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The CollectorHow the coronavirus pandemic has forced art fairs and galleries online
- Galleries closed by the pandemic have little choice but to display their art digitally
- Hong Kong’s art institutions are joining forces to crowdfund an online resource, Art Power HK
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Just as Hongkongers were starting to poke their heads out, a second wave of Covid-19 infections boomeranging back from Europe, North America and elsewhere in Asia has sent many people back into their carefully disinfected homes.
Many locally owned galleries have stayed open throughout this period and, two months after the first local confirmed case of the novel coronavirus, dozens of people were once again starting to show up for events.
One visitor at Hong Kong artist Chow Chun-fai’s well-attended opening at Gallery Exit, in Aberdeen, on March 14, appeared in a gas mask. Everyone else was less dramatically covered but masked nonetheless. A number of visitors said they could no longer endure cabin fever and had decided to embrace the “new normal”.
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The nature of the exhibition, “Portraits from Behind”, was the main draw. Chow showed more than 80 oil paintings of the Hong Kong protests sparked off by an extradition bill last spring. All of the works were making their public debut – and the smaller ones sold like hot cakes.
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The same day, a less topical exhibition, by emerging artist Tang Kwong-san, was also at almost full capacity, at Hidden Space, an appropriately hard-to-find room inside a Kwai Chung factory building.
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