Gallery owner Katie de Tilly reflects on 20 years in Hong Kong’s art world
- Torn between science and art, the Californian expat opened 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in 2000
- ‘It was very exciting to feel that you were at the beginning of something’
Sunny days: My parents are Polish and moved to California in the 1950s. I was born in Long Beach, California, in 1964, the third child of four. The California lifestyle is just wonderful, and it was a happy, sunny childhood. I was fascinated with my parents’ intense stories of the war and hearing how they grew up, which was very different from my own upbringing. I was always looking outwards to the world, curious about what was out there.
My mother ran a pharmacy and drugstore and my father was an engineer but gave that up to open a sporting goods store next to my mother’s pharmacy. I grew up in this retail shop, working there since I was a child. Art was a big passion of mine. I received an artist award in high school and did painting classes at the weekend.
I went to California State University and began majoring in art but found it difficult and didn’t have the self-confidence to push through to become an artist. I switched to a science major with a minor in comparative literature. I did my pre-med and got my degree in biology and chemistry. I’m happy my path changed at that moment – it didn’t mean that art changed for me, but my being an artist changed.
Crossing borders: After university I got a job with a pharmaceutical company doing sales, but quickly realised that was not my path. I’ve always been a person who enjoys connecting with people and doing something involved with giving.
When I heard Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were planting their feet in America and had opened an office in New York, I offered to do a big fundraiser in California involving some Hollywood people. In 1990, they gave me a job as the West Coast director.
