Art Radar
Founded by Henrietta Tsui-Leung ten years ago in Hong Kong, Galerie Ora-Ora is a research-based contemporary art gallery specialising in sculpture and works in ink. The gallery has grown from its base in contemporary Asian art to represent nearly 40 major artists from around the world, including Europe, North America, Australia, Asia, China and Hong Kong.
The gallery is dedicated to both emerging and more established artists, and is now one of the leading contemporary art galleries in Hong Kong, for both Chinese and Western art, and participates extensively at art events across Asia and internationally. A long-time supporter of Chinese contemporary ink, the gallery represents a number of that movement’s key artists and supports its market with their vast network of corporate and private collectors. Indeed, the gallery’s co-founder Henrietta Tsui-Leung is an expert in contemporary ink art and is currently completing her PhD degree in Art Criticism and Theory at Shanghai University/. Tsui-Leung comes from a background in business, finance and real estate, and has for over a decade been focused on contributing to the Hong Kong art scene by sponsoring cultural initiatives and charity events. With an aim to create a strong and vibrant art community, she also co-founded the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, where she is Co-president.
The gallery believes that art should, in a sense, transcend the limitations of its particular time or period – and its name, Ora-Ora, or ‘from era to era’, embodies that mission. The move to the 17th floor of H Queen’s – a major new development in the centre of Hong Kong – marks a milestone in Galerie Ora-Ora’s history, and more widely, in the growth of the art world in Hong Kong. The H Queen’s development houses non-traditional spaces to be used for exhibitions, with the goal of promoting the arts as well as expanding its audiences.
Galerie Ora-Ora’s inaugural exhibition in the new space is “Screaming Books”, a group show that explores the relationship between literature and visual art through the work of eight Hong Kong and Chinese artists: Halley Cheng, Hung Keung, Peng Jian, Peng Wei, Xiao Xu, Xu Lei, Zhang Yanzi, as well as an iconic calligraphic graffiti work by Tsang Tsou-Choi (also known as the ‘King of Kowloon’). The show embodies the spirit of the gallery’s mandate – as ever, both research-based and future-oriented.
