Why Do We Need Art?

Artists, experts, gallery owners and collectors naturally have a profound love for art and many reasons why it’s so important to their lives. Here’s what some of the most prominent names in the region have to say.

You Might Also Like…

Yusaku Maezawa on His Space/Art Odyssey

People

Jordan Wolfson’s Internal Dream World Debuts at Art Basel Hong Kong

Lifestyle

Saniza Othman

Lawyer, art patron and co-founder of the Michael & Saniza Collection

I’m often asked what art means to me and my reaction is that I can’t imagine a world without art, without literature, without music. What would be the joy of living? People underestimate the power of art and how it balances our senses, inspires us to do great things, gives us resilience, opens our minds and facilitates dialogues that are important to community building. I also see art as soft power and, curated the right way, will have a lasting impact on people and our community.

Michael Yong-Haron

Financier, art patron and co-founder of the Michael & Saniza Collection

I was born into a family of artists, designers and architects. So from a young age, I’ve lived with art and been surrounded by aesthetics. I started our collection in 1999 with the acquisition of two paintings by my grandpa, Yong Mun Sen, after attending his art retrospective in the Penang State Art Gallery. As I didn’t inherit any of his paintings, my wife and I have spent more than two decades buying back his works; after 24 years, we now have more than 60. With this collection we were able to launch a major art retrospective of his at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. We chose to do this major exhibition there because grandpa was the progenitor and a founding father of this fine academy, which is now under the umbrella of the University of the Arts Singapore.

Ewan Venters

CEO, Hauser & Wirth

Art has the extraordinary quality of connecting people from different backgrounds and cultures. It allows us to share experiences that tap into what it means to be human, and to communicate without relying on words. Since I joined Hauser & Wirth, I’ve been inspired by many conversations with our artists and visits to their studios. Remarkable “conversations” between artworks and architecture came out of our artists’ commissions at the Fife Arms in Scotland and the Audley in Mayfair. Phyllida Barlow’s observation speaks volumes. She said, “The sculptures, the space and the audience are all protagonists and all, in a way, share some equality in how they experience the work.” Art has the power to bring people together in truly surprising ways.

Javiar Peres

Founder, Peres Projects

Art is indispensable, as it broadens our perspective on where we come from, where we’re going and where we stand. Today more than ever, we have the chance to hear the voices of young artists from backgrounds that have historically been under- represented in Western art circles. As a gallery founder, I see myself as an amplifier for these voices. I created Peres Projects as a platform for artists from diverse backgrounds and minorities, including a focus on female and queer artists. Their art enlightens us by confronting us with different experiences and ways of looking at the world; it invites us to reflect on our time and it opens up new paths to imagine, collectively and creatively, alternative ways of inhabiting our lives and our environment.

Patrick Sun

Founder, Sunpride Foundation

Art brings pride to my life. Since the establishment of the Sunpride Foundation in 2014, I’ve endeavoured to raise visibility and respect for the LGBTQ+ community through collecting and exhibiting art. We’ve staged the large-scale Spectrosynthesis exhibitions at MOCA Taipei and the Bangkok Art & Culture Centre, and are currently co-presenting its third iteration, Myth Makers – Spectrosynthesis III, at Tai Kwun in Hong Kong. I hope these exhibitions can help engender tolerance, acceptance and pride for the queer community in Asia and will continue to do so.

Rika Dila

Artist, collector and senior consultant for Phillips Auction Thailand

I grew up surrounded by old Thai masters’ paintings that my father collected, so it came as no surprise that my first pay cheque went to a painting that was shown in the window of a gallery near my home. I still keep that painting as a reminder that people’s tastes do change. Art is just an extension of how I express myself and how each work talks to me. After a hard day, I get back home and I see my happy art pieces and it just calms me down. It’s better than therapy. I don’t collect for investment, I collect for my own piece of mind.

Inna Highfield

Collector

Visual and performing arts have always been an important part of our family. I think it’s one of the fundamental pillars of happiness and personal expression. We’re passionate about collecting art and love supporting emerging artists and galleries. I love hearing stories about each piece and I cherish the meaning behind them. Curating your art collection is a deeply emotional endeavour which, in many ways, is a reflection of its owners. I love how each work transforms the wall or space, while also acting as topics of conversation of their own during dinner parties.

Alan Chan

Designer, collector and visual artist

A = Artistic Judgment
R = Rational Sensitivity
T = Think Outside the Box

Ernest Chang

Artist and founder, The Stallery

I need art in my life because it’s always kept me alive mentally and physically, and it still continues to do so. It literally saved my life when I was younger and had problems with addiction that nearly killed me. I realised after my brief stints in rehab that art is the only thing that gives me any real purpose and satisfaction in life. It’s the only way that enables me to see the world through an interesting lens; every other way basically bores me to death. If I didn’t express myself through art I’d become so emotionally chaotic, congested and ultimately mentally painful that I’d rather implode and become existentially destructive than to be alive. It’s the visceral feeling that I have throughout my mind and body when I create and see my works and amazing works by other artists I admire that ultimately gives me satisfaction. Nothing else can compare; not even money or sex.

Pearl Lam

Owner, Pearl Lam Galleries

Art is like my drug. Art has expanded my horizon in every way, from academically to my social circle. After all, art is about culture, which reflects our contemporary thinking and attitudes. It’s a soft power that’s able to bridge divisions and bring people together.

Tammy Nguyen

Artist

Art that compels me offers me an internal salvation. This feeling can range from trivial humour to visceral rage. The artwork’s subject can also range from something seemingly unimportant to glaringly urgent. Whatever the case, if it moves me then this feeling of salvation is the artwork helping me resist loneliness.

Yuichi Kurita

Art collector and owner, T&Y Projects

For me, art is indispensable in creating a space that suits the situation – for example, at the workplace or home, depending on the purpose.

Nancy Lee

Chairman, Friends of the Hong Kong Museum of Art

Art is one of the highest expression of the human spirit, and fills our souls with wonder, beauty and contemplation about our place in the world. Life would be poorer without art.

Patricia Crockett

Senior director, David Zwirner Hong Kong

I’ve always loved this quote by the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt who said: “Art is a line around your thoughts.” For me personally, being with art is an important act of mindfulness. My mind is always busy, but engaging with art can bring an immediate stillness and focus. Spending time to look at how a brushstroke moves or how shapes and colours come together, these experiences offer a necessary contrast to the rapid pace of images and information we’re confronted with every day. Art helps us to connect and express ourselves across languages and cultural differences. I feel extremely privileged to be surrounded by art on a daily basis, and it brings me immense joy and satisfaction to help people slow down, and offer these moments of deep contemplation and introspection.

Narcisa Pheres

Jewellery designer and collector

Art provides us with new perspectives and enhances our understanding of the surrounding world while being cathartic at the same time. I truly believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that art creates such deep connections within our mind and soul. I can’t imagine a world where we can’t feel or see, just as I can’t imagine a world without art and the ability to express deep emotions, thoughts, creativity and our own interpretation of the surrounding world or, for that matter, the entire universe. Art transcends time, cultures and boundaries; it’s a universal language that connects past and future. Art shows us the possibility of what could be and, as an artist, I can’t imagine a world where I can’t create, imagine, dream, feel and connect on deeper levels.

Polo Bourieau

Artist

We need art in our life as much as we need oxygen, water and sun. I’m not talking only about the intellectual or physical need for any artists to express themselves in making things, but more about what it generates within the human community. For hundreds of thousands of years, we’ve been drawing patterns and shaping stones together, even before we were able to speak. In fact, art speaks its own language and is able to generate feelings, thoughts and emotions that words sometimes can’t. Art is a reflection of society and culture, and helps pass down stories and knowledge from one generation to another. Art has no flags nor borders and, as it’s a memory of cultures, I want to see it as an ongoing joint project, where one lot of people picked up what another left off. As a sculptor working with rocks, I think art helps us to connect with our deeper self before, to reveal our collective memories. Today, shaping stones like the very first men allows me to enter a world at the research of our origin. Thus, art is necessary in our lives, because it simply unites us in its universal and original way to communicate together.

Billy Tang

Curator and executive director, Para Site

I’ve always gravitated towards outlets where you can experiment with exploring new ideas and perspectives of gathering together. When I was younger, I was obsessed with the idea of being an artist – the idea of being constantly in art every day was something that felt exciting and natural to me. Now, I’ve basically immersed myself in art one way or another. I’m very excited by exhibition-making and it’s driven me to work in so many different situations and types of art spaces. Art in its best moments is able to synthesise a lot of feelings, thoughts and ways of seeing that can challenge people to appreciate and understand more deeply the mystery of life and what is overlooked.

William Lim

Architect and managing director, CL3, artist and art collector

Through art, I feel a special connection to others with a similar interest. Buying art may just be fun, but it does touch others in amazing ways. A London gallerist once sent me the following message: “I don’t think you have any idea of how important you have been to me and the gallery. Sometimes I thought you were a guardian angel. You always appeared and bought something just when I really needed it. The first time was just when the financial crisis hit. We had some big sales cancelled and we’re really struggling. My daughter had just been born 10 weeks early. You came out of the blue and bought from us. That is what made it possible for me and my family to move to Denmark. Twice more since then you have bought major works exactly when I needed it. I’m not in the least spiritual, but it seems as if sometimes the universe knows when to connect people.”

Lumen Kinoshita

Financier, jewellery designer and art collector

I believe art is an essential part of everyone’s life, ever since the dawn of time. Art is found in many different forms; to me, it’s even in the way we dress and how we set a table. It starts as an instinctive form of expression that we use to channel emotions, tell stories, or inspire change. Remember Picasso’s Guernica? Art that’s meaningful and inspiring makes a difference in our lives and helps me to reflect differently on myself, the world and the time we live in. Great art speaks to me and my innermost self, even when I can’t find the means to say it. Art brings me joy, and a means to express my thoughts and tastes, raising and spreading awareness, and sometimes helping me to connect with others. I appreciate and support all the arts, but contemporary art is extra special, as I feel that I’m living and breathing with them, as well as with their creators. Thus, my conscientious effort in the last several years to support our local Hong Kong artists.

Angelle Siyang-Le

Director, Art Basel Hong Kong

I cannot imagine life without art. Art is a communication channel that’s beyond language; it’s there to help us to connect and to reconnect with people around us and, more importantly, with ourselves. Art has the incredible power to facilitate the sharing of ideas, encourage conversations, and challenge contrasting views. It brings us to life.