APAA Client Spotlight: In Conversation with a Hong Kong-Based Collector
Lewis is originally from Australia but has been based in Hong Kong for the past decade working for an American investment company. Lewis has worked with APAA advisor member Alex Glauber for 3 years.
Kevin Beasley, “Section XV,” 2021
What inspired you to engage with an art advisor, and how did it influence your collecting journey?
Shortly after graduation, I started regularly visiting art shows at galleries and museums because I knew that collecting art would always be a way to document my life. After a few years of mainly ‘looking’ and collecting smaller works, I knew I needed help to build a more systematic framework around my ideas for the collection. In addition to my day job, I am also a serious musician, and the creative process and background of an artist inspires me as much as the end product.
Hence, I knew that I needed to engage an advisor who not only had great networks but also could contextualize an artist’s oeuvre within the broader historical landscape. Being located mainly in Asia for work, I was familiar with a lot of emerging Chinese and South East Asian artists, but wanted to extend my reach to the US. I have always been fascinated by the ‘New York School’ and abstract expressionism, and the way in which these movements also influenced a whole generation of jazz musicians. It was important to find an advisor with a strong presence in New York.
How do you like to collaborate with an art advisor?
Alex and I met in the summer of 2021 when everyone was already all-too familiar with Zoom and video chat, which has made our collaboration a bit easier as I’m based in Hong Kong and he is in New York. I’ve been able to make it to New York once a year or so and last June Alex and I met in Switzerland for Art Basel. In a perfect world, I’d get to see every potential acquisition we discuss prior to committing but that is just not how collecting works these days given how global and non-stop the art world is. Most of the artists and works I collect are coming from the primary market so we can be confident that condition is perfect, but it also means that there is a lot of competition so decisions have to generally be made quickly. To counter that reality, Alex and I are always refining a list of artists we like for the collection or are curious to learn more about. That way, when opportunities arise, we generally have already studied the artist, their practice, and market so we can make an informed decision pretty quickly.
Do you have a favorite installation or area in your home that features art?
My job requires a great deal of international travel, and, for various reasons, I gave up my apartment a couple of years ago and currently live in a furnished apartment in a hotel which fortunately allows me to install my own art. As you’ll see in the pictures, I’ve taken full advantage of that and have tried to live with quite a few of the works I own, rotating them every few months. The space has certainly influenced my collecting habits as sculptures would be impractical and some of the paintings I own will have to stay in storage until I get a larger and more permanent home in the future. Since art encapsulates human life and creativity, I'm glad that my art is able to adapt to my lifestyle, and not the other way around!
Cheyenne Julien, “Front Door,” 2021
From left to right: Matthew Cerletty, “Band-Aid,” 2022; Walter Price, “And you better not be scared!” 2022; Joan Snyder, “Untitled,” 1972
Tell us about your collection and its focus. Has the focus changed over time?
Painting and more specifically, facture or touch has emerged as a connective thread throughout the collection. For instance, while most of the artists in the collection are more emerging to mid-career, Joan Snyder is very much an anchor to a lot of the painterly conversations within the collection. I was fortunate to acquire a 1971 Snyder painting from her seminal “Stroke Paintings” series which aims to dissect and articulate the act of abstract painting in order to explore the anatomy of the brushstroke.
In both concept and technique, there is a really interesting throughline to an artist like Rich Aldrich. It’s a bit of an oxymoron, but I see both artists as being very literal in their approach to abstraction. A more obvious form of literalism pervades the collection in the works of artists like Mathew Cerletty, Hun Kyu Kim, and Claire Lehmann who all render images with extraordinary resolution and exacting touch. Given my interest in musical composition and training in classical piano, I often think about images as scores and the way they’re painted as representing the artist’s personal interpretation of an existing composition and their “touch” as a visual timbre of sorts.
How do you think your collection will evolve?
As the collection grows, so do the opportunities to develop themes that have emerged either intentionally or unintentionally. As I expand my portfolio of music compositions and piano performances, one that is of particular interest to me is how abstract painters harness the influence of music and ideas of synesthesia.
Another focus Alex and I have discussed is focusing more on historic figures that could provider greater art historical context for many of the younger painters I’ve collected thus far. I love the idea of intergenerational conversations and having a collection that is able to tell or follow an art historical thread or narrative.
The other collecting strategy comes from a more practical consideration. As I live in Hong Kong, there is never enough space to live with all the art you’d want to, so there is an argument to be made about deploying my collecting budget towards fewer objects by more established artists.
Clockwise from top left: Adam Gordon, “Untitled,” 2021; Adam Alessi, “Forest (Black Mold),” 2022; Claire Lehmann, “The Object Lesson,” 2018; Hun Kyu Kim, “Fitting Room N°7,” 2022.
