Hong Kong’s art industry and the habits of those involved in it have been experiencing a shift since the COVID-19 pandemic. With travel restrictions not ending entirely in Hong Kong until early 2023, residents were unable to travel abroad and had to spend more time engaging with what was happening within the city.

Galleries and institutions undertook reevaluations of their position within the greater context of Hong Kong as an international art hub by placing more focus on the domestic scene. For collectors, this was met with a greater focus on local artists.

Similarly, next-gen collectors are actively participating in the art discourse of the city as it continues to evolve. Many are questioning and transforming what it means to be collectors as they take active roles within the art sphere of the city beyond just collecting—such as supporting and amplifying the voices of the artists they believe in and helping to shape the future of Hong Kong’s art scene.

Artsy spoke with 10 next-gen collectors about their involvement in the Hong Kong art scene, through not just their collecting but also their contributions to the city’s art ecosystem.

Jason Zhai’s affinity for the arts began through music. Growing up in the northeastern Chinese town of Suifenhe, he started playing the piano at the age of three. “When you play music, you learn new things about yourself and you’re inspired to think,” he said. “Piano was the first thing that connected me to art.”

Today Zhai is actively engaged in the arts, specifically in Hong Kong, where he has been living since 2015 and collecting art since 2018.

“I began my collection focusing on works by female artists from Asia,” he shared. “I wanted to start by supporting them specifically since at the time, they received less attention and were less regarded than their male counterparts.” His collection includes works by the likes of Mandy El-Sayegh, Kumie Tsuda, and Phan Thao Nguyen, and cuts across mediums including painting, sculpture, and installation. His collection since has expanded to include a broader pool of international names such as such as Angel Otero, Neo Matloga, and Tracey Emin.

Still, artists continue to be the bedrock of his collection. At the gala for local gallery Para Site in 2024, he purchased a work by Wuhan-born, Shenzhen-raised artist Han Mengyun. “Her work greatly inspires me because of the strong ties to her studies in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic and her research into Eurasia’s complex and intercultural history,” he said. “When choosing an artwork, I tend to gravitate to those connected to the real world and the human condition.”

“I sometimes joke that collecting is a form of organized hoarding,” said Charlotte Lin, whose collecting habits stretch beyond art to areas such as books, furniture, and unique objects, including a dinosaur egg, the first piece she collected personally. “I remember being completely captivated by its texture and the sense of history it carried.” While her focus has now shifted to art, the object remains a starting point in her journey as a collector. “It reminds me of how my passion began with a sense of curiosity,” she said.

Since then, Lin has developed a specific interest in artworks that tell stories through their craftsmanship, materiality, or conceptual depth, as seen in Women Words (Helmut Newton #6) (2018) by Betty Tompkins. In the work, the artist transforms a photograph from an old Playboy magazine of a naked woman being passively filmed into a piece of social commentary. “What draws me to this piece is its provocative, unapologetic way of confronting our traditional value systems and women’s societal expectations,” Lin said.

Last year, Charlotte’s personal interest in collecting transformed into an intentional endeavor as she co-founded PODIUM, a gallery in Wong Chuk Hang, south Hong Kong, focusing on supporting emerging artists. “I saw a need for a platform that not only showcased emerging artists but also connected them with collectors,” she noted. “Hong Kong felt like the ideal place to build out this vision.”

For Claire Huang, collecting art is an intimate venture. “I don’t collect art based on the medium but on how it makes me feel and learn more about myself,” she said. Her collection includes works by Tsuguharu Foujita, Peng Wei, and the latest, Zhu Dan, and spans across mediums such as painting, sculpture, installation, and even crypto art, which fuses digital art with blockchain technology. “Everyone has a strong opinion about it—people either love it or hate it—but for me, collecting crypto art is a very natural thing as any form of art can act as a mirror to myself,” she said.

Huang’s interest beyond the traditional forms of artmaking is a reflection of her interdisciplinary education, having studied theoretical mechanics, architecture, and fine art in Shanghai and New York. She has been living in Hong Kong for eight years and today works full-time researching and investing for Web3 start-ups with a focus on NFT and crypto art.

At the same time, she also writes for different art publications about topics including feminism, art, and technology, which has allowed her to research some of the artists that now form part of her collection, such as Shuang Li. “As a collector, I don’t feel like I ‘own’ any of the artworks,” said Huang. “Rather, I see myself as a witness to the journey that the artist has created for them.”

Brian Ip still remembers seeing Miriam Cahn’s paintings in person for the first time at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2019. “I was extremely moved by her works,” Ip told Artsy. “It felt like they were speaking to me directly in a fearless manner. I was curious to understand why she painted in this way, which is what led me to read and learn about the feminist movement.” Ip’s initial appreciation for Cahn’s paintings led him to start a collection of his own. “When you start appreciating the work of one artist, it automatically leads you to fall in love with other artists with similar ideas and philosophies,” he said.

Since that formative moment, Ip has added paintings, sculptures, and photographs by the likes of Leelee Chan, Sonia Gomes, Liao Wen, and Ren Hang to his collection. Some of these works are currently on view at Kabinett, the art space he opened last year in Wong Chuk Hang, where he holds private exhibitions for the works he collects.

“I wanted to create a space that would allow for the free dynamic flow of thoughts and emotions between the works,” he said. “Ultimately, I want to do the artworks justice and give them a space for new dialogues and meaningful stories to be created.”

The first artwork that formed part of Quintina Jiang’s collection was a painting by Han Meilin, the Chinese artist who designed the Fuwa mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “It was a gift from my father when I turned 18,” she told Artsy. “It’s a cherished piece, but it’s actually in my family’s home in Anhui. I only really started my own collection in 2020, once I’d been working in Hong Kong for a few years already.”

Jiang began her career working first in media and then fashion marketing after having studied philosophy and law in Shanghai, international fashion marketing in Manchester, and media and culture in Hong Kong.

Since 2022, she has been working as a consultant for Chinese private investment banks based in Hong Kong, while still being actively involved in the city’s creative scene through her role as a Young Patron for the M+ museum. Her growing collection includes artworks by Koak, Kelly Beeman, and Lee Jin Woo, to name a few. “I collect paintings that I feel closely connected to and that I resonate with emotionally, such as White Rabbits Hatching: Siblings (Three) (2024) by Hong Kong artist Chang Ya Chin,” she said.

Purchased at the Asia Now art fair in Paris last year, the oil painting depicts the famous Shanghainese milk candy hatching from three eggs. “I love how it’s extremely delicate in its detail yet quite humorous and surreal,” she said. “At the same time, it reminds me of some of my fondest childhood memories.”

Alex Chan first experienced collecting through his parents, who would often take him to flea markets and art fairs when he was a child. It wasn’t an easy introduction. “I wouldn’t really enjoy it,” he said. “I would sit and stare at them with boredom while they collected anything that interested them, from traditional paintings and ceramics to furniture and vinyl.”

It was only after moving to London to study abroad as a teenager that he began appreciating buying furniture and antiques at flea markets and secondhand stores for himself, and it was only after returning to Hong Kong seven years ago that he collected his first artwork: a sculpture by ektor garcia from the artist’s solo show at Empty Gallery in 2020. “His works interacted with the space in such a natural and visceral way that I couldn’t leave without one,” he said. “I think that’s when my collecting habit truly started.”

Since then, Chan has been collecting paintings, ceramics, and sculptures by artists including Brook Hsu, Tang Kwong San, Zhang Ji, Yūji Ueda, and Shi Zheng, some of which he has collected by attending graduation shows. “I love collecting works by young artists, especially at the very early stage in their careers,” he told Artsy. “That’s when they share their most intimate, pure, and raw experiences.” At London’s RCA Graduation Show in 2023, Chan purchased a piece by Korean artist Miyeon Yi, whose unique tempera technique intrigued him.

A few months later, he chose to exhibit Yi’s works at THE SHOPHOUSE, the gallery he co-founded in 2020. “I always start by collecting the works of artists I find before deciding to exhibit them,” he noted.

Ryan Kwon’s interest in art began through his hobbies of basketball and hip-hop. “I loved street culture as a kid,” he recalled. “I remember Air Jordan making limited-edition sneakers with artists, and rappers doing artist collaborations for their album covers. It was so iconic. That’s when I started becoming aware of art being present everywhere.”

Some of the works in Kwon’s collection are a reflection of this, blurring the boundaries between art and his everyday. These include works such as Steve Harrison’s functional ceramics, which Kwon uses daily, or the painting Future Days, War With Now (2024) by Jun Takahashi, whose fashion brand Undercover was one of Kwon’s favorites growing up. “A whole other world opened up for me that I hadn’t realized even existed,” he told Artsy of his foray into the art world.

Now, Kwon heads the hybrid cultural and retail space Belowground on Queen’s Road Central and works directly with galleries and artists such as Kila Cheung, whose pieces he has also collected. “Cheung’s work has a sense of humor that transmits a positive energy,” Kwon told Artsy. Cheung practice encompasses all kinds of mediums, from wood carving and sculpture to painting on canvas and skateboards. “I’m never disappointed when I see one of his works because they keep surprising me,” he said. “I’m most impressed by artists who continue experimenting throughout their careers and don’t stick to certain formulas.”

Sandy Au decided to begin her art collection during the COVID-19 pandemic when she moved into a new home. “I started searching for art that I wanted to live with every day, so I began attending local fairs with that intention in mind, focusing greatly on local Hong Kong artists,” she said. One of the first works she collected was Selenographic (WAC) Central longitude 0^ from Southern Hemisphere & Shadow of the Moon (2021) by Phoebe Hui at the Affordable Art Fair in 2021. The work depicts a moon created by a custom-built drawbot that processes open-source images from NASA, characteristic of Hui’s research-based practice that explores how technology transforms our perception of reality.

Some of the other Hong Kong artists in Au’s collection include Mak2, Wong Sze Wai, and Dave Chow. “Having grown up in Hong Kong, I’m very interested in local artists’ work, and I also love to collect artists from my generation,” she said. Beyond Hong Kong, she also collects works by emerging international artists such as Ad Minoliti, Donna Huanca, and Loriel Beltran.

In her current role in the Individual Giving department at M+, Au actively seeks the support of donors and patrons. It also gives her the opportunity to meet other collectors and work with curators who lead her to discover new artworks. “Through my conversations with them, I explore new ways of appreciating art which I hadn’t considered before,” she said. “I learn something new every day that shapes not only how I approach my work, but also how I think about the next piece in my collection.”

After finishing graduate school, Su Chang worked for an architecture firm in Los Angeles, collaborating with galleries and museums like the Hammer Museum. “I gained a new perspective of art by working with these different institutions,” said Chang. “I learned about the different dimensions surrounding how people interact with art within these spaces and how they experience this entire ecology.” Three years ago, Chang started his own architecture practice in Hong Kong with a focus on design collaborations with art and cultural institutions in Asia, such as Para Site in Hong Kong and the Times Museum in Guangzhou.

When thinking about the artworks within his own space, he tends to not follow specific scripted methods of collecting. “People often assume that because I’m an architect I look at art in a purely formal way,” said Chang. “In reality, I tend to seek out works that resonate emotionally with my personal and my generation’s experiences.” One such work in Chang’s collection is Lovely Castle (2012) by Chinese artist Yuan Yuan, an oil painting of a home in ruins. “I find the work very fascinating because, for a great part of my life, I’d be moving almost once a year,” he shared. “For me, the notion of home is very nuanced.”

“Art always finds a way to seep into your life no matter where you study or work in Hong Kong,” said Claire Dong, a client advisor at Sotheby’s. “In recent years especially, institutions, galleries, auction houses, and fairs are exploring more experimental approaches, creating alternative spaces as their first and second outposts in a way to bring more international visibility to localized projects.”

Dong spoke with Artsy following the opening of Tamie Okuyama’s solo exhibition at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Maison—its new flagship in the heart of Central—where she also added a new piece by the artist to her collection.