Hauser & Wirth's New Gallery in Hong Kong Proves the Art Capital Isn't Going Anywhere

This week, Hauser & Wirth opened a new street-level gallery space in Hong Kong's central business district with an inaugural exhibition featuring stunning new works by Chinese artist Zhang Enli. "We deliberately sought out a space that maximizes the exposure to the public through ground-floor access, so the gallery is welcoming for the highly engaged audience for art in the city," Hauser & Wirth president Iwan Wirth told ARTnews during the gallery's opening week. "To have street level art gallery space-especially on the scale of Hauser & Wirth's new premises-is something most other international art hubs take for granted, but it's a big deal in Hong Kong," said Rosanna Herries, a Hong Kong-based cultural communications consultant who attended the gallery's crowded opening on Wednesday. The question remains why Hong Kong now? In addition to expanding their respective Asia teams, Christie's is moving its Asia-Pacific headquarters into a 50,000-square-foot, four-story space in the Henderson building in the central district later this year; Phillips moved into new, expanded premises next to the new M+ museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District in March 2023, coinciding with the first travel restrictions-free Art Basel Hong Kong; and Sotheby's will also soon be moving into the brand-new Six Pacific Place in Admiralty, a short distance away from the auction house's newly announced year-round exhibition space. Interestingly, Hauser & Wirth has so far not participated in Singapore's relatively nascent international art fair ART SG, the second edition of which took place the week before the opening of Hauser & Wirth's latest gallery space. "The Hong Kong art gallery scene is very much oriented toward helping build the collections of buyers within Hong Kong and the surrounding regions," Van Hagen told ARTnews. Kwok said the gallery's "Clients who are active here not only come from Hong Kong and across Asia, but also from further afield, especially during the annual Art Basel Hong Kong moment."