Dedicated to bridging Hong Kong’s local art scene with the international art world by loaning works from his collection to museums and galleries worldwide, Chow is among a growing number of patrons in Hong Kong who believe in giving back to the community. (Hong Kong boasts the world’s highest share of collectors who identify as patrons, according to the 2022 edition of The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report.) ‘Through sponsoring residencies, facilitating exhibitions, and engaging in various means, patronage plays a key role in prolonging and enriching an artist’s career, and more so, to the continual development and diversification of arts and culture’, Chow notes.

Chow is the first Hong Kong-based trustee to be appointed to the Board of Trustees at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, where he has supported exhibitions for several Asian artists including Wong Ping and Mire Lee. He also serves on the board of governors at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and is part of the founding patrons group at M+. ‘After serving on the boards of several art institutions, I have come to realize the importance of art as a storytelling vehicle for future generations,’ he says. ‘I aim to build a collection that can reflect the zeitgeist of our time.’

Chinese collector Lu Xun shares a similar perspective. Part of a group of collectors in China who are creating a dialogue with the public and cultivating a broader appreciation of art, Lu describes the Sifang Art Museum – which he founded in 2013 with his father – as an institution that is dedicated to ‘unique and era-defining contemporary practices’ from China and around the world. In mainland China, where there is a dearth of state museums dedicated to contemporary art, institutions such as the Sifang Art Museum play a critical role. ‘Contemporary art has always been the “rogue” art form outside of the main ideological art landscape in China, so none of the many public museums have the flexibility or confidence to show it,’ says Lu. ‘Institutional presentation of contemporary art falls into the responsibility of private museums, and a few art university-affiliated museums.’



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