasis on gender, California-based artist Jansson Stegner imagines particularly female images, which explore the inversion of conventional fixation throughout human visual experiences. Cedar Lake, presented in this season’s sale, carries a palpable allusion to the convention of eroticism by staging a bikini girl as the primary subject, a ubiquitous sexual icon in commercial posters. His handling of paint is infused with a consumerist sensibility, characterised by its comically sweet visuality that emphasises a sense of juiciness and luster.

The 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize

Phillips is honoured to be the auction partner for The 2025 Sovereign Asian Art Prize, featuring works from 30 shortlisted outstanding talents across Asia in the sale. Funds raised through artwork sales will benefit The Sovereign Art Foundation’s Make It Better programme, supporting disadvantaged children in Hong Kong. The shortlist includes a diverse mix of works by artists from across 14 countries and territories in Asia, including Be Takerng Pattanopas (Thailand), Dawn Ng (Singapore), Miyeon Yi (South Korea), Wong Sze Wai (Hong Kong), Zheng Mengqiang (China), and more. The public is encouraged to visit the pre-sale exhibition at Phillips’ Asia headquarters in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District from 21-29 March and place a vote, in person or online, for their favourite shortlisted artist.

Among the highlights is Volcano Blossoms by Dawn Ng, a multi-disciplinary visual artist from Singapore who has worked across a breadth of mediums, motifs, and scales. Another standout is Praween Piangchoompu’s Beyond Remembrance, which uses a meticulous process of tearing and layering cotton paper hundreds of times onto the surface of a painting on canvas, creating a complex and textured narrative. Well known for his paper-cut-inspired paintings, Justin Lee’s creations reflect a fine sense of contemporary design flavoured with an essence of Singapore traditions.

Dawn Ng

Volcano Blossoms, 2024

acrylic, dye, and ink on wood, 123 x 123 cm.

Estimate: HK$100,000 - 150,000 / US$12,800 - 19,200

Praween Piangchoompu
Beyond Remembrance, 2025

Collage with cotton, paper and acrylic on canvas, 83 x 123 cm.

Estimate: HK$50,000 - 70,000/ US$6,400 - 9,000

Justin Lee

The Yellow Line, 2023/2024

acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm.

Estimate: HK$50,000 - 70,000/ US$6,400 - 9,000

Design

The sale also features a selection of 20th Century and Contemporary works by designers whose iconic styles have shaped the global design landscape and continue to captivate collectors. Amongst them is the circa 1952 ‘Mexique’ cabinet by French designer Charlotte Perriand, one of the most pioneering designers and architects of the 20th century, who designed this piece specifically for the Maison du Mexique student accommodation at the Cité Universitaire, Paris. The cabinet features its striking red, yellow, white, grey and black shelving system, exemplifying the combination of art and industry. Another standout is Wendell Castle's remarkable Unique dining table and six chairs, commissioned directly from the studio in 2012; it epitomises the American artist’s groundbreaking blend of sculptural artistry and functional design, pushing the boundaries of furniture-making with organic forms and exquisite craftsmanship.

Charlotte Perriand

"Mexique" cabinet, circa 1953

pine, stained wood, enamelled steel and aluminium, 161.5 x 184.7 x 32 cm.
Estimate: HK$800,000 - 1,200,000/ US$103,000 - 154,000

Wendell Castle

Unique dining table and six chairs, 2012

ebonised oak, gilded wood, patinated brass,

table 75 x 247 x 94.5 cm, each chair 80 x 47 x 50 cm.

Estimate: HK$ 150,000 - 200,000/ US$19,200 - 25,600

LALA CURIO's Ginkgo collection to be displayed at the New Now pre-sale exhibition

This season, Phillips is partnering with LALA CURIO, a Hong Kong-based couture wallpaper and decorative arts brand celebrating ancient artisanship with whimsical flair, to curate a dedicated space for the New Now pre-sale exhibition. The area features a curated selection of design items and art pieces from the sale, complemented by LALA CURIO’s intricately hand-embroidered wallpaper of Ginkgo design on velvet and sisal. Artisans of generations of savoir-faire have spent over 1000 hours on this collaboration. Together they tell a captivating story of art and design seamlessly woven into our surroundings.

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New Now: Modern & Contemporary Art and Design

Auction: 29 March 2025, 1pm HKT

Location: G/F, WKCDA Tower, West Kowloon Cultural District, No. 8 Austin Road West, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Auction Viewing: 21 - 29 March, 11am – 7pm HKT

Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auction/HK010325

ABOUT PHILLIPS

Phillips: where the world’s curious and bold connect with the art, design and luxury that inspires them. As a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st century works, Phillips offers dedicated expertise in the areas of Modern and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry. Auctions and exhibitions are primarily held in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, with representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips offers a regular selection of live and online auctions, along with items available for immediate purchase. Phillips also offers a range of services and advice on all aspects of collecting, including private sales and assistance with appraisals, valuations, and financial planning. Visit phillips.com for further information.

ABOUT The Sovereign Asian Art Prize

The Sovereign Asian Art Prize was launched in 2004 by The Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF) to increase the international exposure of artists in the region, whilst raising funds for programmes that support disadvantaged children using expressive arts. Held annually, The Prize is now recognised as the most established and prestigious annual art award in Asia-Pacific.

The Prize invites contemporary artists, nominated by a board of independent art professionals, to each enter up to three artworks online. A judging panel comprised of world-class art experts shortlist the 30 best artworks from a range of digital images. The shortlisted artworks are then exhibited in Hong Kong, where they are judged for a second time and voted on by the public. The Grand Prize Winner receives US$30,000, while the winner of the Public Vote Prize receives US$1,000. The Vogue Hong Kong Women’s Art Prize, launched in 2019 in partnership with Vogue Hong Kong, awards the highest-scoring female artist with US$5,000. The shortlisted artworks are sold, and proceeds are split evenly between the artists and SAF. Artists receive the same split as they would through a gallery and the artworks often fetch higher prices thanks to generous bidding from charity patrons.  

The Prize acts as a springboard, enabling many artists to achieve record prices and wider audiences for their work. Notable successes include Adrian Wong, Debbie Han, Haris Purnomo, Jeongmee Yoon, Qi Zhi Long, Rashid Rana and Yang Yongliang, amongst others.

PRESS CONTACTS:            

Ingrid Hsu, Head of PR and Corporate Communications, Asia ingridhsu@phillips.com +852 2318 2043

Jiayi Zhang, Public Relations Coordinator       jiayizhang@phillips.com   +852 2318 2080

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(Press Release)