March is the time when this Eastern pearl called Hong Kong shines so brightly in contemporary art. Art museums, auctions houses, and art galleries are showcasing their best shows to fill up the city’s hectic art agenda throughout the month. As the art crowds flock to Hong Kong, LARRY’S LIST is featuring some of the art collectors who are the forces behind, if not at the forefront of, the vibrant art scene. Three of them share more deeply about their excitement for the local art scene, their recent art purchases, as well as the art shows not to miss in Hong Kong right now.
William and Lavina Lim
@williamlimcl3
Architect William Lim and interior designer Lavina Lim started collecting contemporary art in 2005 from mostly Hong Kong contemporary artists. In 2021, they donated 90 pieces from their art collection, the Living Collection as they call it, to M+ —the latest contemporary art and design museum in Hong Kong. Their collection as whole, assembled over almost two decades, documents the unique trajectory of Hong Kong art in the twenty-first century. Also an artist himself, William has just launched his solo exhibition this at H Queen’s in Central, Hong Kong.
(Read previous interview: Raising Awareness: Hong Kong The Art Harbour)
Alan Lau
@alan999
The former investment banker-turned-consultant in his late forties is actively involved in the art scene through multiple art-related committees: the vice-chair of Hong Kong’s M+ museum board, as well as the co-chair of the Guggenheim’s Asian Art Circle and Tate’s Asia Pacific acquisition committee. His particular interest in the space where art, creativity, and technology intersect has led him to add NFT-based art to his constantly growing art collection.
Kevin Poon
@kpee
A serial entrepreneur, DJ, fashion designer, and founder of WOAW (World Of Amazing Wonders) art gallery, Kevin Poon is an avid collector of art, sneakers, and watches. In particular, he admires artists Drew Englander, Greg Ito, Sayre Gomez, Jonas Wood, and KAWS, among others. As a key cultural influencer and trendsetter, his colorful Instagram with 130,000 followers features his art encounters to late-night DJ sets in Hong Kong.
Kevin has shared his excitement about the Hong Kong art scene with LARRY’S LIST:
What current exhibition do you recommend seeing in Hong Kong?
I would definitely recommend our current show “Escape to B-Roll” at WOAW Gallery Central, Stacy Leigh’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. The exhibition explores the artist’s fantasy of “selling her apartment and moving to a house somewhere with no neighbors.” We redesigned the space in an immersive way for the visitors to feel the world in Stacy’s paintings.
Our friends from LA Sow & Tailer also present an exciting show “Horizon” at our WOAW Gallery Wan Chai space during the art week. It is a group exhibition connecting forty-six artists across multiple backgrounds.
A few more exhibitions that I enjoyed in town would be “Gerhard Richter: Abstrakte Bilder” at Art Intelligence Global and “Rashid Johnson: Nudiustertian” at Hauser & Wirth. Both are the artists’ first solo exhibitions in Hong Kong.
What are you most excited about in the Hong Kong art scene in 2023?
With the world opening up again, I am incredibly excited about a renewed global engagement with the Hong Kong art scene in 2023. In this Hong Kong Arts Month in March, we can expect to see that our international friends, art enthusiasts and artists are all gathering in the city again after three years. We can feel the vibrant energy and cultural engagement with the city, connecting us with the globe physically.
On top of that, I believe there will be a lot of international collaborations around the city throughout the year. I especially look forward to working with K11 MUSEA again in September, which will bring some of our favorite international artists to Hong Kong.
I believe that the city’s art community has the potential to captivate and inspire people from all over the world, and I am thrilled to be a part of it.
Alan Chan
@alanchan127
Having worked in the creative industry for over five decades, the Hong Kong-born design and branding tastemaker Alan Chan is not only a designer and an artist, but also a collector. Never been to university and never trained as a designer, Chan retains the zeal and rigorousness of an autodidact. Some of the artists in his collection include Alexander Calder, Henry Moore, Marc Quinn, Ju Ming, and Sanyu.
Adrian Cheng
@adriancheng
Adrian Cheng began assembling his collection of some of the best contemporary art from around the world in 2010. He launched Hong Kong’s K11 brand, pushing the art scene to new heights through opening K11 Art Foundation exhibition spaces in Hong Kong and Shanghai and staging more than 60 exhibitions across China’s major cities with some of the world’s leading contemporary artists. In 2016, he joined the board of the New York–based Public Art Fund, and in November 2018, he joined the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
Patrick Sun
@patsun430
Patrick is a member of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Circle, Tate’s Asia-Pacific Acquisitions Committee, the M+ Council for New Art, and more recently joined Asia Art Archive’s Collectors Circle. As an art collector, Patrick has built an art collection that focuses on gay Asian art. In 2014, he founded the Sunpride Foundation to raise awareness and earn respect for the LGBTQ community through art.
Here is brief chat between LARRY’S LIST and Patrick:
There are many new things going around: the full recovery of travel, the rebound of Asian art market performance, and art fairs growing bigger in Hong Kong and other Asian cities. Do those happenings bring new ideas to your collection?
Sunpride’s collection is built around and guided by the exhibitions that we do. Since each edition is tailored to the place the exhibition is held, travelling is an important part of the planning process. Now that international travel has resumed, we’ll be able to go out to explore possibilities again. I cannot put my finger on what new ideas will come up yet, but I can assure you that these travels – with people we meet along the way, and exhibitions we see – will be a source of inspiration for our collection.
What is a key artwork you purchased recently?
I acquired Salman Toor’s “Downtown Boys” recently. The painting was part of a charity project initiated by the Public Art Fund in the US back at the height of the pandemic as a way to help people process the challenges we all faced. I love the painting, and I find its purpose incredibly moving and meaningful.
What exhibition do you recommend seeing in Hong Kong right now? What do you think about the recent art scene in HK?
“Myth Makers–Spectrosynthesis III” is an exhibition co-presented by Tai Kwun and Sunpride Foundation focusing on LGBTQ art. It opened last Christmas and it’s on till 10 April. I encourage everyone to go and see this exhibition at Tai Kwun.
About the recent art scene in Hong Kong, it really is thriving. In terms of changes, I feel there has been more emphasis on local artists recently, which is very good. Perhaps it has something to do with the pandemic making it that much more difficult to do exhibitions with artists who weren’t based in Hong Kong.
(Read previous interview: He Made the First LGBTQ-Themed Museum Exhibition in Asia)
Alan Lo
@alanyeungkit
Alan Lo, a restauranteur, food tech investor in Hong Kong, is an enthusiastic supporter of art, as well as a board member of Para Site, an independent, non-profit art space in Hong Kong, and a member of Art Basel’s Global Patrons Council, Tate Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee, Princeton University Art Museum Advisory Council, as well as the Design Trust (as former chairman). Chris Huen, Guan Xiao, and Ho Fan are few of the names in the art collection of Alan and his wife Yenn Wong, restaurateur and CEO of JIA Group. They have together launched the Yenn and Alan Lo Foundation, which is sponsoring the new SAM S.E.A. Focus Art Fund for acquisitions of Southeast Asian art for the Singapore Art Museum.
Queenie Rosita Law
@queenierositalaw
Having grown up in Hong Kong and been educated at Central Saint Martins in London, Queenie Rosita Law fell in love with Central and Eastern European art around seven years ago. Since then, this passion has led her to establish Q Contemporary, a non-profit private art museum in Budapest. Last year, she also launched Double Q Gallery in Sheung Wan district in Hong Kong to champion lesser-known talents while introducing the local community to international figures who lack exposure in Asia.
Queenie has responded to LARRY’S LIST’s questions as follows:
This year’s edition of Art Basel Hong Kong finally embraces rejuvenation since 2019 with 22 new galleries making their debut in HK. Which are your most anticipated domestic and international booths?
I love the Encounters sector!
Domestic: Trevor Yeung
International: Stanislava Pinchuk
What are your latest purchases?
Szabolcs Bozó painting (Carl Kostyál) and David Horváth painting (Ciaccia Levi).
What current exhibitions do you recommend seeing in Hong Kong?
Sorry, but I have to mention the exhibition at my gallery (Double Q Gallery) because it’s a very meaningful exhibition, and the artists created such powerful works! The exhibition, “Resilience: Voices of Ukraine,” is dedicated to two leading artists from Ukraine displaced by the war, Artem Volokitin and Maria Kulikovska.
“Myth Makers – Spectrosynthesis III” at Tai Kwun Contemporary, a diverse range of artistic idioms related to LGBTQ+ perspectives from over 60 artists from Asia.
And “Signals” at Para site.
Evan Chow
@e.v.a.n.c.h.o.w
Evan is a member of the board of trustees of the New Museum of Contemporary Art and a founding patron of M+ Museum in Hong Kong. With a background in investment banking and an art-filled seaside house in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, Evan Chow has assembled a collection of around 200 pieces. Some key words about his collection are: Geometric Abstractions, paintings, emerging to mid-career artists, as well as Hong Kong artists.
(Read previous interview: From Wong Ping to Tomma Abts: How to Balance between Curatorial Importance and Investment)
James Lie
@mondaytough
Around six years ago, motivated by his passion for mid-century modern architecture and design, James Lie started collecting art and design for his freshly renovated apartment. Soon he was hooked, and he embarked on a quest of discovering and collecting works of contemporary art and design at art fairs and galleries around the world, which includes both established and emerging artists and designers. A strong believer in living with art and design, Lee Bul, Sterling Ruby and India Madhavi are among some of the major names in his art and design collection.
(Read previous interview: You Are Dating the Work Not the Artist)
By Ricko Leung
