Hong Kong galleries still vastly under-represent female artists, as more public institutions push to celebrate women

Men accounted for around eight out of 10 solo exhibitions last year at established contemporary art dealers in Hong Kong, the Post found

On International Women’s Day, we look at how these bleak figures have barely changed since 2008

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American artist Roni Horn had a solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Gallery last year. Photo: Edward Wong

Published: 1:03pm, 8 Mar 2019Updated: 3:06pm, 8 Mar 2019

Commercial galleries in Hong Kong vastly under-represented female artists in 2018 despite gathering momentum from the #MeToo movement and the rising conversation around gender bias in the art world.

Following this wave of awareness, some Hong Kong groups did try to address the invisibility of women in art history.

Last March, the Asia Art Archives launched a series of programmes including a critical examination of the city’s art ecosystem by feminist icons the Guerrilla Girls and the first “Wikipedia Edit-a-thon”, to add and improve entries on Asian women artists and practitioners in the online database. (Another Edit-a-thon session will be held at AAA on March 9.)

In June, M+, Hong Kong’s museum of visual culture, and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council picked Shirley Tse to represent the city at the 2019 Venice Biennale, the first woman to have a solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Pavilion.

Artist Hao Jingban had a solo exhibition at Blindspot Gallery in 2018. Photo: Blindspot Gallery

Meanwhile, major institutions around the world have been celebrating women artists with new-found enthusiasm.