National origin irrelevant in contemporary art world, says gallery boss Meg Maggio

In the sometimes stifling and self-congratulatory art world, Meg Maggio is a breath of fresh air with her matter-of-fact clarity and muscular assurance.

Four years after opening the Pekin Fine Arts gallery in Beijing, Maggio is under no illusions about the commercial nature of her business: "The art business is 90 per cent about selling art, and if people are not keen on actually selling art and helping to build collections then they are in the wrong industry."

Maggio is now bringing this blend of Bostonian moxy and expertise to Hong Kong. After recently buying and renovating the top floor of a large warehouse space in Wong Chuk Hang with architect friend Alexander Stewart, Maggio will be opening the doors of the local incarnation of Pekin Fine Arts before the year is out.

The savvy and erudite American has been active in Asia since first moving to Beijing in the mid-1980s to practise law. After spending years behind the bars of both Hong Kong and the mainland, she shifted to a career in the Chinese contemporary art world in 1998 when she started working for Courtyard Gallery in Beijing. She opened her own space there in 2005.

Maggio has in recent years made her intentions known in Hong Kong by holding court at five consecutive Hong Kong Art Fairs and curating two major installation programmes at her then-unfinished Wong Chuk Hang space in 2010 and last year.

What she proposes to bring to the growing and diversifying Hong Kong gallery world is an international approach to Asian contemporary art and confidence in its place in the global market. "We [Pekin Fine Arts] have a lot of experience in the international fair and gallery world, and this is the standard we want all our artists to strive for. The work we show has to go beyond the decorative aesthetic that has dominated Hong Kong for so long," she says.