Culture and Leisure
Art, business and dilemma
The gallery promotes local artists such as Wucius Wong, a well-known painter who incorporates Chinese landscaple elements with westen design concepts.
The gallery is now "on track", Au Yeung said, and the sales are increasing. "There are not many buyers, but they are rich and they buy a lot of works," the gallery owner said.
Artists can sell their pieces in the
gallery by consignment. Au Yeung said
the gallery could get a commission after
selling a work. Even when an art collector
buys the piece directly from the artist, the
gallery will also ask for a commission
from the artist, he added.
Au Yeung said his gallery would take
only those works that were finely made,
durable and original.
The art space provided by galleries is
increasingly being considered important
by local artists to build up their fame and
to gain financial support for their creative
work through selling their pieces.
Local visual artist Lam Tung-pang, who has exhibited his works in local galleries, said some galleries like the YY9 gallery in Wan Chai mainly sell the works of young local artists.
Opportunities for local artists were
emerging, Lam said, "There are many
exhibitions available for the artists to show
their works in the commercial galleries."
Joe Lui Long-ping, a 23-year-old fine art graduate student, said not many artists could show their works in museums when they started their art careers. "So they need some smaller places like private galleries to exhibit their works to the public," she said.
Lui is the manager of King's Gallery, a
private gallery which sells Russian oil
paintings. She said the gallery owner was
first a Russian painting collector, but then
came up with the idea to open a gallery.
The gallery was started in Macau and
opened two branches here in Wan Chai
and Central respectively in last October
and March this year.
"I don't think Hong Kong is a cultural desert," Lui said. "There are many artists with great creativity but there are not many places for them to promote their works."
Agnes Lin Yin, director of Osage
Gallery, agreed that the city lacked the
promotion of art despite its well-known
financial status.
