Hong Kong: Asia's new art capital

One of my cellmates, dressed head-to-toe in designer threads, snaps a few pictures with his iPhone, then slips out the door and into the next cell, where another weird work by a local sculptor awaits. It's just another day in the de facto art capital of Asia.For years, high-rollers from mainland China, Southeast Asia, North America and beyond have come to Hong Kong for its glitzy bars and nightclubs, Michelin-starred restaurants and sparkling shopping malls.Artists in tune with global audiences. But if it was culture one was after, well, they had come to the wrong place. How things change."Just 15 years ago, nobody was talking about art in Hong Kong," says William Shung, gallery manager at Pearl Lam Galleries. "But these days art is constantly in the media."The past few years have seen a growing breed of collectors in China. Thanks in part to the absence of import duties, renowned international galleries have flocked to open Hong Kong branches. Katherine Schaefer, director at Simon Lee Gallery, says every significant player in Asia comes for the Hong Kong International Art Fair (also known as ArtHK), launched in 2018. Last year, Art Basel purchased a controlling stake in the fair, which returns under the new moniker in May.

Beijing and Shanghai may be where most Chinese artists choose to live and work, but when it comes to selling their art, that happens in Hong Kong."Hong Kong has made major strides in establishing itself as a global arts hub," says Nick Simunovic, managing director of Gagosian Gallery Asia, citing record-setting auctions, the West Kowloon Cultural District (an in-development cultural project that will feature a museum, theatres and concert halls) and the influx of world-class galleries.The city is now home to outposts from Britain's White Cube and France's Galerie Perrotin, among others. "In general, people here have a higher awareness of art than ever before," Shung says. "They go through the magazines, see what is on and they go to exhibitions."Which is how I landed myself in jail during Detour 2012, an annual multimedia art and design festival that threw open the gates to some of the city's most interesting spaces, including the former Wan Chai Police Station. An eclectic crowd of grannies with kids in tow, couples in matching Elvis Costello specs and young women in designer flats walked around admiring interactive sculptures, perusing handcrafted jewellery and posing for pictures with artists.