Worst and best art galleries for women in Hong Kong, Asia’s biggest arts hub?

Women artists have been consistently under-represented in Hong Kong galleries’ exhibitions over the past decade, a period that has seen the city become one of the biggest trading hubs in the world for visual art.

According to a South China Morning Post audit of exhibition records, 24 major commercial galleries with permanent space in Hong Kong put on 677 solo exhibitions between 2008 and 2017, of which 148 – or 21.9 per cent – were for women artists. (The data is based on available information on gallery websites and only includes exhibitions for individual artists, including those shown at art fairs. Art collectives are excluded for simplicity’s sake.)

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International galleries have shown the greatest gender disparity, with just 17 per cent of shows dedicated to women artists.

Ben Brown Fine Art, the first Western gallery to open in the Pedder Building, a historic block in the city’s Central business district, in 2009, has had five solo exhibitions for three women artists (14 per cent of the single-artist shows it has held).

Gagosian Gallery, which arrived in 2011, is even more extreme. Of its 26 solo exhibitions in Hong Kong, only one has featured a woman’s art (Taryn Simon in 2016). White Cube, which opened the following year, has featured women in just three of its 30 solo artist shows (Beatriz Milhazes, Tracey Emin and Rachel Kneebone).

Local galleries fare better on average.