Katie de Tilly arrived in Hong Kong in 1994 and founded 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in 2001 with the gallery's debut exhibition featuring Wang Keping. Since then, the gallery focuses on the rich historical, social and cultural context of the Asia-Pacific region with a wide range of artists from China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, India, and Australia. She is a founding member and President Emeritus of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association. Katie de Tilly is a former member of the Tate Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee, the Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) of RMIT University in Hong Kong and an M+ Museum Founding Patron.

11.28 Art, Capital and Asia: The Rise of the Hong Kong Art Market

Hong Kong is one of Asia's most vibrant cities and is becoming one of the most important art cities of Asia. The development over the last 40 years has been slow to start but is rapidly catching up with now over 70 art galleries, the revamping of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the newly opened Tai Kwun, the much anticipated opening of the M+ museum along with an important Asia Art Archive, strong non-profit art centers as well as the world's auction houses and art fairs contributing to the market. The contemporary art appreciation and development in Hong Kong had few players until the auction houses brought more attention to art from China in the 1990s. This progressed quickly as more galleries started to open during this time and prices of Chinese art rose dramatically bringing attention and a Chinese art boom. Alongside economic success in China came art collecting, curating, museum building and the strong development of artists from Hong Kong and the region. This lecture will show the developments and key players that have led Hong Kong's art scene to become a strong example of one of Asia's fasted growing and important art cities.

The presentation will review the art and developments of the 1970s and 1980s with the art shown in Hong Kong at that time at the few galleries and museums and will attempt to offer a general understanding of that era. The concentration will focus on the 1990s onwards and the major people and events that launched the interest and market for Chinese contemporary art from Hong Kong. The auction houses and individuals who brought Chinese art onto the international art scene and the galleries that drove Chinese art into recognition as well as the beginnings of important nonprofit drivers. The 2000s and the Chinese boom and the rise of prices. The development of the art market in China proper drives Hong Kong. The growing pan-Asia art interest starts to happen in Hong Kong. Post 2010 has seen a much different and important rise for both Hong Kong artists and the real solid development of the Hong Kong art platform from not only a market level but from the institutional level. The presentation will also focus on the importance of art and offer a short video by the late Sir David Tang who was one of the most influential and important drivers in the appreciation of Chinese art in Hong Kong and fundamental person in the early days of bringing the M+ museum to life.