Hong Kong home for top-shelf White Cube art

GALLERY OPENING HONG KONG CONTEMPORARY ART MARKET

First came Ben Brown, next was Gagosian, now London’s White Cube has announced it is opening a 6,000 square-foot exhibition space in new Hong Kong office building 50 Connaught Road Central, an open effort to bring their artists closer to Chinese collectors.

Facade of 50 Connaught Road Central. Image from commons.wikimedia.org.

According to the Financial Times,

Tim Marlow, White Cube’s director of exhibitions, said the gallery … wanted a base from which to observe what’s happening outside the European art market. He said there was ‘absolute evidence’ that mainland Chinese taste in art was broadening, adding that Hong Kong’s status as a major contemporary art market has also been boosted by ART HK, the four-year-old annual art fair that is now the biggest of its kind in the region.

Through this new space White Cube will bring work by its stable of top-shelf European and international artists to Chinese and Hong Kong collectors in particular, but has said they will also be seeking to establish relationships with local artists. The gallery, arguably one of Europe’s most successful art dealerships, already has three spaces in London – Duke Street, Hoxton Square and Mason’s Yard – the first of which was opened in 1993.

Hong Kong is rapidly globalising and over the past two years international galleries and art events have been moving into the city in an attempt to take advantage of the ever-booming Chinese economy. Gagosian Gallery, one of the largest international art dealerships with eleven galleries spread across the world, opened in Hong Kong in early 2011 and premier international art fair Art Basel purchased a majority stake in ART HK (Hong Kong International Art Fair) in the same year. Other significant international gallery openings in the city include Ben Brown Fine Arts in 2009 and de Sarthe Gallery in 2011, the exclusive representative in Asia for American photographer David LaChapelle.

KN/HH

Related Topics: market watch – galleries, globalisation of art, Hong Kong art happenings