Our Story

The Beginning

The Hong Kong Arts Collective was started in June 2019 one night in a bar over a few (too many) drinks. The idea started as a way to bring Hong Kong based artists together and to celebrate the local art community. We wanted to build a place where people could discover Hong Kong based artists and get inspired. So the Hong Kong Arts Collective was born with 3 founding artists. One month later we were 18 artists and had our first exhibition at the Nate in Jordan, exhibiting over an entire floor. Today we are 60 artists from all over Hong Kong and growing. The growing success has largely been due to the incredible venues and artists we work with who understand our core mission to build a thriving arts community in our beautiful city.

Our first exhibition "Homegrown" at the Nate, Jordan. 2019. Photograph by Daniel Murray

What's Next

Today the Hong Kong Arts Collective is growing both online and in the wider community. Our shop is an important feature which connects our artists with a larger audience. It enables buyers to purchase beautiful work and allows our artists to get sales so they can ultimately keep creating. We've held exhibitions in restaurants, galleries and art fairs from Jordan to Sheung Wan, Wan Chai and Central. In November 2020 we launched Square Prints, an affordable print collection to support our artists and ImpactHK, a non-profit charity working with the homeless in Hong Kong. To date we've raised over $20,000 in support of the charity. Our future developments are to explore more ways to champion the arts in Hong Kong.

"In The House With Ernest Chang" at Soho House. 2021. Photograph by Kyra Campbell

We have plans to relaunch our popular virtual gallery with new improvements, including monthly exhibitions and events. In 2020 we made huge leaps in developing our virtual gallery for the Oculus and hope to position ourselves as one of the first custom-made Hong Kong galleries in the metaverse. We will also be exploring ways to discuss the arts with our ever-growing user base from this blog to wider publications and newsletters. So if you haven't yet subscribed make sure you do.

Our first VR gallery built in 2020 using the same software as recently used in TV shows like "The Mandalorian".

We will be on the hunt for more exhibition venues and opportunities and already have a few shows lined up for the beginning of 2022 and we can't wait to see you there!