Labeling this fourth edition—taking place from January 15th through 23rd—as “S.E.A. Focus 2.0,” Eu feels as if she’s back to square one due to the devastating impact of the pandemic. She welcomes Art Basel’s involvement for the first time, which she described as a “booster.” She continued, “Art Basel is coming in with its expertise in marketing, its global network, and its know-how on how to position us in the right way so that we are understood properly. Hopefully it will bring us a bit of the stability needed post-COVID-19.”
Noting a drop in participants in S.E.A. Focus 2022, she has observed that galleries are choosing to focus their programs locally or regionally after two years of COVID-19. “It’s going back to the guilds of the Renaissance,” she remarked. “I think galleries have had to recalibrate themselves and figure out what works best for them, so I understand if some don’t come back. But the fact that we still have 24 galleries out of 27 coming back tells me that they feel that S.E.A. Focus is something that they’re committed to.”
