Culture and Leisure
Art, business and dilemma
by Summer Ha
Running a private gallery in Hong Kong, especially for those who want to promote contemporary art, is not an easy business with the city's small market, public's limited interest in art and high rent.
"There may be zero visitor to the gallery on
weekdays," said Dominique Perregaux, owner
of Art Statements Gallery, which opened in
Mee Lun Street, Central, in October 2003. It
regularly organises exhibitions on one of its two
floors featuring local, mainland Chinese and
foreign artists.
High rent is another headache for Perregaux. He said the rent of his gallery had jumped 80 per cent last year.
Despite that, the gallery owner keeps holding solo exhibitions for artists with each lasting for about one and a half months. "Galleries should be a platform to spread the words of the artists," said Perregaux, who also does art dealing and art consultancy services.
More private art galleries have opened in
Hong Kong, from Central's Soho area to its
side streets and other districts like Wan Chai
and even Kwun Tong.
At present, there are about 72 galleries in
the city, with more than 10 of them being set
up in the past four years, according to Anthea
Fan Wan-jen, executive director of Art Map
Limited, which publishes a guide of local galleries, Art Map.
Fan said many of the galleries were catering just for business rather than promoting art at the same time.
Still, she added, some of the newly opened galleries highlight the works of local artists, which were seldom commercially promoted before 2005.
Grotto Fine Art Limited, an upstairs
gallery in Central, is one of the galleries
that solely sell local pieces. Its director
Au Yeung Hin said he opened the gallery
in 2001 because he knew many students
who had potential to become good artists
when he taught fine art in the Chinese
University of Hong Kong in the previous
year. And there was no gallery specialised
in local art at the time.
"From a commercial point of view, I saw an opportunity, so I opened the gallery," Au Yeung said.
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