Elaine Kwok, a veteran of the Hong Kong art market, has officially left her position at Hauser & Wirth after a two-year stint. The gallery announced her departure in an email to staff.
In that email, which was obtained by ARTnews, Hauser & Wirth’s leadership wrote “Elaine’s contribution in leading our Asia activities has been invaluable. Her commitment to our artists, programs, clients, and community, along with the successful opening of our new Hong Kong space she spearheaded, has positively shaped both the region and the gallery as a whole.”
In the interim, the daily operations of the Hong Kong space will now be directly overseen by CEO Mirella Roma.
Before her role at Hauser & Wirth, Kwok spent 15 years in various roles at Christie’s Hong Kong. In 2022, she joined Hauser & Wirth as the Asia Managing Partner, a newly created role focused on expanding the gallery’s client base and building institutional relationships in the region.
Her leadership culminated in the expansion of the gallery’s space. Previously, Hauser & Wirth was located on the 15th and 16th floors in H Queen’s, a building that still houses heavyweights like Pace and David Zwirner. Now, the gallery is sited in a new 10,000-square-foot street-level venue. The first exhibition in that new space, which opened this past January, showcased Zhang Enli, the first Asian artist represented by the gallery.
Kwok’s exit is part of a broader shift among Hong Kong’s top galleries as they navigate China’s economic uncertainties.
In January, Leng Lin, founder of Beijing Commune and former Asia President of Pace Gallery, left Pace after nearly 16 years. In September, Pace appointed Evelyn Lin, another heavyweight in Hong Kong’s auction world with experience at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s, as President of Greater China.
That same month, David Zwirner saw the resignation of Leo Xu, the senior director who had led its Hong Kong space for seven years. The gallery subsequently appointed Laura Shao, who was previously director of international business development at Beijing’s Hive Center for Contemporary Art, and Yao Ma, who formerly represented Lévy Gorvy Dayan (LGD) in Beijing, as directors of its Hong Kong outpost.
LGD has also announced that it will close its physical Hong Kong location by year’s end.
In the meanwhile, galleries set up new spaces in other cities in the region as countries like Japan, Korea, and Singapore are trying to position themselves as a new regional art hub.
Kwok shared her appreciation on social media on her last day, posting a photo in front of the gallery’s new headquarters in Hong Kong with the caption, “Thank you, Hauser & Wirth.” She did not respond to ARTnews’s request for comment.
