Pearl Lam: Another gallery for Hong Kong’s Pedder Building

GALLERY OPENING HONG KONG CONTEMPORARY ART MARKET

Ben Brown Fine Arts did it in 2009 and Gagosian Gallery followed soon after in early 2011, now Pearl Lam will be the next high-end commercial gallery to move into Hong Kong’s historic Pedder Building. The new 340 square metre gallery space on the sixth floor will open to the public on 16 May 2012.

Peal Lam in front of Zhu Jinshi's work. Zhu Jinshi, 'The River Full in Red', 2006, oil on canvas 290 x 400 cm. Image from Sutton PR Asia

With the increasing fame ART HK is garnering and an influx of top regional and international galleries in recent years, Hong Kong is staking its position as one of the top commercial art markets in Asia, if not internationally.

Formerly known as Contrasts Gallery, the Pearl Lam Gallery chain was founded in Hong Kong in 1992 by Pearl Lam, the daughter of late Hong Kong businessman Lim Por-yen, and is dedicated to Chinese and international contemporary art and design. The set of galleries house a stable of international and Chinese artists who are multidisciplinary and cross-cultural in their practice.

The new gallery in Pedder Building – Lam’s second in Hong Kong: her founding space closed in the late nineties – will début with an exhibition called “Mindmap: ‘Abstract’ in China 1983 to 2012“, curated by mainland art critic Professor Gao Minglu and featuring eight Chinese contemporary abstract artists including Li Xiaojing, Qin Yufen, Qiu Zhenzhong, Zhu Jinshi, Yan Binghui, Su Xiaobai, Zhang Jianjun and Li Huasheng.

Lam comments that ”since Art HK’s first edition four years ago, Hong Kong has been gradually transforming into a contemporary art centre to rival London and New York, attracting both an international and local audience. I am elated by and proud of these changes and want to contribute to this continuing transformation.”

Built in 1923, Pedder Building is the last surviving pre-war building on Pedder Street and has been listed as a Grade II Historic Building by the Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO). Since the 1980s, the art deco building has increasingly been used for high-end consumer retail, offering a luxury shopping experience to the bankers, businessmen and five-star hotel tourists who frequent the heart of Central.

[Editorial correction | Sunday 13 May 2012: We erroneously stated in the introductory paragraph to this article that Gagosian Gallery opened a branch in Hong Kong's Pedder Building before Ben Brown Fine Arts. Gagosian Gallery moved into the Pedder Building in early 2011 and Ben Brown Fine Arts moved in in 2009. This has now been corrected.]

ZMY/KN/HH

Related Topics: market watch, galleries, art spaces

Related Posts:

• ART HK repositions ASIA ONE section for 2012, now “heart” of fair - February 2012 – Will ART HK’s attempt to position the fair as 50/50 Asian and Western be realised?
• Louis Vuitton gets Yayoi Kusama’s polka-dots – February 2012 – Louis Vuitton continues to push fashion and art collaboration to the cutting edge
• What is ahead for contemporary Asian art, 2012 and beyond? Part IV - February 2012 – In the era of information technology, how do collectors adapt?
• Must-know global art trends from 6 art professionals – The Miami Herald - January 2012 – catch up on the latest art trends
• Hong Kong home for top-shelf White Cube art - July 2011 – London’s White Cube “invades” Hong Kong

Subscribe to Art Radar for more on the Hong Kong art market