Hong Kong champion Katie de Tilly on the birth of a global art hub

How did you begin in the artworld?

I have always been on the way to becoming involved with art, even as a child. When I was young I painted, but didn’t really know what I wanted to be in the artworld—I was equally very interested in science. So I did my studies in science, and then later went on to learn acupuncture in Hong Kong, after I moved there in 1994 from California. Throughout this time I organized exhibitions for artists and tried to promote art. I think that is how I found my voice in the artworld: by making connections between people.

Do you remember what Hong Kong was like in the late 1990s?

There weren’t many galleries back then. I remember some showing very interesting Chinese art—like Schoeni Art Gallery, Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hanart TZ Gallery, and Alisan Fine Arts. You could see some exchange between China, Hong Kong, and the West. You could feel something was starting, and that was very enlightening. There was this feeling: ‘Let’s get involved.’ I held my first exhibitions in my apartment and they went very well. Then I asked the late and much loved Sir David Tang if he would help me to have an exhibition at the China Club. He was very generous and gave us the 14th floor with his staff in tow to hang the paintings. We had an extremely successful exhibition of a Chinese artist. Then, by accident, I found a space on 10 Chancery Lane—it was a stroke of good luck! I didn’t intend to open a gallery but now I had a space. I opened in 2001.

Your first exhibition was with Wang Keping. 

It was incredible! I had seen Wang Keping’s exhibition at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1997, and began collecting his work. Traveling back and forth between Paris and Hong Kong, I would visit him and buy a piece from time to time. Then when I opened the gallery, I invited him to be the very first artist I showed, but at that time I didn’t know his history. I liked his current work, but had no idea he was such a key figure of the first generation of Chinese contemporary artists. It was a real discovery and such a good omen for launching the gallery.

Let’s talk now about the gallery’s program. The artists you represent are mainly from Asia.

We focus on artists from Asia, South Asia, and the Asia-Pacific. They are from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, India, and Australia. I’m fascinated with the art of these vast regions. We also work with artists from India such as Atul Dodiya and we had the opportunity to exhibit the American artist Julian Schnabel. I travel a lot; I go to a lot of exhibitions. My work is really about meeting people, making connections, finding the work and the artist that fit you. The personal relationship is very important to me as a gallerist. It is like a marriage.

We also exhibit and promote Hong Kong-based artists. Generally speaking it has been a difficult journey for Hong Kong artists because art wasn’t really encouraged in schools, or by parents. They really have had to fight to be artists. There are more possibilities now than when I started; more university students choose art as a degree and there are more galleries to show their works. Every September for the last four years we have held a show called ‘HKForeword’ in which we exhibit 8-10 artists who just graduated, in order to make them known. Some of them have started to get international attention.

Hong Kong artists have a tendency to internalize their feelings and expressions. Their work tends to be more quiet, pensive, contemplative than their Mainland Chinese counterparts. It relates to Hong Kong’s story. Carol Lee Mei Kuen is a good example of this. She makes photograms on paper that she calls Forgetting Time. She takes paper, puts it on a rooftop, and places objects on it, or she cuts stencils and layers them. She creates imagery through a process that is like memory—collecting time, collecting objects. Her works reflect both her personal history and the history of Hong Kong. Each image might take six months or more to make and will be site-specific. It’s the tapping of the shadows, the sun, and the seasons. They are very delicate and charged works.

Interview by Clément Dirié.

Extract from the Art Basel | Year 48 book, which will be available from April 2018. For more information, click here.

Learn more about 10 Chancery lane.