This substantial publication presents the shortlisted artists for the HUGO BOSS ASIA ART Award for Emerging Asian Artists 2015, and the accompanying exhibition at the Rockbund Art Museum. The art prize aims to put into practice and to question intra-Asia art connections, gaps, and combinations that build very active art scenes from specific contexts to ongoing extensions. In their work, the six finalists—Guan Xiao, Huang Po-Chih, Moe Satt, Maria Taniguchi, Vandy Rattana, and Yang Xinguang—reflect, build, and imagine new art scenes in such different contexts as Cambodia, Mainland China, Myanmar, Philippine, and Taiwan. A jury comprised of thirteen curators, artists, critics, and historians, chaired by Rockbund Art Museum director Larys Frogier, nominated the finalists and selected Maria Taniguchi as the winner.

Introductory texts by Larys Frogier and Li Qi, senior curator at the Rockbund Art Museum, present the finalists’ work in their respective cultural, social, and geopolitical contexts, as well as the various questions raised by representations of identity in the region. The works of each artist are extensively illustrated and accompanied by an essay by renowned international curators and scholars—Nav Haq on Guan Xiao, Gong Jow-Jiun on Huang Po-Chih, Tang Fu Kuen on Moe Satt, Joselina Cruz on Maria Taniguchi, Pamela Nguyen Corey on Vandy Rattana, and Bao Dong on Yang Xinguang.