The tills are ringing, the air is buzzing and the halls are filled with beaming clients, artists and gallery owners here at Art Hong Kong.  In just its third year of operation, Art HK has clearly positioned itself at the top end of the art fair market and collectors are feeling comfortable and confident about purchasing artworks from artists and galleries from across the globe.  In the words of one Australian gallery director "I am selling to INTERNATIONAL clientele".

Adelaide-born, Melbourne-based artist Sam Leach has become only the third artist to win both the Archibald and Wynne Prizes in the same year.  The previous artists to achieve this feat were Sir William Dobell in 1948 and Brett Whiteley (who also won the Sulman) in 1978.  Leach's diminutive oil and resin on wood portrait of comedian-singer Tim Minchin won the $50,000 Archibald Prize, while his Proposal for landscape cosmos took out the $25,000 Wynne.

"100% Increase in Sales" is the headline in the local press reporting on Art Dubai.  However, this economic buzz is not as strong as the cultural buzz that is vibrating through the exhibition halls.  The place is swarming with artists, curators and educators from around the world.  The energy is not around who is buying the artwork but who is reacting to it and how.

Mixed reports are coming out of New York as the Armory Show and its 11 satellite fairs get under way this weekend.  Several heavy-weight galleries, such as Gagosian and Barbara Gladstone, have declined to attend for a second year running.  But this has given smaller galleries the opportunity to make the move into the main arena.  Apparently many significant American and European collectors and glitterati have been sighted but gallery owners are mixed in their reports of sales performance to date.