When Tang Contemporary Art opened on Hollywood Road last week, one could have been forgiven for wondering whether the local art market could accommodate yet another gallery selling Chinese contemporary art.
Time will tell, although the early signs are encouraging: the gallery's debut show is a properly curated exhibition in which Norman Ford, who was curator for the Hong Kong show Star Fairy at the Venice Biennale last year, has taken a museum approach, with a detailed catalogue that includes an essay and a wide-ranging interview with the mainland artist.
Naked Beyond Skin, a collection of sculptures by Xiang Jing, is creating a buzz not only thanks to the strength of the work, but also because of this approach, which is rare among local dealer galleries.
Tang Contemporary founder and owner Zheng Lin hopes his gallery will bring new energy to the city's art scene, as he claims to have done in Bangkok and Beijing, where he set up shop in 1997 and 2006 respectively. Zheng, an influential figure on the mainland art circuit, has built his reputation on his independent approach to organising exhibitions.
'We invite independent curators for many of our exhibitions and I don't interfere with their work,' he says. 'We do discuss plans for exhibitions, but in the end the curator decides.'
Zheng is also very particular about space. 'Hong Kong has good galleries,' he says, 'but usually they are not well equipped to house big exhibitions. There's simply not a lot of space in this city.'