Elaine Kwok

“I fell in love with art from the first art history course I took in college,” remembers Elaine Kwok, evidently appreciative of her formative years earning degrees from Harvard University, SOAS University of London and Stanford University. It’s this fascination that’s led Kwok to her current role as Hauser & Wirth Asia’s managing partner and, before that, 15 years at Christie’s as business manager-turned director of 20th and 21st century art and principal auctioneer. (Kwok’s swansong was sale of Wood and Rock by Su Shi in 2018, which was, then, the most expensive work of art Christie’s had ever sold in Asia.) “I hope to play a part in a cross-cultural dialogue that can only take place through art,” she says. It’s an ambition Kwok takes seriously as vice chair of the Executive Committee of the Friends of Hong Kong Museum of Art, a board member of M+ Collections Trust and Societé des Amis du Musée Guimet – and as a doting mother of three.