gdm is thrilled to announce upcoming solo presentation Price / Value / Taotie by Kongkee for the gallery's Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 Encounters sector.
With PRICE / VALUE / TAOTIE, Kongkee stages the collision of art, money, and desire. Extending the mythic continuum of Dragon’s Delusion, he reanimates Taotie in neon—greed refracted through Hong Kong’s capitalist skyline—by way of two neon works: PRICE OR VALUE and TAOTIE.
In PRICE OR VALUE, upon acquisition, the collector must choose between “Price” or “Value.” The artist then smashes the other, leaving its fractured remnants as the work itself. This act is refusal: a refusal to let price dictate meaning, and a reminder that value—cultural, human, symbolic—endures beyond the marketplace.
Beyond the transaction price, what is the true power of art? Can we touch upon the dilemmas humanity has faced for millennia and continue to make our voices heard amidst the cracks of capital? Kongkee cordially invites the audience to contemplate the intriguing question of contemporary art’s dance between “artwork” and “commodity” at the moment the neon tubes shatter.
This work was originally commissioned by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco in 2022.
(1) Kongkee, Taotie, Wrightwood 659, 2022 (installation view). Courtesy the artist and Wrightwood 659.
(2) Kongkee, Taotie, 2022, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (installation view). Image courtesy the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
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gdm | Highlights of Art Basel Hong Kong 2026
