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Lee Bul’s work enters the collection of the M+ Museum

24 February 2021

M+ Receives New Art Donation From Hong Kong Collector Hallam Chow share M+ Receives New Art Donation From Hong Kong Collector Hallam Chow

By Jiane Soriano

Following William and Lavina Lim's donation of nearly 100 artworks to M+, the museum has received another significant donation—this time by Hallam Chow, a prominent Hong Kong collector and long-time supporter of the museum. The donation comprises of 17 works created between the 1990s and the 2010s by 13 important artists and collectives from Asia, further strengthening the M+'s contemporary Asian art collection.

The donation includes works by seven leading Japanese artists and one artist collective, namely Aida Makoto, Chim↑Pom, Konoike Tomoko, Odani Motohiko, Shioyasu Tomoko, Takamine Tadasu, Teruya Yuken and Yanobe Kenji. Also included are five artworks by internationally renowned artists from outside of Japan, including Montien Boonma from Thailand, Lee Bul from South Korea, Liang Yuanwei and Liu Wei from China and Adrian Wong from the United States.

"My hope for M+ is for it to become an international art institution that respects, nurtures and cultivates inter-collaboration and exchange between and among the Asian countries including regions that may have been overlooked and under-represented in the global art scene including South East Asia and Japan (beyond Gutai artists, Murakami, Nara and Kusama)," says Chow.

The donations will be a valuable building block for M+ to develop a comprehensive framework on contemporary art practices in Japan, while the work by artists from Thailand, China, South Korea and the United States further diversifies M+ extensive collection of visual art.

Talking to Tatler about his donation, Chow says he hopes that it will "help M+ anchor and broaden its collection in important and less commercial Japanese contemporary art and critical South East Asian artists" and allow "Hong Kong to value M+ as a global and independent art institution that brings a different cultural perspective".