CENTRE STAGE
Rachel Lee (pictured), co-founder of Soluna Fine Art, is shining a spotlight on Asian contemporary art and artists through a well-curated programme of exhibitions at the Sheung Wan gallery.
焦點所在
Soluna Fine Art合夥創辦人Rachel Lee透過上環藝廊精心安排的展覽節目，把人們的注意力帶到亞洲當代藝術和藝術家身上。
Nick Simunovic, managing director of Gagosian Gallery Asia, remembers combing through magazines in his high school library looking for images of early Cy Twombly paintings. “I found them captivating and utterly baffling in equal measure, but I welcomed this confusion as an invitation to learn more – and still do.” Decades later, this very passion and studious dedication have led to the exponential rise of the New York-based Gagosian into one of Asia’s leading art powerhouses, with its regional presence and strategies spearheaded by Nick since his arrival in Hong Kong in 2007.
“Standing in the presence of great art is a moving and often humbling experience,” expresses Nick. “Great art helps us better understand ourselves and the world in which we live, or at the very least, the time in which we live.” And during this peculiar time, the gallery is continuing to mount museum-quality shows in its Pedder Building location such as German painter Georg Baselitz’s first solo exhibit in Hong Kong that opened on May 21 and runs through August; a showcase of 13 large black-and-gold oil paintings, it is also the first exhibit among Gagosian’s galleries to open since the lockdown. “There’s an eternal quality to important art which provides comfort during moments of instability, perhaps because it is a distillation of the human spirit and a reflection of our common humanity,” asserts Nick. “I’m reminded of that beautiful quote from Beckett’s I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”
HO≤E JOURNAL
Gagosian Gallery Asia董事總經理Nick Simunovic還記得高中在圖書館閱覽雜誌尋找Cy Twombly早期油畫。「這些作品令人著迷，奇妙得讓人無法言喻；而我則是擁抱了這份困惑，並視之為邀請，繼續鑽研和學習更多，時至今日依然如此。」數十年後，這份熱情與辛勤奉獻的精神讓駐紐約的Gagosian迅速崛起，成為亞洲領先的藝術代表之一，自Nick於2007年定居香港以來，區域業務與經營策略便一直由他領航。
Nick表示：「站在出色作品前的那份感動，像在提醒人常持謙虛的態度。偉大的藝術能讓我們更了解自身以及處身的世界，至少是我們存活著的這個時代。」置身非常時期，位於畢打行的藝廊繼續舉辦博物館級展覽，德國畫家Georg Baselitz首個香港個展《Years later》於五月二十一日開幕並舉行至八月，展出共13幅大型黑金油畫，也是Gagosian Gallery自疫情隔離以來重開的第一場展覽。Nick表示：「重要的著作擁有恆久不變的品質，能在不安時刻提供舒適安穩的感受，這也許就是人類精神的昇華象徵，反映出我們的共通人性。這也讓我想起了Beckett在《The Unnamable》中寫下的美麗語句：『我不能繼續，我將會繼續。』」